Socio-environmental history of Latin America Spanish Language & Latin American Studies Program Fall 2023 Semester - Early Start - Valparaíso

The environmental history of Latin America is a new but flourishing historiographical field. It poses interesting questions about the region's colonial history, the nation-state building processes, and Latin America's integration to global markets and knowledge networks. Furthermore, the field engages with the structural social problems of the region's development, such as poverty and socio-geographical inequalities. This course analyses the history of Latin America through the lens of environmental history integrating also crucial aspects of the social history of the region, namely rural history and the history of social movements. It focuses on the distinct and sometimes contested views about the region?s environment, paying attention to national and transnational agents, as well as local and indigenous actors, both male and female, who for too long have been depicted at the margins of Latin American and global histories.