Course Description
Exploration of the history of notable disasters in the Caribbean and Latin America since the heyday of European expansion. The readings focus on earthquakes, hurricanes, and other phenomena, such as epidemics, that human action and inaction have at times transformed into catastrophes. Consideration of how historical forces have conditioned the effects of natural phenomena, how disasters have helped spur socio-political transformations, and how shifting understandings of religion, science, and politics have influenced disasters and disaster relief.
Athena Title
Disasters in Latin America
Pre or Corequisite
Any course in history HIST or LACS or GEOG
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students in this course will: 1. Learn how to read historical accounts of disasters, identify their research questions and arguments, understand how they use evidence, and suggest how our view of Latin American and Caribbean history might change as a result of their findings. 2. Learn to analyze primary sources (explain major features and concerns, figure out what perspectives are highlighted or marginalized, pinpoint implicit understandings that the evidence reveals unintentionally, and acknowledge what uncertainties remain). 3. Learn to formulate questions about the past and locate primary and secondary sources to answer them. 4. Learn to present their research findings to varied audiences.
Topical Outline
Students in this course will write reading responses, two five-page essays, and one research piece. The first short essay will emphasize historiographical analysis; the second will explore a primary source in depth. Finally, students will conduct original research and present their findings in two formats: (1) academic prose aimed at those familiar with the field; and (2) audio/visual or digital forms for general audiences. Course Topics 1. Are “natural disasters” really natural? 2. Hurricanes and the making of the colonial Caribbean 3. The Lima earthquake (1746) and the making of a Spanish- American city 4. “Acts of God,” “New Science,” and other ways of making sense of disasters 5. Earthquakes, hurricanes, and revolutions in Haiti and Spanish America 6. Yellow fever in neocolonial Cuba 7. Hurricanes in neocolonial Puerto Rico 8. Hurricanes in socialist Cuba 9. Earthquakes in neoliberal Mexico 10. Disaster capitalism? Haiti after the earthquake (2010) or Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria (2017)
Syllabus