Complexities: Oceans

Catalog description

We inhabit a world of complex systems: the global climate, social organizations, and biological networks among them. When significant challenges emerge within these systems, we are often tempted to reduce them into a simpler and more manageable set of "truths." The liberal arts give us resources for resisting this temptation: through a variety of models and methods, they enable us to analyze and grapple with complex phenomena without immediately or irrevocably simplifying them. The Complexities seminar aims to: (1) introduce you to a range of scholarly approaches to the study of complex systems; (2) expose you to the pleasures of focused inquiry, attentive study, playful experimentation, and lively dialogue; (3) equip you with practical tools for thriving within situations of complexity, ambiguity, and contradiction; and (4) help you develop your ability to determine for yourselves the contours of a more just and equitable world. The inaugural theme for the Complexities seminar is Oceans. The ocean is, obviously, internally complex: marine ecosystems themselves are vast networks of species, down to the microorganism. Marine data science is crucial to measuring environmental change; for instance, polar ice shrinking constitutes key evidence for global warming. The study of oceans also enables the exploration of human migratory patterns, including forced migration and colonialism. Literary and artistic engagement—from Moby-Dick to the photography of the Swahili coast—bring to the fore the challenges confronting representations of oceans and oceanic culture, and reveal dimensions of both that elude empirical methods. Attention to how those who make their lives and livelihoods near and on the ocean—from groups of fishermen in Newark, New Jersey to Māori communities in New Zealand—sheds light on forms of social organizations more generally. Throughout the course, scholars…