FAMST 187DM – Disaster Media

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This seminar examines contemporary visualizations of disaster, asking how we process and respond to these images. Using large-budget films, independent films, educational films, TV shows, broadcast coverage, and experimental cinema, we will explore both the imagination of destruction as well as the use of media to document and shape narratives about existing disasters. Through these two lines of inquiry, we will explore both disasters of immediacy (“natural” disasters like floods and earthquakes, or man-made disasters like oil spills and nuclear meltdowns) and long-term disasters such as epidemics and climate catastrophe. We will also examine the importance of both disaster and subsequent relief efforts to national and imperial projects.