Land Politics: Race, rights, and power in the Américas
LAS 6938 | Wednesdays | 11:45a – 2:45p | Synchronous Online
Joel Correia, PhD | joel.correia@latam.ufl.edu
Focusing on “land politics” in the Américas, we will examine intersections of rights, power, racial formations, and political economy. That is to say, instead of taking land as a given, we will critically evaluate how land is “known” (e.g., as property, territory, natural resources, otherwise) and with what effects on justice, inequality, and social difference. The class traces land politics through three major interdisciplinary approaches: Indigenous Studies, Black Studies, and Critical Human Geography. Over the course of the semester, a wide range of materials will ground students in major theoretical approaches with attention to empirical outcomes of theory in practice. At a minimum, students will leave the course with a deeper understanding of concepts like property, territory, land rights, environmental governance, racial geographies, dispossession, decolonization and their effects on politics in the Américas.