This Hauptseminar explores the history of the US-American PBB disaster in the 1970s, one of the nation’s largest chemical contaminations, through the lenses of environmental and public histories. Students will examine primary sources (newspaper coverage, oral history interviews, memoirs, agency reports, and moving images) and key secondary scholarship (book chapters and journal articles) to determine the legacy of the PBB disaster and how—or if—it should be commemorated 50 years later.
The course aims to develop skills in critical thinking, historical analysis, and historical knowledge. Course meetings will consist of short lectures paired with discussion of assigned readings and digital resources. Students should engage with and prepare assigned materials before the class meetings wherein they will be discussed. Materials can be accessed via Moodle.
In addition, at the end of the course, students will share their ideas about commemorating large-scale contaminations. Students are also expected to submit a thesis paper that makes a case for commemorating the PBB disaster, offers a proposal for how do to so, and explains the significance of taking such action. The term paper is around 30,000 characters or 4,615-6,000 words in length, which is between 18.5 to 24 pages (double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font).
- Kursleiter/in: Brittany Fremion
- Kursleiter/in: Victoria Junkernheinrich