Research Seminar (395-0-22)
Topic
Nature and Empire
Instructors
Lydia Barnett
847/491-7421
Harris Hall - Room 305
Lydia Barnett (PhD Stanford 2011) is Associate Professor of History. Her research and teaching interests range widely across European and Atlantic world history, environmental history, and the history of science.
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L04: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
Topic: Nature and Empire
The arrival of European colonizing powers in the Americas in the wake of Columbus's voyages marked a new and often disastrous chapter in global environmental history. American nations and environments shaped the course of European colonial settlement at the same time as colonial expansion profoundly changed the flora, fauna, disease ecology, and patterns of labor and land use prevailing across the Americas. This seminar explores the entangled histories of imperial and environmental history in the colonial Atlantic world. Topics will include the so-called Columbian Exchange and the dispossession of indigenous lands; the transatlantic slave trade and the rise of the plantation system; the intersections of African, European, and Indigenous American agricultural practices; European theories of race and climate; colonial bioprospecting; and the role of disease in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions. We will also consider the imperial origins of modern conservationism and of key environmental concepts such as ‘wilderness' and 'native' and 'invasive' species.
Learning Objectives
1) To investigate the complex historical relationship between nature and empire: how natural environments shaped colonial settlement and how colonial expansion - including intercultural conflicts, violence, and alliances - transformed natural environments. 2) To understand the historical roots of environmental racism and injustice and to think about how to mobilize history towards advancing environmental justice in the 21st century. 3) To design, research, and write an independent research paper on a topic in the history of environment and empire in the Atlantic world.
Evaluation Method
Participation in class discussions (synchronous/oral and asynchronous/written); final research paper; final presentation
Class Materials (Required)
All readings will be made available online.
Suggested purchases:
Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2015) 9781107569874
Judith A. Carney, Black Rice: The African Origins of Rice Cultivation in the Americas (Harvard, 2002) 9780674008342
Class Notes
History Area of Concentration: Americas, Eurupean
Class Attributes
Historical Studies Distro Area
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Freshmen may not register for this course.