Readings are due – meaning they should be completed – on the dates indicated.

The most accurate and up-to-date version of this calendar can be found on this course site. Use this calendar to check on reading assignments, rather than the print version, since the print version of this syllabus will not be updated throughout the semester.

I reserve the right to change the course calendar as needed; adequate advance notice will always be given of any changes.

BB indicates that reading can be found on our Blackboard site on the “Readings” page.

Unit 1: What is a Disaster?

Monday, August 22

  • Introductions

Wednesday, August 24

  • Rob Nixon, selections from “Introduction,” Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (2011), pg 1-6 (BB)
  • Frantz Fanon, selections from “On Violence in the International Context,” The Wretched of the Earth (1963), pg 53-60 (BB)

Monday, August 29

  • Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Mahasweta Devi, “The Author in Conversation” (1995) (BB)
  • Mahasweta Devi, “The Hunt” (1995) – Make sure to read the translator’s note (BB)

Wednesday, August 31

  • Paolo Bacigalupi, “Yellow Card Man” (2008) (BB)
  • Reading journal entries begin — first entry due by class

Monday, September 5: NO CLASS – Labor Day

Wednesday, September 7

  • Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), Preface, Ch. 1-3 (pg 1-165)
  • Last day to drop without a W

Monday, September 12

  • Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), Ch. 4-5 (pg 167-261)

Wednesday, September 14

  • Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), Ch. 6 (pg 263-307)

Monday, September 19

  • Junot Díaz, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2007), Part III (pg 311-335)
  • Unit 1 reading journal entries due in class

Unit 2: Plague

Wednesday, September 21

  • Junot Díaz, “Monstro” (2012) (BB)

Thursday, September 22 OR Friday, September 23, time and location TBD

  • Night of the Living Dead screening

Monday, September 26

  • Night of the Living Dead, dir. George Romero (1968)
  • Jessica Hurley, selections from “History is What Bites: Zombies, Race, and the Limits of Biopower in Colson Whitehead’s Zone One” (2015), pg 314-320 (BB)

Wednesday, September 28

  • Night of the Living Dead, dir. George Romero (1968)
  • Ben Hervey, selections from Night of the Living Dead (2008), pg 22-27, 111-121 (BB)

Friday, September 30

  • Paper 1 due by 10 pm to Blackboard

Monday, October 3

  • Colson Whitehead, Zone One (2011), pg 3-128 (Friday)

Wednesday, October 5

  • Colson Whitehead, Zone One (2011), pg 131-201 (first half of Saturday)
  • CLASS CANCELED

Monday, October 10

  • Colson Whitehead, Zone One (2011), pg 201-271 (second half of Saturday)
  • Colson Whitehead, Zone One (2011), pg 131-201 (first half of Saturday)

Wednesday, October 12

  • Colson Whitehead, Zone One (2011), pg 275-322 (Sunday)
  • Colson Whitehead, Zone One (2011), pg 201-271 (second half of Saturday)

Monday, October 17

  • Pumzi, dir. Wanuri Kahiu (2010)
    • Available on YouTube
  • Colson Whitehead, Zone One (2011), pg 275-322 (Sunday)
  • Unit 2 reading journal entries due in class

Unit 3: Natural Disasters

Wednesday, October 19

  • Ursula Heise, “Toxins, Drugs, and Global Systems: Risk and Narrative in the Contemporary Novel” (2002), pg 757-764 (BB)
  • Ulrich Beck, selections from Ch. 2 “The Politics of Knowledge in the Risk Society,” from Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (1992), pg 71-76, 81-84 (BB)
  • Paper 1 revisions due by 10 pm to Blackboard

FALL BREAK: October 20-October 23

Monday, October 24

  • Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003), Ch. 1-6 (pg 3-144)
  • Last day to drop (with a W)

Wednesday, October 26

  • Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003), Ch. 7-8 (pg 147-218)

Monday, October 31

  • Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003), Ch 9-12 (pg 221-329)

Wednesday, November 2

  • Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake (2003), Ch. 13-15 (333-374)
  • Unit 3 reading journal entries due in class

Unit 4: War

Monday, November 7

  • Wells Tower, “Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned” (2009) (BB)

Wednesday, November 9

  • Joe Sacco, Safe Area Gora__žde (2000), Introduction, pg i – 56

Monday, November 14

  • Joe Sacco, Safe Area Gora__žde (2000), pg 57-161
  • In-class Paper 2 workshop

Wednesday, November 16

  • Joe Sacco, Safe Area Gora__žde (2000), pg 162-227

Friday, November 18

  • Paper 2 due by 10 pm to Blackboard

Monday, November 21: NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break

Wednesday, November 23: NO CLASS – Thanksgiving break

Unit 5: What is a Disaster?

Monday, November 28

Wednesday, November 30

  • Claudia Rankine, Citizen (2014), VI-VII (81-end)
  • Units 4 & 5 reading journal entries due in class

Friday, December 2

  • Final exam prompts distributed via email

Monday, December 5

  • Wrap-up and review
  • Course evals in class

Monday, December 12, 2-4:30 pm

  • Final Exam