BERGAMO
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
At the end of the course, the student will have acquired basic knowledge of the events and processes that characterize the historical development of Latin America-a long-term multicultural laboratory-with particular attention to its relations with the United States, along a rather extended time span. In fact, we will start from the colonial phase, thus the first contacts of indigenous peoples with Europeans, but we will essentially privilege the analysis of the twentieth century and the current new millennium. It is intended to provide students with basic elements of theory and method for understanding the complexity that characterizes the evolution of Latin American history and inter-American relations in its social, political and cultural aspects. Thus, the objective is to stimulate knowledge and skills of analysis of Latin American history over the medium and long term, also in relation to the international scenario and migration issues, to and from Latin America.
Course Prerequisites
no pre requisites needed
Teaching Methods
The course includes lectures and power point presentations by the lecturer, who is careful to constantly stimulate debate and requests for further study from them. The course will be successful the more interactive the participation of students, who will be able to make proposals for further study or debate on specific issues. Frontal lectures, also based on constant interaction with students, will almost always be accompanied by screenings of audiovisual material and guided consultation of specialized sites where to view primary sources (e.g., digital archives on the history of migration between Europe and Latin America).
Assessment Methods
Learning assessment will be through a two-hour final written test. Partial tests for attending students and short written papers (papers of about 6-8 pages) are also contemplated. The test includes open-ended questions to probe specifically the notions acquired during course attendance and in-depth study of the examination texts. In the answers, clarity of exposition, the ability to summarize, and the relevance of the answers to the questions will be particularly valued, and should be read with great care. It will also be essential to adopt clear and comprehensible writing, in spelling as well as handwriting, on pain of the lecturer's understanding of the answers themselves. The test will be differentiated between students who have taken a partial test and those who have no intermediate assessment items. For attending students, the test will also refer to the historiographical approach adopted by the lecturer and all types of audiovisual material screened during the course BUT textbooks will remain essential and inescapable reference. For non-attending students, the test will refer essentially to the examination texts indicated. For all students there will also be an optional opportunity to add additional assessment elements in itinere, during the course, and before the exams, as short written papers, to be arranged with the lecturer by appointment. The exam is in Italian.
Contents
The course intends to essentially reason about Latin America's identity as an ‘Other West,’ in constant and dynamic relationship with Europe and -the closer we get to contemporaneity- with the United States. Salient moments of the course will see a critical reflection on these issues, beyond rigid and established interpretative paradigms. Under the banner of this ‘red thread,’ for example, an attempt will be made to highlight, in the context of the issue of the Spanish Conquest, indigenous and original forms of cultural and social reworking derived from the Iberian impact. As we approach and deal with the twentieth century, on the other hand, to which a good part of the course will be devoted, we will rather mention the multiple readings attributed by historiographical debate to migratory processes to and from the Americas, in political, cultural and social terms in the broadest sense. The case of the “Italians of Argentina” will be significant in this sense. The last part of the course, on the other hand, will focus on more strictly contemporary issues: military dictatorships, democratic transitions, new environmental challenges, women's presence in politics, and indigenous rights. The course is in Italian.
Online Resources
More information
STUDENTS WHO DO NOT INTEND TO SHOW UP FOR THE EXAM THEY REGISTERED FOR MUST CANCEL ON TIME!!!
TOTALLY USELESS EMAILS THE NIGHT BEFORE!
The course will take place during the I and II term
Textbooks:
1. Loris Zanatta, Storia dell'America latina contemporanea, Laterza, Roma-Bari, EDITION 2017, 279 pp.
2. Raffaele Nocera, Stati Uniti e America Latina dal 1823 a oggi, Roma Carocci, 2017, 240 pp.