"The level of mortality in the Black Death was so high and so sudden that
- until germ warfare on a large scale occurs - to find a modern parallel
we must look more toward a nuclear war than a pandemic. The plague shook
the wealthy, relatively well-populated, confident, even arrogant society
of mid-fourteenth Western Europe to its foundations."
-Norman Cantor, In the Wake of the Plague
I. What general topic do you propose for your section?
This course will focus on how catastrophic events act as trigger events
with the potential to reshape values, beliefs, and behavioral norms at the
individual, group and societal level. This course will examine how events
shape responses; how people enact the society in which they function in
response to past catastrophes and anticipated future crises.
II. Describe your interest in and approach to this topic.
As a behavioral scientist, with degrees in psychology, marketing, and
organization studies, and a solid grounding in the physical sciences, I
have long been fascinated by human behavior. The courses I teach, and my
research interests, focus on leadership, teamwork, culture, socialization,
power and managing change. Thus, given that the recreation of post-apocalypse
societies at the intersection of my teaching and research interests, it is
no surprise that novels and movies tracing human perseverance and the
rebuilding of societies, after catastrophic events, has long been a focus
of fascination for me.
III. What one or two central questions will guide the inquiry of the course?
Post-apocalypse societal recreation integrates theoretical approaches from
psychology, sociology, business, biology, chemistry, zoology and technology,
among others. Thus, central questions that will guide this course include:
What events have the potential to trigger significant societal-level change
and why? How are societal mindsets reshaped? What changes
emerge and how are these changes related to one another?
IV. What different perspectives on the central question will be addressed in
the course?
How do specific catastrophes reshape attitudes and policy toward the
underlying cause(s)? (nuclear war, greenhouse effects, overpopulation,
depleted natural resources, plagues, collapse of financial systems or
government, etc.)
How do changed or recreated societies reflect our changing values, beliefs
and ethical systems?
Are role expectations reshaped? How is stereotyping, ethnicity, prejudice
and racial identity affected?
How do individuals react to the crisis?
What behavioral norms shift or change? How and why?
How do groups and group norms evolve?
Is leadership appointed or does it emerge in times of crisis? How and
why?
What changes in the underlying structure and governance of
organizations, communities and government can be seen?
V. What are specific ideas for sources of material?
Sources will be diverse and include popular film and fiction, including
classic post-apocalypse literature, as well as relevant academic literature.
Students will do library research and write papers on impact of historical
and potential catastrophes. Selected nonacademic potential sources relevant
to post-apocalypse societal recreation are listed below. Additional selected
academic references presenting the theoretical concepts to be discussed will
be drawn from articles and texts from the selected academic literatures
indicated above in Part III.
Films/Film Clips:
The Navigator, a Medieval Odyssey (plague)
The Postman (nuclear war)
Red Dawn (invasion of the US)
The Seventh Seal (plague)
The Stand (plague)
Waterworld (greenhouse effect)
Novel/Novel Excerpts:
The Doomsday Book (1990) by Connie Willis (plague)
A Gift Upon the Shore (1990) by M.K. Wren (unemployment, economic collapse,
nuclear war)
Alas, Babylon (1999 Classics Edition of 1959 novel) by Pat Frank
(nuclear war)
Getting Back (2000) by William Dietrich (overpopulation,
international megacorporations)
The Last Ship (1988) by William Brinkley (nuclear war)
Lucifer's Hammer (1997) by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (meteor
strike)
Nature's End (1986) by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka (depleted
natural resources)
Ozone (1986) by Paul Theroux (contaminated natural resources due to
poor radioactive waste storage)
The Wild Shore - Three Californias (1988) by Kim Stanley Robinson
(nuclear war, international blockade)
Wolf and Iron (1990) by Gordon Dickson (worldwide monetary system
collapse)
Book Excerpts:
Biohazard (1999) by K. Abilek
The Earth Shall Weep (1998) by James Wilson
The Coming Plague (1994) by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Great Plague(1999) by Steven Porter
Plague Time (2002) by Paul Ewald
In the Wake of the Plague (2001) by Norman Cantor
Articles:
"1491" (March 2002) by Charles Mann,
Atlantic Monthly (depopulation
of the Americas due to plague in 1400s)