Americans Abroad: Mapping Nineteenth-Century Travel Narratives
AMST 312
Spring 2022
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01
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In this course, we will explore international travel in the long 19th century. We will focus on narratives published by Americans who had the opportunity to travel beyond the United States. Through individual and collective activities, we will survey the trajectories of activists, diplomats, doctors, entertainers, entrepreneurs, journalists, missionaries, sailors, scientists, soldiers, students, teachers, tourists, and many others who engaged with foreign societies. By analyzing travel narratives, we will delve into a globalizing new order of expanding empires and integrating capitalist economies.
The main product of this course will be a digital humanities project. Throughout the semester, we will conceptualize, design, build, and improve a website together. Each student will develop their own individual project focusing on a set of travel narratives. These individual projects will be the component parts of our website. Classes will alternate between historical and conceptual discussions about travel in the 19th century and technical matters related to digital humanities. Our goal is to reflect on the broad history of American foreign relations and the use of new technology to produce and communicate knowledge about the past. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS AMST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Requirement for: (AMST) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: 90% or above |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
In addition to primary sources, we will read chapters from
James T. Campbell, Middle Passages: African American Journeys to Africa, 1787-2005 (2006);
Emily Conroy-Krutz, Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American Republic (2015);
Kristin Hoganson, Consumers' Imperium: The Global Production of American Domesticity, 1865-1920 (2007);
Jeffrey Alan Melton, Mark Twain, Travel Books, and Tourism: The Tide of a Great Popular Movement (2002);
Dane Morrison, True Yankees: The South Seas and the Discovery of American Identity (2017);
Nancy Shoemaker, Pursuing Respect in the Cannibal Isles: Americans in Nineteenth-Century Fiji (2019).
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Examinations and Assignments:
Individual Research Project;
Collective Digital Humanities Project. |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
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| Instructor(s): Saba,Roberto Times: .M.W... 08:20AM-09:40AM; Location: CAMS 1; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 15 | | SR major: 3 | JR major: 3 | | |
| Seats Available: 3 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 3 | JR non-major: 3 | SO: 3 | FR: X |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 0 | 1st Ranked: 0 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 0 | 4th Ranked: 0 | Unranked: 0 |
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