IAS A5000 Inventing the Americas
This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of the Americas. Whether defined by geography, culture, language, ethnicity, history, politics, or literature, the Americas have been a contested space for hundreds of years. We will examine some of the ways in which the Americas have been constructed, defined, and redefined since the time of Columbus (and before). We will pay particular attention to the ways in which the Americas served as both a terminus and a turning point for what is generally know as 'the western tradition'; in other words, we will examine the residues of the old world in the new world, as well as the importation of the new world into the old. Touching upon some of the topics that have come to define the history of the Americas, we will discuss the science(s) of exploration; the imaginaries of the new world and the old; the politics and economics of empire and colonialism; the cruelties of invasion, conquest, and slavery; the transformations of ecology and biology; the contours of nationalism and transnationalism; as well as the more recent phenomenon of globalization. As a foundational course in the study of the Americas, this course highlights some of the more important topics in the history of the Americas, but it also offers a serious introduction to interdisciplinary learning at the masters-level. Requirements include seminar participation, scholarly response papers, and the execution of an extended research assignment.