In this course, we will consider the complex intersection of race and religion in the Americas. We will begin by investigating the hybrid proto-racial and religious categories through which Europeans in the early modern era understood human difference. From there, we will trace how these notions were re-conceptualized in the centuries following the encounter between Europeans and the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas. As we examine this history—including the emergence of slavery, rebellions and revolutions, mestizaje, immigration, Liberation Theology, and other topics—we will pay particular attention to how interwoven racial and religious hierarchies were both constructed and resisted. The final section of the course will concentrate on the contemporary entanglements of race and religion in the hemisphere. Along with race and religion a number of other topics will recur throughout the course: gender, nation, and science.
- Teacher: William Girard