Time Schedule:
Ileana M. Rodriguez Silva
HSTAA 482
Seattle Campus
Colonial foundations; the first and second empires; the old and new republics; current problems; prospects for the future.
Class description
The goal of this course is to explore from various different standpoints the multiple struggles that have and continue shaping the peoples and communities inhabiting the Brazilian landscapes. We also seek to investigate the varied roles of Portuguese-America/Brazil in historical global formations (through their participation in the Atlantic slave trade, plantation production, imperial expansion, nation formation and export economies, and neoliberal politics) and how these multidirectional exchanges (with Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, the U.S.) have shaped the colonial, imperial, and national projects in Brazil. The course focuses on different historical moments such as the early colonization and development of the sugar economy; the conquest of the frontier and the mining of gold; the independence from Portugal and coffee boom; the export economy and the urbanization of coastal cities; the creation of the Estado Novo and the preeminence of populist politics; the military regime; and the effects and challenges in facing a Neo-liberal economic global regime. While I use political and/or economic shifts as markers, the course seeks to uncover the intricacies of elite and popular political cultures and the competing understandings of gender, class, and race organizing social relations and shaping subject formations.
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Lecture and discussion of assigned readings and films
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
Exams, short writing assignments, go-posts, and class participation
