HSOC-382: Reading the Americas

How did the violence of the colonialism transform life across the Americas? How have the predatory and racist logics of colonialism manifested well beyond explicit acts of domination? How have practices of knowledge, art, and design perpetuated colonial relations and how might they help undo them? Together, we will consider the past and future of the Americas through stories of science and technology; art and design; environment and extraction in the (post)colonial eras. We will learn about the colonial project and its logics as well as a range of historical and contemporary strategies for dismantling colonial institutions and building alternatives. To do so, we will begin by situating ourselves in the history of the ancient and colonial Americas; examine the fall of colonial governance and its pernicious afterlives; and survey the work of Indigenous and Settler practitioners engaged in work of resistance and resurgence. Our conversations and assignments will emphasize both the scholarly analysis of colonialism as well as the implications of such thinking for our own everyday work as citizens, thinkers, artists, and designers.?