451 - 460 of 788 results for: HISTORY

Latin American history provides key insight into the origins and resurgence of authoritarianism as well as various forms of political and social resistance. Consequently, this course surveys the major social, economic, political, and cultural trends that shaped modern South American history. We will examine the nation-states forged in the aftermath of early-nineteenth-century independence movements, their diverse peoples, and how their development was shaped by US imperialism and intervention. We will analyze the following themes: liberalism vs. conservatism; modernization and neocolonialism ('order and progress'); the rise of nationalism and populism; industrialization and the environment; (im)migration and urbanization; and neoliberal reform. Special emphasis is placed on racial and gender inequality and the struggle for both national and individual self-determination.

This course examines key instances of revolution, reaction, and intervention in select Central American and Caribbean nations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Students will explore how various forms of imperialism/neocolonialism intensified class, racial, ethnic, and gender inequalities that produced poverty, dictatorship, and armed uprisings in these culturally diverse regions of the Americas. Through primary and secondary sources, film, music, media, popular art and literature students will gain insight into the political, social, and economic trends that made Central America and the Caribbean epicenters of social struggle as well as home to the Western Hemisphere's poorest countries.

This course will explore the history of Mexican migrants and Mexican Americans from 1848 to the present.

How can historical knowledge and methods be applied towards social innovation to problem-solve pressing economic, political, social, and environmental issues? This course investigates this question by analyzing the history, present, and futures of Haiti. While every nation has a creation story, few are as unique and particular as Haiti, the only country established through slaves revolting and wresting their freedom. The course will explore key moments in Haiti's complex and dynamic history, from the culmination of the Haitian Revolution in 1804 to the present day. The long aftermath of indemnity and debt, invasion and occupation by other nations, political instability, and its current status as a failed state present Haiti as an important site for analyzing the meanings of nation, peoplehood, and sovereignty in the modern world. This course analyzes the experiences and ideas of Haitians in shaping governance, the economy and labor, education, family life and gender roles, the law, religion, culture and the arts, the environment, geopolitics, and the very question of how Haitian history is researched, remembered, and narrated. Course content will include documentary films, political texts, novels, legislation, essays, economic data, art, and scholarly research. In analyzing these sources and engaging with heads of NGO's, writers, and academic researchers students will explore how academic research can impact policy and social entrepreneurship.

The course addresses a major topic in today's world: populism. The visibility it has acquired grants an inquiry into its nature, and its history. We will tackle the key problem of the definition of populism and will focus on its historical and political character. We will discuss the defining features and conditions for the emergence of historical cases of populism through a cross-disciplinary perspective. On the base of this discussion, the course address historically relevant cases of populism in the Americas, combining case analysis with comparative analysis, inclusive of current examples. This will allow for a deeper understanding of the diversity, complexity, and components of an often-misunderstood phenomenon and often misused concept.

Students will work with the Stanford Immigration and Asylum Lab to conduct research on conditions in Mexico and Central America to support people seeking U.S. asylum. With the guidance of historians and attorneys, students will analyze publicly available information on violence, corruption, discrimination, and other relevant country conditions to corroborate the lived experiences of asylum-seeking clients. Through collaborations with local nonprofit legal services providers, students will contribute country conditions research for expert testimony to support the asylum cases of people who have fled persecution. Guest lecturers will include legal practitioners, a former immigration judge, and other experts on U.S. asylum and Latin America. Through this work, students will gain critical research skills and an understanding of the U.S. asylum system, its implications in the Americas, and contemporary human security issues in the region, while meaningfully impacting people in need of protection.

This course explores the histories of refugees and asylum seekers to the United States and helps students learn how people seek asylum by working on the legal cases of current asylum seekers.

This colloquium explores how the environment and natural resources have shaped Latin America and the Caribbean geopolitically, socially, and culturally as a distinct world region from the colonial period to the present. First, we will learn what historical ecology is and how it differs from and overlaps with environmental history in Latin America and the Caribbean. Second, we will read, discuss, and write about several monographs exploring topics (water access, capitalist commodities, and the role of animals) in various countries. Finally, we will apply what we learned from the region south of the United States to a local case study at Stanford, which was part of New Spain and Mexico before the United States conquered half of Mexico, including California, in 1848.

Course description coming soon.