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76248-01 - Seminar: Environmental Histories of Southern Africa (3 KP)
| Semester | Herbstsemester 2025 |
| Angebotsmuster | einmalig |
| Dozierende | Marie Muschalek (marie.muschalek@unibas.ch, BeurteilerIn) |
| Inhalt | What can we learn about southern African history, its societies and cultures, if we examine more carefully humans’ relation to the weather, the seasons, to stones and mountains, to water, rivers and oceans, to plants and forests, or to animals, domestic and wild? In this course, we pay particular attention to the nonhuman world and the interaction of humans with their environments in our exploration of southern African history from precolonial times to the late twentieth century. Sudents will read a selection of canonical environmental history texts as well as recent, thought-provoking scholarly pieces, asking about the methodological and theoretical impulses, often interdisciplinary, these have given to the study of the southern African past. And, we will inquire into the specific contributions these African histories have made to the field of environmental history. Throughout the course we will also delve into some primary sources, and we will seek to address a variety of themes that have been quite formative for the southern African context: agriculture and pastoralism; hunting, wildlife, and conservation; resource extraction and grand technological schemes; indigenous knowledge and colonial natural history; urbanization, land use and rights; environmental justice. |
| Lernziele | • Seek a better understanding of the dynamic, interdisciplinary field of environmental history • Get familiarized with the methodological tools deployed by environmental history • Practice extensive reading to improve your grasp of the debates and conversations that are currently relevant within this historiographical subfield • Refine your historical reasoning and writing |
| Literatur | [Introductory reading:] Peša, Iva. “A Planetary Anthropocene? Views From Africa.” Isis 113, no. 2 (2022): 386–95. https://doi.org/10.1086/719630. Swart, Sandra. “At the Edge of the Anthropocene: Crossing Borders in Southern African Environmental History.” South African Historical Journal 73, no. 1 (2021): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2021.1939768. [Readings may include:] Adams, Jonathan S., and Thomas McShane. The Myth of Wild Africa: Conservation without Illusion. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997. Hammel, Tanja. Shaping Natural History and Settler Society: Mary Elizabeth Barber and the Nineteenth-Century Cape. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2019. Kalb, Martin. Environing Empire: Nature, Infrastructure, and the Making of German Southwest Africa. Vol. Volume 23. Environment in History: International Perspectives. New York: Berghahn, 2022. Lenggenhager, Luregn, Martha Akawa, Giorgio Miescher, Romie Nghitevelekwa, and Ndidzulafhi Innocent Sinthumule (eds.) The Lower !Garib - Orange River: Pasts and Presents of a Southern African Border Region. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2023. Osseo-Asare, Abena Dove. Bitter Roots: The Search for Healing Plants in Africa. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2014. Swart, Sandra. The Lion’s Historian: Africa’s Animal Past. Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacama Media, 2023. Takuva, Tinashe. “‘Rains Come from the Gods!’: Anthropocene and the History of Rainmaking Rituals in Zimbabwe with Reference to Mberengwa District, c. 1890–2000.” South African Historical Journal 73, no. 1 (2021): 138–61. Thompsell, Angela. Hunting Africa: British Sport, African Knowledge, and the Nature of Empire. Britain and the World. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. Tischler, Julia. Cultivating Race: Transatlantic Agricultural Reform in South Africa, c. 1900–1950. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2025. |
| Teilnahmevoraussetzungen | Für Masterstudierende sowie fortgeschrittene Bachelorstudierende mit abgeschlossener Grundstufe (Nachweis: drei Proseminare, drei Proseminararbeiten). Die Teilnehmer:innenzahl ist auf 25 beschränkt. Bei Überbelegung werden Studierende der Geschichte bevorzugt zugelassen. |
| Anmeldung zur Lehrveranstaltung | The seminar is limited to 20 participants; please understand that admission will be granted on a first come, first served basis. |
| Unterrichtssprache | Englisch |
| Einsatz digitaler Medien | kein spezifischer Einsatz |
| Intervall | Wochentag | Zeit | Raum |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Montag | 10.15-12.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 3 |
Einzeltermine
| Module |
Modul: Areas: Afrika (Master Studiengang: Europäische Geschichte in globaler Perspektive ) Modul: Aufbau Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Bachelor Studienfach: Geschichte) Modul: Epochen der europäischen Geschichte: Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Master Studiengang: Europäische Geschichte in globaler Perspektive ) Modul: Europäisierung und Globalisierung (Masterstudium: European Global Studies) Modul: Fields: Environment and Development (Master Studiengang: African Studies) Modul: Fields: Knowledge Production and Transfer (Master Studiengang: African Studies) Modul: Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Master Studienfach: Geschichte) Vertiefungsmodul Global Europe: Umwelt und Nachhaltigkeit (Masterstudium: European Global Studies) |
| Prüfung | Lehrveranst.-begleitend |
| Hinweise zur Prüfung | Aktive Teilnahme. |
| An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung | Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Wiederholungsprüfung | keine Wiederholungsprüfung |
| Skala | Pass / Fail |
| Belegen bei Nichtbestehen | nicht wiederholbar |
| Zuständige Fakultät | Philosophisch-Historische Fakultät, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Anbietende Organisationseinheit | Departement Geschichte |