SPAN 217 - Somos Mas: Poetry, Ecology and Sovereignty in Puerto Rico

FDR: HL Literature Distribution
Experiential Learning (EXP): Yes
Credits: 4

Prerequisite: SPAN 162, 164, or equivalent. Conducted in Spanish in Puerto Rico, this course combines the close reading of literature with pertinent
site visits as a means to examine ecological politics across the island, paying special attention to its rain forest, desert, ocean, rivers, and urban centers. Through the geographical specificity of our ecopolitical inquiries, we will paradoxically be examining the world, gaining insights into such fundamental sociopolitical concepts as sovereignty, coloniality, and autonomy. That is, foregrounding an awareness of the US annexation of Puerto Rico in 1898, as well as questions of indigeneity and slavery, we will continuously rethink how the local and the global are at once interwoven in distinct and consubstantial instantiations in Puerto Rican ecopolitics. This will help us in turn to deepen our understanding of the processes and legacies of colonialism, slavery, modernity, and neoliberal capitalism in the hemispheric Americas.