ES360/FNR360-370 - Ethnicity and the Land

In this course students will examine the connection between race, culture and landscapes. Beginning in the fifteenth century and moving thematically to the present, we will examine how the land served as a "social arena" within which human societies subsisted, prospered, struggled for power, and forged cultural identities. We will consider how ideas about nature and land use practices have changed over time and how those concepts and actions shaped human history. In a reading seminar format and using a broadly comparative approach, we will be focusing primarily on the peoples who lived in what would eventually become the United States, comparing their disparate experiences and exploring their historical connections.

This is a discussion driven reading seminar. I may offer short lectures to provide historical background and context and guide you through some of the course materials. However, it is your responsibility to raise questions and to formulate critical responses to the essays documents, and films. You need to come to class on time, prepared and ready to discuss the reading materials. What we discuss in class will not be easy to "look-up" in a textbook. I will mark down late papers by one half a grade for every day they are late unless you have a documented medical excuse and you have discussed it with me. This course fulfills GE category: C4 and the USCP requirement.