Oceanic Planet: Colonial Transits and the Submerged Otherwise

Catalog description

Ocean acidification, bleached corals, and the general diminishment of biodiversity currently defines our planet’s oceans. Yet in the discussion of the ocean’s degradation, too often we write out racial and extractive capitalism from our current understanding of the Anthropocene, the era of human-led disaster. When we speak of the oceans as diminished, or a site for resource extraction, we also write out the dynamism of the sea as a protagonist in the history of the human. This course places the ocean at the center of our analysis to understand the root causes of its deterioration, centrally engaging with the unequal histories of colonialism and their afterlives. By exploring the comparative histories of the Trans-Pacific, Trans-Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Arctic, and Southern Ocean, we address the colonial roots of biodiverse diminishment and extinction, beyond mere land-based or anthropos-centric perspectives.