This course introduces students to key theories and debates on memory studies and environmental humanities around the topic of landscape and timescales. The course examines cultural products that put into action novel ways of telling histories of places and landscapes, paying special attention to the representation of timescales, be it geological, biological, cultural or archival. Students will become both analysts and creators of artifacts. They will engage critically with cultural artifacts and will be able to produce an account of a specific landscape, taking advantage of campus resources, utilizing research and recording techniques learned in the classroom. The course will combine lecture and practicum. The lecture section will be devoted to analyzing cultural products, and community and artistic projects that offer alternative visions of history vis-a-vis environmental issues, with a selection of recent scholarship as background. The practicum will be focused on the application of research tools towards the development of students' final project. These sessions will include visits to relevant collections in the Stanford Libraries (the map collection and the archive of recorded sound, lectures by guest speakers, exploratory walks, as well as workshops on diverse artistic, archival and recording techniques).
4 units · Letter or Credit/No Credit
This course introduces students to key theories and debates on memory studies and environmental humanities around the topic of landscape and timescales. The course examines cultural products that put into action novel ways of telling histories of places and landscapes, paying special attention to the representation of timescales, be it geological, biological, cultural or archival. Students will become both analysts and creators of artifacts. They will engage critically with cultural artifacts and will be able to produce an account of a specific landscape, taking advantage of campus resources, utilizing research and recording techniques learned in the classroom. The course will combine lecture and practicum. The lecture section will be devoted to analyzing cultural products, and community and artistic projects that offer alternative visions of history vis-a-vis environmental issues, with a selection of recent scholarship as background. The practicum will be focused on the application of research tools towards the development of students' final project. These sessions will include visits to relevant collections in the Stanford Libraries (the map collection and the archive of recorded sound, lectures by guest speakers, exploratory walks, as well as workshops on diverse artistic, archival and recording techniques).