Unit information: Black and Indigenous Religions in the Early Modern Iberian World in 2021/22

Unit name	Black and Indigenous Religions in the Early Modern Iberian World
Unit code	HISP30098
Credit points	20
Level of study	H/6
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 2 (weeks 13 - 24)
Unit director	Dr. Fisk
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Arts

Description including Unit Aims

This unit will be taught by Dr Bethan Fisk

This unit will explore indigenous and black religions in the early modern Iberian world, with a focus on Spanish America from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. It will take a social and cultural history approach to examine the production and circulation of religious knowledge and material culture by black and indigenous people. We will study the entangled histories of people of African and indigenous descent and how religion was central to their experiences of colonialism, forced labour, and racialisation, while centring African-descended and indigenous religious practice and the remaking of early modern Catholicism. The unit will deepen undergraduates’ understandings of the transformation of concepts of casta, racial difference, and gender and how twentieth-century intellectual traditions have shaped the study of cultural production. We will examine these themes through analysis of primary material in Spanish and English and visual sources, including art, codices, maps, plays, trials, and wills, and connections will be made to shared histories in Spain, Portugal, West Africa, and Brazil. Students will be trained in conducting historical research online, locating sources on databases and online library collections, building research bibliographies, and introduced to early modern Spanish palaeography.

Aims

• To introduce students to a significant body of knowledge of a complexity appropriate to final year level. The content matter will normally include one or more of the following: literature; social, cultural or political history; art history; archaeology; cultural studies; film, television or other media.
• To facilitate students’ engagement with a body of literature, including secondary literature, texts, including in non-print media, primary sources and ideas as a basis for their own analysis and development. Normally many or most of these sources will be in a language other than English and will enhance the development of their linguistic skills.
• To develop further skills of synthesis, analysis and independent research, building on the skills acquired in units at level H/6.
• To equip students with the skills to undertake postgraduate study in a relevant field.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of the formation of African-descended and indigenous religions in the early modern Iberian world
2. Analyse and contextualise written and visual primary sources and English and Spanish-language multidisciplinary scholarship
3. Connect and compare knowledge and material cultural production and hierarchies of difference across the Iberian world
4. Develop effective skills of collaboration when working on a group project.
5. Develop and employ clear communication and presentation skills for a non-academic audience
6. Synthesise and create arguments in written form to a standard appropriate to level H/6.

Teaching Information

Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous sessions and asynchronous activities, including seminars as well as self-directed learning opportunities supported by tutor consultation.

Assessment Information

1 x 1000- word primary source-based blog post (25%) This is based on group work and tests ILOs 1-6.

1 x 4000-word coursework essay (75%), testing ILOs 1-3 and 6.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. HISP30098).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.