Topic: Race, World Travels & European Identities from 1750 to the 20th Century
| Time | Days | Location | Instructor | GER | Credit | OPUS Class Number | Syllabus (Tentative) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
11:30am- | TuTh | Candler Library 114 | Vick, Brian. | HSC. | 4 | 1043 | TBA. |
Content: Through lecture and discussion, original sources and works by historians, this course examines both the encounters with other peoples and cultures in parts of the world previously little known to Europeans, and the uses to which the travel accounts were put in the contestation surrounding notions of race and the nature of humankind back in Europe. The course focuses on encounters in the South Pacific, South America, and Africa. It investigates the connections between journeys of scientific exploration and the growth of European imperialism and the disciplines of ethnography and anthropology from the eighteenth century into the twentieth.
Required Texts: Rousseau, Discourse on the Origins of Inequality (Hackett, 1992); Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle (Modern Library, 2001); Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (Norton, 2003); Harry Liebersohn, The Travelers’ World: Europe to the Pacific (Harvard, 2008).
Grading: Assessment will include active participation in discussion, two short essays (c. 10 pages total), brief reading responses, a midterm, and a final.
The schedule of courses on O.P.U.S. is the official listing of courses, including days and times they meet and the General Education Requirements they satisfy. Students should use course descriptions as general guidelines. Course requirements, grading details, book lists, and syllabi are subject to change.