This class introduces students to the sociological examination of natural, technological, and industrial disasters. Students will explore how and why disasters are fundamentally social events: What do disasters reveal about society? Why are the human consequences of disasters unequally distributed? What are the typical ways in which states, organizations, and communities respond to disasters? Focusing on case studies from around the world, students will discuss: What are the long-term/short-term causes of particular disasters? What forms of suffering the disasters under consideration generated? What state/civil society actions did they trigger? What advocacy networks were put in place in their aftermath? Formerly offered as SBC 311; not for credit in addition to SBC 311.