Approaches to History (393-0-26)
Topic
Pirates and Prostitutes
Instructors
Haydon Leslie Cherry
847/467-3032
Harris Hall - Room 217
Meeting Info
Harris Hall L04: Tues, Thurs 3:30PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
The period from ca. 1750 to 1950 marked a time of turbulent change in Southeast Asia. European empires rose and fell; colonialism gave rise to nationalism; markets expanded and contracted; and social hierarchies crystallized and dissolved. While some actors aggregated economic and political power during this period others were marginalized or dispossessed. This seminar investigates the making of marginal peoples in Southeast Asia and gives particular attention to the role played by pirates and prostitutes in the history of the region. It also examines the ways in which such individuals influenced broader processes of change in the region, such as patterns of trade, state-making, and the rise of new political ideologies.
This course is an upper-division seminar. Each week we will read works of scholarship that focus on the history of pirates or prostitutes in some part of Southeast Asia. While we will give attention to these works' substantive claims, our main concern will be with the theories and methodologies that inform them. We will critically examine the theories of social structure and social change that explicitly or implicitly frame these works; the earlier works of scholarship that they engage with; the kinds of sources they draw upon; and the ways in which they analyze and use these sources to support an argument.
Students will learn how to critically assess historical scholarship; survey the historical literature on a particular topic; prepare an annotated bibliography; and develop a sophisticated historiographical assessment of the scholarship on a particular marginal group in modern Southeast Asian history.
Evaluation Method
Two essays.
Class Materials (Required)
Materials will be available on Canvas.
Class Attributes
Advanced Expression
Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area
Enrollment Requirements
Enrollment Requirements: Only History majors and minors can currently enroll in this class.