Even before the current global pandemic, the extent and frequency of both stress and shock disturbance events were accelerating. Impacted by climate change, increasingly intense and more frequent natural disasters, the globalized nature of our political economy, and major shifts in social paradigms, the foundations of human and ecological communities were already vulnerable. Yet, the coupled human-natural capacity to withstand these myriad and interconnected disturbances – to maintain or enhance our collective well-being in the face of dramatic change – is the issue of our resiliency. 

From individual to community, from component parts to systems, from natural to built, from scientific inquiry to creativity – the concept of resilience is widely applicable to the work of scholars across the College who routinely address disturbance and extraordinary change.

The current global pandemic is not unprecedented. Humanity has faced similar existential threats throughout its documented history, and the past provides lessons for the future. As the world faces monumental challenges, some like climate change with less historical lessons to draw upon, a discussion of resilience has never been more relevant or consequential.