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Microhistories of the Spanish Caribbean

Arlene Diaz

Dr. Arlene J. Diaz is a Associate Professor in the Department of History. She has published articles on the history of Venezuela, Cuba, and Brazil, and has a book on gender relations and law in nineteenth-century Venezuela. She is now working on a book project, tentatively entitled "The Invisible War: Spies and War Correspondents in the Making of the Spanish-Cuban-American War and the American Empire, 1892-1908," that applies methods borrowed from the digital humanities to uncover how different narratives on this war evolved through some of the major historical groups of actors such as spies, private capital, newspapers, and government agents from the three countries involved. The use of a large amount of multiple, diverse and transnational sources allow this project to trace how American dominant narrative on this was constructed by 1898. As one of the principal investigators for the Indiana University History Learning Project, she co-authored some articles on the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Email: ardiaz@indiana.edu

Student must be a Hudson & Holland Scholar to apply for the below course.

Want to become a detective of history? In this class, you will become a junior historian while learning about the history of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and its relationship with the United States from the late 19th century to this day. The Hispanic Caribbean has been a region of key geopolitical importance for the United States. In this seminar, you will recognize U.S. imperial dynamics as well as the multiple and fragmented ways in which common people from these impacted societies have responded to North American domination. For over a century, U.S. power over Latin America and the Caribbean has taken different forms. In 1898, Cuba became a neocolonial appendix, while Puerto Rico became an "unincorporated territory" of the United States. The Dominican Republic experience the repercussions of an invasion in 1916, and has continued to experience a direct yet invisible U.S. presence in its government since then. Beyond its overt and covert political presence, U.S. imperialism has also informally impacted the lives of Caribbean people across the landscapes of education, health, domestic relations, religion, sports, culture, migration, and disaster relief, to name a few. In this course, we will explore different economic, intellectual, social, and cultural imprints that American imperialism has left on societies in the Hispanic Caribbean and the myriad ways common people reacted to them.

The mini historical research you will do in this seminar will entail selecting a brief, textual, audio or visual source of your interest, "interrogate" it, and use clues to connect the production of that artifact to the particular human experience or event and broader aspects of the society and the times in which the experience occurred. While working on this "microhistory," you will learn the steps and expectations of writing a college paper and the resources available on campus to help you succeed at it. In fact, the competencies that you will develop in this history class will help you succeed in your college career, no matter your major. The microhistory research paper will be developed in stages, through a variety of required homework assignments. In addition to this paper and attendant homework, students will be evaluated on the basis of quizzes, in-class work, presentations, and class participation.

GenEd Information: Approved for the Arts & Humanities and Arts & Humanities requirements of the IU Bloomington General Education program.

Catalog Information: COLL-S 104 FRESHMAN SEMINAR IN A&H

Arlene Diaz

Email: ardiaz@indiana.edu