Geographies of Resilience

GEOG-G 306 — Fall 2021 — Themester

Location
Student Building 005 (as of 3/25/2020)
Days and Times
3:15P-5:45 p.m. Wednesday
Course Description

The origin of the concept Resilience is multidisciplinary. It was developed in psychology, engineering, and ecology. The concept has recently become popular among researchers due largely to the planetary crisis associated with anthropogenic climate change. It is this crisis that has spurred the expansion of the concept into the practitioners arena, whereby it is reaching the status of ‘buzzword’. In this transition from academia to practice, resilience has become normative or a goal to be achieved. Notwithstanding the feasibility or desirability of such a goal, the transition from concept to goal offers theoretical, methodological, and practical challenges to the camps of both thinkers and doers. 

The course Geographies of Resilience focuses on the ecology-strand of the concept. However, it provides an overview of its development emphasizing the work on social-ecological systems (SES) under global environmental change (GEC) in the last two decades. The course is taught as a discussion-based seminar; therefore, active and engaged participation is paramount. Three major sections structured the course: 1) Thinking resilience: theory, concepts, methods; 2) Case-studies of resilience: analysis of regional or thematic keystone studies; 3) The applied turn: critical perspectives and applications. 

Some of the themes emphasized in the course are: 

  • Social-ecological systems 
  • Telecoupling 
  • Adaptation and vulnerability 
  • Resilience of farming systems 
  • Hoosier Resilience Index 

Keywords: climate change; Anthropocene; vulnerability; environmental crisis; human-environment interactions 

Multiple titles are offered under this course number; choose section 40283 with Prof. Postigo.

Instructor: Dr. Julio C. Postigo