FSP 101 12  

Caribbean:  From Columbus to Globalization
Nature, Gender, Race

Spring 2004

9:30-12:20 Wednesdays   Bliss 151

Instructor:  Janet Gray  gray@tcnj.edu  x2163
Office hours:  Monday 3:30-4:30, Tuesday 9:30-10:30, Thursday 11:00-12:00 (Bliss 219)

Grading policy    Attendance Policy    Academic integrity guidelines   Required readings  Learning activities   Calendar  

Assumptions of dialogue culture   Critical thinking questions   Guiding Principles for Student Work

This course was designed and taught by Janet Gray, Debbie Balkaran, Rashidah Khalifa, and Crystal Walker, with the help of John Landreau, Stuart McCook, Lisa Ortiz, Tom Moore, and faculty and librarians involved in the Caribbean Studies Project.  Our thanks to all.

Introduction

What really happened between Columbus and the Arawak people?  How does the tourist industry capture (and obscure) centuries of history in promoting the Caribbean as a mythic paradise on earth?  In all its cultural, political, and economic complexity, the Caribbean today bears a record of the deep history of “globalization”—the development of a system that, according to ecological feminist Maria Mies, “emerged, is built upon and maintains itself through the colonization of women, of ‘foreign’ peoples and their lands….”  With readings from a variety of disciplines—including environmental history, gender studies, cultural studies, and literature—students and faculty will explore three major factors shaping the region’s relationships to the rest of the world:  nature, gender, and race.  

Our goals in this course are to gain a basic understanding of the following themes: