230504 Interdisciplinary Introduction to InterAmerican Studies (S) (WiSe 2025/2026)

This seminar introduces students to theories, concepts, blueprints, and methodologies of interdisciplinary InterAmerican Studies. The goal is to leave behind thinking in boxes of American Studies, Latin American Studies, and Caribbean Studies and move toward a hemispheric understanding of interconnectedness in the Americas and beyond transatlantic histories. Students will be asked to bring short written response papers to all reading material for class sessions that we will use to stimulate in-class discussion and smaller group work. Texts to be read will be selected from The Routledge Companion to Inter-American Studies (2017), The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas (2020) and The Routledge Handbook to the History and Society of the Americas (2019) among others. In addition, we will use video and film material. The introductory seminar will be accompanied by the introductory project seminar in which inter-American group works will be developed to be presented at the end of the semester. These group works should express and reflect North-South and South-North entanglements and flows in the Americas so that we gain a larger hemispheric understanding of the Americas. The class will be conducted in English.