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Class number:
3378
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Title: Imagining the Distant Past |
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Department: First Year Sem & Colloq |
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Career: Undergraduate |
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Component: Seminar |
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Session: Regular |
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Instructor's Permission Required: Yes |
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Grading Basis: Graded |
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Units: 1.00 |
| Enrollment limited to 15 |
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Current enrollment: 14 |
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Available seats: 1 |
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Start date: Tuesday, September 3, 2024 |
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End date: Wednesday, December 18, 2024 |
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Mode of Instruction: In Person |
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Schedule: MW: 8:30AM-9:45AM, 115V - 106 |
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Instructor(s): Hager, Christopher |
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Prerequisite(s): Only first-year students are eligible to enroll in this class. |
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Distribution Requirement: Meets FirstYr Seminar Requirement |
Course Description:
In one famous image, the Earth is an outstretched arm and human history the tip of one fingernail. In another, planet Earth has existed for a calendar year with humans appearing shortly before midnight on December 31. It takes metaphors to wrap our brains around vast timescales. This is not a course in geology or paleontology but in the humanities: How has human creativity reckoned with deep time? How do people meet the challenges--cognitive, philosophical, ethical--of thinking beyond their lifespan? With works by contemporary writers and artists like Daniel Mason (North Woods, 2023) and Richard McGuire (Here, 2014), and older writers like Virginia Lee Burton and Henry David Thoreau, this seminar invites students to stretch their imaginations and think beyond our own time. |