Intercultural Hazards Communication in Latin America

GE 5001 Wednesday 3-5 pm 633 Dow

Objective:

This class is aimed at the social aspects of hazards communications in Latin cultures. Successful mitigation efforts involve intercultural communications between experts in the technical aspects of hazards and people at risk and people responsible for managing mitigation efforts. This often must bridge language and cultural gaps. The preparation of the specialist too often lacks social aspects. There is little in the way of prepared materials designed for such a class, so we will try to find and assemble some. The audience for this class is centered around students in the Peace Corps Masters International Program in Geological Natural Hazards (www.geohazards.mtu.edu).

The class consists of one two-hour seminar each week together with readings. The readings will encompass intercultural communcations (Wisner et al., 2004) and readings about technical efforts for hazards mitigation (Rose et al., 2003). Students will produce a paper and web communications. Significant parts of the class will be in Spanish.

2 credits

Initial References:

Wisner, Ben; Piers Blaikie, Terry Cannon and Ian Davis, 2004, At Risk: Natural Hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters, 2nd edition, Routledge (Taylor & Francis) London (ISBN 0-415-252164)

Rose, W I, J J Bommer, D L Lopez, M J Carr and J J Major, eds, 2003, Natural Hazards in El Salvador, Geol Soc Amer Special Paper 375 (ISBN 0-8137-2375-2)

Coordinator:

William I Rose Professor, Geol Eng 487 2367 207 Dow raman@mtu.edu,

Visitors:

Fernando Muñoz Carmona, Projecto Multinacional Andino

Eliza Calder, University at Buffalo

Peter Webley, University of Alaska-Fairbanks

Jonathan Lees, University of North Carolina

Jim Walker, N Illinois Univ

Linda Belote, Adjunct Professor, Social Sciences

Jim Belote, Adjunct Professor, Social Sciences

+ others

First class:

Wed, Sept 1. Read before the first class:

1. Wisner et al., 2004; Chap 1 (pp 3-48). I’ll put a copy in your mailbox.

2. Rose et al., 2003, Ch 1 (pp.1-4) Download .pdf from this page.

Objectives of first class—

1. Defining this class—assignments, discussions, grades.

2. Discussion of the process of getting your Peace Corps site selected.

3. Assembling useful information about the countries and your project ideas available on the web, establishing your own home page and its focus.

4. Discussion of the paper requirement.

Date	Inter Comm	Cultural Excerpts	Web sites, CDs
5 Sept	Wisner, Ch 1	Munoz Presentations	Radix, La RED
12 Sept	The Waters Edge	Colibri
19 Sept	Wisner, Ch 2	Vengeance Development in spite of itself	Belotes Eruption/Poverty
26 Sept	El Palmar, Guatemala El Palmar.ppt Rose etal Ch1	Los Perros mágicos de los volcanes	Marso LAHARZ LaharModels Pinatubo Mud
3 Oct	Cronin et al	To the doctors Semken	UN GEO-3
10 Oct	Wisner, Ch 3 R .d’Ercole	Popul Vuh	Island Vulnerability Mountains
17 Oct		Me Llamo Rigoberta Long Night of White Chickens	Rigoberta MADRE
24 Oct	Social Sciences Tobin&Whiteford	Wisner Ch 8	IMADR IMADR-Guate
30 Oct	Thesis Choices		International Strategy
7 Nov		Ruben Darío	Tsunami-Nica
14 Nov	Dominy-Howes	El Señor Presidente
28 Nov	Aragona/Rahn		Peace Corps MI theses
5 Dec	Somaribo	Ashes of Izalco

Assignment schedule. This is fluid, so plan on having it change with little notice! Most readings are located somewhere in room 214 and the weblinks are meant to help you identify these in case you want to buy any of them now or later. We will fill all the blanks in this list, and assign moderators each week. You should read all of the readings, which will require about 2-3 hours week. There will be special sessions with visitors, often coinciding with the seminar (Monday 4pm in M&M U133) or with the Volcanology class (Tues 9:30-11 in 633 Dow). Also see film series below.

Geo Dept--Latin American Film Series, Fall 2007

With the idea of developing cultural awareness of Latin America for students who are engaging in hazards work there, we are announcing a series of films to be shown Thursday evenings during fall quarter. The films are all considered classics and review comments about the films can be found in the links.

Title (date)	Location	Date
Aguirre der Zorn Gottes (1973)	Peru	9/6
La Historia Official (1985)	Argentina	9/13
Como agua para chocolate (1992)	Mexico	9/20
El Norte (1983)	Guatemala	9/27
Beyond the Gates of Splendor (2002)	Ecuador	10/11
At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991)	Brasil	10/18
From the heart of the world: The elder brother’s warning	Colombia	10/25
Return to the Sacred Ice (1993)	Peru	11/1

The movies will happen from 6-8 pm with simple food and drinks available. The location will be 21770 Woodland (most of the time). Thanks to Jim and Linda Belote and Pete Eckstrom who helped with selection and acquisition of most of these films. I suggest that you read reviews before each movie, but even if you don’t have time to do that, you are welcome to come. In fact, everyone is welcome.