Research Outputs

Disaster and the Arts

This collection of essays explores the role of the arts in learning to live with geological disasters. It studies film, literature, theatre, and visual art in different regions of the Andes. We have found that cultural narratives can be used to critique governmental responses to disasters, to facilitate healing after trauma, to explore the prevailing impacts of disaster (which persist long after they occur), and to create empathy with disaster survivors.

Wandering and Sleeplessness: Performance as Research in Reliving the 1970 Peruvian Earthquake (R. Jarman)

Coming soon

When Worlds Converge: Geological Ontologies and Volcanic Epistemologies in Colombian Literature after the 1985 Eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz (R. Jarman)

Before and After? Temporalities of Disaster (R. Jarman)

Bolivarian Landslides: Ecological Disasters, Political Upheavals, and (Trans)National Futures in Contemporary Venezuelan Culture (R. Jarman)

Survival, Reconstruction, and Commemoration

This collection of essays and podcasts examines the issues that are important to survivors. It documents the reconstruction of towns and cities that have been destroyed by landslides, it sets out survivors’ recovery strategies and looks at how disasters are remembered.

A Fitting Tribute: Tip Removal and Land Reclamation after the Aberfan Disaster in South Wales (R. Jarman)

Coming soon

Armar la plaza: La articulación urbana de Yungay antes y después del terremoto de 1970 (R. Jarman, A. Oliver-Smith, T. Usón)

Coming soon

Sobre vivientes (D. Ceballos and R. Jarman)

Geological Relations

This collection of essays unpicks the entangled relationships between geological and social processes on a planetary scale. They reflect on the spiritual, cultural, and metaphysical connections between the earth’s different strata, exploring the ways in which tectonic forces and land formations interact with human settlements, cultures, and daily life.

Nosotros, los Andes (R. Jarman and V. Vargas-Downing, eds)