The Other Atlantic: Ethnohistory, Chronicle, and Memory

4.0 credits

This seminar engages the experiences, writings and political ambitions of individuals typically excluded from discussions of the Atlantic. Key concepts such as Atlantic creoles and the Black Atlantic will be debated in light of recent studies on Sephardic merchants, African healers and Native American intellectuals. In order to contextualize their lives, this course will focus on the Iberian and South Atlantic from the early sixteenth to the late nineteenth century. Our initial readings will center on the circulation of Native American commoners and elites to Spain and will be complemented by seminal ethnohistorical studies. The second part of the course will take on the construction of a South or Lusophone ocean that weaves together the histories of Brazilian, Angolan and Portuguese actors. Students will revise and resubmit an original research paper on a topic of their choice.