Not available in 2023/24
HY491 Half Unit
Race, Gender and Reproduction in the Caribbean, 1860s-1930s
This information is for the 2023/24 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Imaobong Umoren SAR G.04
Availability
This course is available on the MA in Asian and International History (ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ and NUS), MA in Modern History, MSc in Empires, Colonialism and Globalisation, MSc in History of International Relations, MSc in International Affairs (ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ and Peking University), MSc in International and Asian History, MSc in International and World History (ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ & Columbia) and MSc in Theory and History of International Relations. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.
Course content
In the wake of slavery, debates about the intersecting politics of race, gender, and reproduction arose in the Francophone, Anglophone, and Hispanic Caribbean. This module explores the ways in which formerly enslaved Africans as well as former planters, imperial officials, newly indentured labourers from South Asia, philanthropists, medical professionals, and welfare workers contributed to and shaped colonial social welfare, health policies, and ideas surrounding racial uplift colonialism, race consciousness and equality. Students will engage in comparative intellectual and social history by drawing on primary and secondary sources to consider the influence of European and American imperialism in the Caribbean. A range of topics will be explored including post-emancipation population decline; infant mortality; illegitimacy; venereal disease; birth control; inter- and extra regional migration; and eugenics.
Teaching
20 hours of seminars in the AT.
There will be a reading week in week 6 of the MT.
Formative coursework
Students will be expected to produce one essay (1,500 to 2,000 words) in MT.
Indicative reading
Bourbonnais, Nicole, Birth Control in the Decolonizing Caribbean: Reproductive Politics and Practice on Four Islands, 1930-1970 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016)
Briggs, Laura, Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science and US Imperialism in Puerto Rico (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).
De Barros, Palmer, Steven and Wright, David (eds.), Health and Medicine in the Circum-Caribbean, 1800-1968 (New York: Routledge, 2009).
De Barros, Juanita, Reproducing the British Caribbean: Sex, Gender and Population Politics after Slavery (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2014).
Findlay, Eileen, Imposing Decency: The Politics of Sexuality and Race in Puerto Rico, 1870-1902 (Durham: Duke University Press, 1999).
Macpherson, Anne, From Colony to Nation: Women Activists and the Gendering of Politics in Belize, 1912-1982 (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007).
Renda, Mary, Taking Haiti: Military Occupation and the Culture of U.S. Imperialism, 1915-1940 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001).
Palmer, Steven, Launching Global Health: The Caribbean Odyssey of the Rockefeller Foundation (Ann Arbour: University of Michigan Press, 2010).
Putnam, Lara, The Company they Kept: Migrants and the Politics of Gender in Caribbean Costa Rica, 1870-1969 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002).
Assessment
Essay (85%, 5000 words) in January.
Class participation (15%) in the AT.
Key facts
Department: International History
Total students 2022/23: Unavailable
Average class size 2022/23: Unavailable
Controlled access 2022/23: No
Value: Half Unit
Course selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills