HPS330H1

Ordering Nature: Global Natural Histories from 1400 to the Present

This course introduces to the history of natural history – or how thinkers learned about, conceptualized, and strived to order the natural world around them. Course readings, lectures, and activities will explore how naturalists observed, described, categorized, and mobilized non-human nature in various ways and according to social and cultural context. Focusing on the practices of natural history; the theories and experiments governing the discipline; and the institutions, publics, and varied practitioners involved, this course traces how natural history evolved from the early modern period to the present.