COURSE 1

SPA/LAS  340 A Maya and Hispanic Cities

 

Course Description

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The city of Saint Augustine, which was founded by Spanish explorers, is the starting point for developing this course. We would like to draw a connection between our city and many others from the 16th to the 17th century that the Spanish empire created in the Yucatan peninsula. This are of Mexico remains one of the most important early modern political, social, economic, and cultural centers of the nascent New World. This course aims to explore some of the most important features that defined the Spanish world during this period. We will do so by focusing on some of the most significant cities in the pre-Hispanic era and the later Spanish empire. By using them as examples, illustrate the larger issues that affected the whole region, which included Saint Augustine.

 

Students taking this course will travel to Yucatan, Mexico during the Spring Break to experience first-hand Maya culture and discover the art and architecture of selected Hispanic colonial cities such as Merida and Valladolid. Upon return from Yucatan students will visit the city of Saint Augustine and conduct research on other Hispanic cities in the United States.

 

Course Prerequisites: Instructor’s permission.

 

Student Learning Outcomes

 

By participating in this course, you will:

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1/ Gain a basic understanding of the development, architecture, and role of the Maya and Hispanic cities through readings and site visits;

2/ Develop critical thinking skills by engaging scholarship on the Maya and colonial America by identifying the argument, the primary sources on which that argument is based, and by putting that work into context by relating it to other course material through writing reflection papers.

3/ Articulate experiences and learning through journaling and discussions.

 

Required Textbook(s):

Perry, Richard and Rosalind, Maya Missions: Exploring Colonial Yucatán Santa Barbara: The Espadaña Press, 2002

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Suggested Readings:

Isendahl, Christian “Agro-Urban Landscapes- the Example of Maya Lowland Cities.” Antiquity, Vol. 86, No. 334, p. 1112-1125.

Kagan, Richard Urban Images of the Hispanic World, 1493-1793. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.

Kinsbruner, Jay The Colonial Spanish-American City: Urban Life in the Age of Atlantic Capitalism. University of Texas Press, 2005.

Mesoamerica: the rise and fall of the city-states. Princeton, N.J.: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2004.

Melvin, Karen Building Colonial Cities of God. Stanford University Press, 2012

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COURSE 2

REL/HIS 340

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Course Description:

This course, which is combined with 8 day tour in Yucatan, examines the various expressions of Maya/Spanish sacred space in the Yucatan Peninsula.

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Course Prerequisites: Instructor’s permission.

 

Student Learning Outcomes

By participating in this course, you will:

 

1) Have a basic grasp of the spiritualities of the indigenous, creole, and foreign inhabitants of the Yucatan;

2) Delineate specific spiritualities as they are reflected in Maya/Hispanic art and architecture.

3) Articulate experiences and learning through journaling and discussions.

 

Required Reading:

 

Clendinnen, Inga. Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Eliade, Mircea. The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987)

Perry, Richard and Rosalind. Maya Missions: Exploring Colonial Yucatán (Santa Barbara: The Espadaña Press, 2002)

Wertheim, Margaret. Pearly Gates of Cyperspace: A History of Space from Dante to the Internet. New York: Norton W. W. & Company, 2000.

 

Primary and Secondary Readings supplied by the professor.