Nuclear Dreams

How did the splitting of the atom transform human history? By what means did politicians, artists, military leaders, environmental activists, and ordinary citizens on both sides of the Iron Curtain respond to the harnessing of this previously unimaginable force? How has the recent deterioration of Cold War era nuclear treaties affected the contemporary world? Amid our current climate crisis, might nuclear reactors play a key role in developing more sustainable forms of energy? Or do they represent a fundamental danger to human society? In this seminar we will engage with the hopes and dreams underpinning the "nuclear societies“ that emerged in the shadow of the Cold War and debate key contemporary social, cultural, and political issues awakened by the harnessing of the atom.