���ϳԹ�

The course explores the complex place we call the Greater Southwest, including Greater Mexico, and the varied peoples who have lived, fought, traveled, written, raised families, farmed, ranched, and survived here. Using interdisciplinary epistemologies and methodologies from Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Geography, Environmental Studies, Chicanx/Latinx, Critical Indigenous, and Literary Studies, we investigate strands of culture (indigenous and imported) that have intertwined in this region over the last thousand years. We begin by examining (pre)historical, geographic, and anthropological records and debates over whose voices get to define the region, proceed to a series of primary and secondary texts to examine physical geographic, historical, and literary traditions of the region, and assess the enduring impacts of conquests. We explore how people have constructed and articulated sense of place over time, and discuss implications of these decisions for relationships people develop between themselves, the environment, and others. The course considers relationships between Indigenous nations, Hispano/Latinx/Chicanx, Black and Asian populations, and Euro-American groups in the natural setting of the Southwest to better understand the conflict, cooperation, and cultural blending among these groups; the ways they understand and affect the biophysical landscape; and how land/nature has forged relationships within and between these groups.

The unfolding planetary crisis has led to a resurgence of discourse on the key question of capitalism and its relationship to the climate catastrophe. Thus, the term “capitalocene” has emerged as an alternative to the dominant category “anthropocene,” which obfuscates the problem by indiscriminately assigning agency for the catastrophe to an abstract human. There is a growing recognition that the costs of our climate catastrophe are not evenly distributed and are being largely borne by the peoples of the global south and by racial minorities in Europe and the United States. This course is premised on the assumption that the unprecedented event of a species—“human beings”—emerging as a geological force demands a more fundamental interrogation of the modern human condition (i.e., the historical processes that contributed to the making of modern human beings). In the course, we will investigate the history and system of the “capitalocene,” paying particular attention to the constitutive role of modern colonialism in the birth of racial capitalism and in the violent displacement of understandings of nature that underpin the cosmologies and traditions of indigenous and colonized societies. We will be concerned with exploring the emergence of religion as a site of epistemological doubt and struggle and how religious communities respond to the upheavals caused by the climate catastrophe.

This course focuses on the history of anti-colonial revolutions. Students will watch Star Wars films, engage with anti-colonial theorists and intellectuals like Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, and Amilcar Cabral, and analyze the philosophies and politics of resistance movements in both the Star Wars Universe and conflicts like the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, the Congo Crisis, the Algerian War, and the struggle for independence in Lusophone Africa. By engaging with a range of works by historians, film studies scholars, journalists, and political scientists, students will develop critical thinking and writing skills, understandings of epistemological and methodological cultures, and an appreciation for the practice of scholarly inquiry in a liberal arts environment. This class will hold the historical perspectives and global equity and power designations.

This course will focus on Indian art and Chinese art. It will emphasize relationships between art and religion as well as the social contexts for art. We will examine Hindu Temple architecture, sculptures, paintings, ceramics, and prints. The impacts of rapid commodification beginning in late Ming China, and the impacts of maritime contact with European powers, will also be considered.

What can we learn from the past about our contemporary moment? In what ways can we engage in productive conversations with people, ideas, and events from history? In this class, we’ll explore these questions by examining the European “Renaissance” (1300s-1500s), a time of crisis, upheaval and innovation. Emerging around a pandemic (the infamous Black Death), this period is notable for technological change, internal strife, crises in faith, and international conflict. From Hollywood to Ubisoft to Beyoncé, the Renaissance is a “hot button” topic both in academic discourse and in popular culture. In two linked blocks, we explore the late Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the Reformation in Europe through the disciplinary perspectives of history and art. During our intellectual odyssey together, we analyze philosophical, political, and literary texts as well as selected examples of painting, sculpture, and architecture. Our goal is to illuminate, and critically evaluate, central themes of this period by utilizing the different disciplinary methods offered by history and art. Topics include: ideas about identity (gender, religion, family, and the self); developments in knowledge and understanding (ancient, religious, political, scientific, cosmic, and magical); and circulation and encounters between diverse (and divergent) groups. Through reading, writing, films, museum visits, independent projects, and other experiences, students develop crucial skills of critical thinking, oral communication, writing, and academic research. Students gain perspective on this moment in history and art, and even more importantly, engage together in a key 21st-century enterprise – that is, disciplinary learning and intellectual engagement with the past.

This course will explore the relationships between people and animals across time. Among readings will be Pliny's *Natural history* (first century C.E.) and CC alumna Donna Haraway's *The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness.' Discussion and writing will focus on historical and contemporary understandings of how animals lend insight into human nature, behaviors, and relationships. Although the course will emphasize classical Mediterranean and European traditions, a group project will address the tenth-century Muslim *Animals' Lawsuit against Humanity* with the medieval Christian bestiary tradition as exemplified in the *Aberdeen Bestiary*, an online digitized manuscript. Students in this course will visit the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo as part of their consideration of the role of zoos in constructing the animal-human boundary.