This module examines, reflects on, and critiques the historical contexts of a range of colonial legacies and institutionalized inequalities in contemporary British society. These will be examined through a critical engagement with the ‘Atlantic’ in its myriad forms: as geographic space and living organism, as periodization, as diasporic identity, as the birth of modernity, as the site of millions of deaths of captive Africans, and as Anthropocene. It then introduces the ‘Global South’ in geographic, economic, epistemological, and theoretical terms and engages students to consider what Global South paradigms and perspectives can expose when applied to critical examination of contemporary colonial legacies and how they can subvert the power of the (North) Atlantic. The module invites students to ‘apply’ the theories, concepts, and perspectives they have engaged with in the course to contemporary social issues with a vision to create a fairer and equal society for the future.
What are the legacies of colonialism and empire that continue to pervade British society? In what ways does ‘the Atlantic’ perpetuate dominant readings of the past and simultaneously obscure others? How are Eurocentric and Global North epistemologies and framings of ‘the past’ shaping the narratives of our present? How can we incorporate Global South paradigms and perspectives to create change?
Students will address these questions and others exploring how ‘the Atlantic’ has powerfully shaped contemporary colonial legacies, and also how it can be the site for disruption, subversion, and social change when considered from Global South perspectives.
Indicative topics will typically include:
Colonial Legacies I: Beyond Race, Class, and Gender
Colonial Legacies II: The Role of the Atlantic and the Birth of the Global South
The Atlantic as Space and Place
The Atlantic as Time and Method
Diasporic Atlantics I: The Black Atlantic
Diasporic Atlantics II: The Brown Atlantic
Geographic Atlantics I: South/North Atlantic
Geographic Atlantics II: Waste, Modernity, and the Anthropocene
Reconfiguring a Global South Atlantic