History 201-206 seminars are open to history majors only during pre-registration. If the course does not reach its enrollment maximum, it will be open to all students beginning with drop/add on a first-come first-serve basis.
HIST 205 Latin America after Slavery
Walker
Taught as schedule allows (consult the Course Directory)
SEM | PRE-1800
Brazil has long represented one of the most vibrant centers of African culture in the Americas. Tourism boards in the northern city of Salvador da Bahia proclaim it “the African soul of Brazil,” and visitors from around the world arrive in droves to experience its food, music, and spiritual traditions first-hand. Yet Brazil, the last nation in the western hemisphere to abolish slavery, also has some of the highest unemployment and violent crime rates in the world. African-descent men and women count among those most deeply affected. In fact, according to many observers, “the color of poverty in Brazil is black.”
Using Brazil as a point of entry, the goal of this course is to explore the varying trajectories and fortunes of African-descent men and women in Latin American societies following the abolition of slavery. It will use a historical lens to explore myriad issues in the African Diaspora, such as economic development, political participation, the racial components of sexual tourism, the social impact of the global popularity of Hip Hop, representations and caricatures of blackness in print and visual media, what happens when individuals cross borders into different color contexts; and ideas about hair texture, sexuality, and beauty.
