Research Seminar (395-0-20)
Topic
Oral History & the Archives of Terror
Instructors
Lina M Britto
Harris Hall 302
Professor Lina Britto is a Colombian historian and journalist. She received her Ph.D. in Latin American and Caribbean History from New York University. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, Harvard University. While still residing in Latin America, she studied at a M.A. program in Anthropology at the Universidad de la Cordillera (La Paz, Bolivia), and at a B.A. program in Journalism at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (Medellín, Colombia). Her teaching philosophy is to help students to develop critical reasoning skills, analytical abilities, and organizational capacities. In her courses on 19th- and 20th-century Latin America and the Caribbean, Prof. Britto resorts on all kinds of historical materials, from academic works to pop culture products. She also uses approaches and methods from different disciplines, from history to anthropology and journalism.
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L05: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
Topic: Oral History & the Archives of Terror
This course helps students understand oral history as a political battlefield. We studied how various historical actors used different forms of oral expression to engage in processes of formation of political consciousness, collective identities, social movements, and states in Latin America during the Cold War.
The course is divided into three sections. In the first part, we will unpack the concepts and practices of oral history by discussing the theoretical and methodological challenges that professional historians and social scientists confront when doing oral history in the region and beyond. In the second and third parts, we will study the "archives of terror" of the Latin American Cold War, and how various forms of orality (i.e. testimonio, life histories, journalistic interviews, and truth commission reports) helped victims of violence to put an end to dictatorships and civil wars, intervene in the peace processes and democratic transitions that followed, and fight for justice, reparation, truth, and reconciliation.
Learning Objectives
Students will produce a piece of original research in stages with the advising of the instructor and in conversation with fellow classmates. They will use some of the historical materials analyzed during the quarter and their own findings. The goal is to demonstrate that they are able to analyze the political, social, epistemological, ethical, and aesthetic achievements and limitations of these oral efforts to heal the wounds of state terror, dictatorship, genocide or guerrilla warfare. Ultimate, students must be able to explain why oral history played such a fundamental role in the definition of the "historical truth" in Latin American at the end of the 20th century.
Evaluation Method
Canvas discussion forums, oral presentations, participation, and writing assignments that will help them to advance toward the final research paper in stages.
Class Materials (Required)
All the assigned readings will be uploaded on Canvas
Class Notes
History Area(s) of Concentration: Americas
Class Attributes
Historical Studies Distro Area
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Freshmen may not register for this course.