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School for Cross-faculty Studies Global Sustainable Development

Surviving the Apocalypse

GD302
Romain Chenet

Module Leader
Option - Second and Final Years
Term 2
15 CATS
9 x 2 hour workshops

Not available to students outside SCFS
Please note: this module may not run in 2026-27 (TBC). If you are currently a first-year student and wish to take this module as part of your degree, it is recommended you apply to do so as a second-year student in 2025-26.

Have you wondered why life, society, and human engagement feel as if they might be getting 'worse' (or more difficult) to pursue meaningfully, despite our much-lauded proliferation of new technologies, liberties, and opportunities? If so, this module may be for you! GD302 is based on interlinked and contemporary crises that human societies face, with a focus on cultural and contextual histories. It considers limitations of our human responses to and initiatives within apocalyptic conditions, looks to those living in margins, and aims to help us rethink a range of crises. Please note that this module is intentionally experiential and includes a continuously updating set of inspirations by being focused on an ever-unfinished world. That means this outline is a tiny glimpse into a much fuller experience and, for personalised views of GD302, I recommend you kindly ask fellow students that have taken it to share their experiences with you. Note this is one of the only GSD modules where, if you choose it, the assessments can be of a highly creative or 'alternative' nature - even the written one. The module also includes a diversity of sources and audio-visual teaching approaches, with at least two dedicated 'AV' weeks embedded in it.

Principal Aims

The module aims to facilitate a co-produced approach to social, economic, and political disorder, and to explore their links to eco-systemic breakdown. Students are invited to forward and discuss independent ideas on contemporary issues by exploring the possibilities and limitations of different responses to crises and concerns. The workshop style aims to facilitate a collaborative, student-centred learning environment, requiring a curious approach to encountering development challenges through a deliberate provocation of 'apocalypse'. The intention is, similarly, to offer a nourishing and empowering - rather than extractive - space for student experiences and understandings to emerge from.

The rationale underlying this module is a suggestion that humanity is limited in addressing crises not because of inadequate ideas or ability, but because of a variety of destructive methods of thought/practice that dominate and control our capacities for change, including in university contexts. The module thus also aims to collaboratively leverage 'education' in exploring novel responses to crises.

Principal Learning Outcomes

By the end of the module students should:

  • be able to critically reflect on understandings of the crises faced by human societies;
  • be able to design a response to processes which are precipitating or emerging out of contemporary crises;
  • be able to reflect critically on potential successes and failures of past interventions, including 'Development' itself.

Indicative Syllabus

Weeks 1 - 3: Conceptual and contextual framings

  • Introduction: Crises and survivals in our times
  • Disembedded understandings and ineffectual responses: 'Governed' sustainability as case study
  • Frameworks for understanding: Education and Global Development as case studies

Weeks 4 - 5: Responses to future(s)

  • Individualised and elite-led responses in our era: fear, bunkers and inner/outer space (AV week #1)
  • The potential and pitfalls of grassroots, collective, and activist efforts in traumatised societies

Week 6: Reading week (no classes)

Weeks 7-10: Project ideas and inspirations

  • Considering fiction and unusual case focuses in studying apocalyptic conditions (AV week #2)
  • Creativity and creation (first assessment also due in Week 9)
  • Shifting worlds: apocalyptic realities and change
  • Module wind-down: 'success' and survival

Assessment

Coursework

1 x 10 minute proposal (video) individual presentation (20%)

1 x 2500 word (written essay or creative 'equivalent' length) project (50%)

1 x 1500-word or 3x 500-word reflection(s) on the project or module (30%)

  Please note: Module availability and staffing may change year on year depending on availability and other operational factors. The School for Cross-faculty Studies makes no guarantee that any modules will be offered in a particular year, or that they will necessarily be taught by the staff listed on this page.