Place, World, Planet

Debates about the significance of the Earth are increasingly central to the humanities, as scholars wrestle with the impact of climate change in our work. Informed by these debates, this course explores imaginaries of Place, World, Planet at the intersections of Christian thought, colonialism, and geopolitics. It addresses questions such as: How has Christian theology and colonialism shaped these ideas? How should we approach their symbolic and religious dimensions? What points of view and modes of knowledge do they reflect? What desired or imagined world orders do they or should they convey? The class explores these questions by examining a wide range of materials, including geopolitical, theological, and geographical treatises, visual art, maps and globes, as well as relevant theoretical texts. It provides resources for students interested in current debates in environmentalism as well as for those seeking to understand religious dimensions of colonial imaginaries in the Americas.