Political Geology: Human and Geological Worlds of Survival

Catalog description

This course introduces the rapidly developing field of political geology, which examines how geological processes — earth, soil, and subterranean dynamics — interact with human social, political, and cultural systems. Students will explore geosocial formations, the entanglements of social and geological forces, and consider how these shape power, knowledge, and practices of survival, resilience, and negotiation in human-environment relationships across historical and contemporary contexts. Students will debate and develop frameworks for understanding how communities endure, transform, and sustain themselves amid environmental, political, and social upheavals.