AFR 248
The Caribbean: From Slavery to Independence Spring 2018
Division II Exploring Diversity Initiative
Cross-listed HIST 248
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

This class will begin with and foreground the current crisis in Puerto Rico, an island emblematic of the history of colonialism, racism, environmental destruction, and economic exploitation of the region. But as the Caribbean has suffered, so has it resisted. From the Haitian Revolution to the Manley `Revolt’ in Jamaica, the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, the Cuban Revolution, and the Grenadian Revolution, the Caribbean has been at the forefront of radical change in the New World. Pioneering slave emancipation, independence from European empires, and unique experiments in socialism, communism, and Black Power, these small islands have been world leaders. But their innovative social and political experimentation–expressed in vivid artistic and musical forms–have all too often met with disdain and repression by their more powerful neighbors or former colonial rulers. This course will examine the audacious experiments of the Caribbean people from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries as well as the repression they have faced from abroad. We will pay attention to the rich cultural diversity of the region, using film, music, literature and art to examine diverse phenomenon, including voodoo, Santeria, and Rastafarianism. We will also explore the prospects for continuing change in the contemporary Caribbean, paying special attention to the environmental challenges they face amidst rising sea levels, drought, heat waves, and the effect of two hundred years of environmental destruction at the hands of rapacious foreigners, from slaveowners to cruise ship lines to bauxite and oil producers.
The Class: Format: seminar
Limit: 20
Expected: 20
Class#: 3003
Grading: yes pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: evaluation will be based on class participation, a mid-term and final paper, and a 10-12 page research paper
Extra Info: not available for the fifth course option
Prerequisites: none; open to all
Enrollment Preferences: Africana Studies concentrators; History majors
Distributions: Division II Exploring Diversity Initiative
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
AFR 248 Division II HIST 248 Division II
Attributes: AFR Core Electives
GBST Latin American Studies Electives
HIST Group D Electives - Latin America + Caribbean
HIST Group P Electives - Premodern
LATS Countries of Origin + Transnationalism Elect
MAST Interdepartmental Electives

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