HIST 180 PZ -Spirits/Science/Nature of Africa

How have myriad peoples and epistemologies made sense of African environments, and why does it matter?  This is the central question of this course, which investigates how knowledge and discourses of nature have shaped environmental action across the continent.  In particular, this course explores African and (to a lesser extent) Afro-Brazilian eco-cosmologies, spiritual agency and technologies, as well as changes brought about through intercultural contact, diasporic formation, European colonization and the expansion of capitalism, and the Global North’s racialized discourses and technologies of science which relied on, fell in love with, and/or exploited African human and nonhuman worlds. Adapting Donna Haraway’s early questions on primate studies, we ask: What forms does love or care of nature take in particular historical contexts?  For whom, and at what cost?  How are love, power, science, and the numinous intertwined in the constructions of African environments?  

Prerequisite(s): See the current course schedule for registration restrictions.

For up-to-date information on current course offerings and details, please refer to the Pitzer class schedule on MyCampus2 Portal .