This course explores the relationship between race, imperialism, and culture in the Renaissance world. Students investigate the intellectual frameworks through which early modern Europeans made sense of human diversity, with a focus on the enduring influence of these ideologies in the perception and representation of difference today. Course materials may include such examples as portraits of a Black duke in Renaissance Florence, trial records of falsely accused Jewish men, clothes to disguise oneself as an Ottoman princess, and plays featuring Roma fortune-tellers.
This course explores the relationship between race, imperialism, and culture in the Renaissance world. Students investigate the intellectual frameworks through which early modern Europeans made sense of human diversity, with a focus on the enduring influence of these ideologies in the perception and representation of difference today. Course materials may include such examples as portraits of a Black duke in Renaissance Florence, trial records of falsely accused Jewish men, clothes to disguise oneself as an Ottoman princess, and plays featuring Roma fortune-tellers.
