For more information, please visit: http://classinfo.umn.edu/?kfajardo+AMST8920+Spring2022
Class Description:
This Topics Course will focus on Archipelagic and Oceanic Studies as they intersect with and/or challenge American Studies with an emphasis on race, indigeneity, gender, and sexuality in relation to colonial/settler colonial histories and present-day realities; migrations and mobilities; issues of sovereignty, freedom and justice, and in the context of post-colonial and decolonial studies in the Pacific Basin, Island Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean, as well as in the context of the climate emergency. We will read a mix of island/ocean-based theories, histories, ethnographies, literature, films and science writing that focus on islands, archipelagos, coasts, oceans, seas, boats, and canoes in order to "decontinentalize AmericanStudies" and learn about different kinds of knowledges that have historically been marginalized due to colonial discourse that trivializes islands as "small and therefore supposedly insignificant" or where "the sea has been forgotten." The class will also include readings about how diverse islanders, communities or NGOs are currently working to mitigate or solve current important social, political, economic, and environmental problems.