2020 Borders and Frontiers of Latam
2020 Borders and Frontiers of Latam
2020 Borders and Frontiers of Latam
& FRONTIERS
in modern Latin American History
REQUIRED BIBLIOGRAPHY 📚
Friendship Bridge between Brazil and Paraguay. Recommended text: 📖 Mary Lynn Rampolla, A Pocket Guide
(Source: Wikipedia Commons)
to Writing in History (any of the 7th, 8th, or 9th editions)
Picone – 2
LEARNING OUTCOMES
In terms of historical knowledge, by the end of the semester you will:
🏆 Identify major changes and continuities in the history of Modern Latin America, especially in border
regions.
🏆 Describe and explain the impact of colonialism in border regions throughout the period.
🏆 Describe and comparatively explain instances of imperial breakdown and state formation in Latin
America.
🏆 Describe, compare, contrast, and explain how historians and other scholars have examined the
notions of borders, frontiers, and margins in the Latin American history.
🏆 Collect, summarize, and synthesize information about border conflicts in the Americas.
🏆 Summarize, synthesize, and assess literature on border regions of Latin America.
🏆 Provide historical analysis of border regions in light of capitalism, race, and power.
Come to class
• Our meetings provide unique learning opportunities. It's important that you are present to discuss, ask
questions, and present your work. You are allowed two absences without penalty. Communicate your
inattedances with me as promptly as possible.
• Phones must be off/silent and put away (not in your pocket, in your bag).
• You can bring laptops and tablets for note-taking and reading but I strongly suggest you use notebooks.
Engage
• Participation is fundamental for learning. This means not only providing insights or asking questions in
class, but also taking part in group and online discussions. For examples on participation, see page 7.
Read
• A key component of historical critical thinking is engaging with what others have said.
• Reading assignments are obligatory.
Write
• Taking notes, posting to Canvas, and submitting your assignments will help you better distill your ideas.
• In this course you will learn how to engage with others' work. Citing properly and giving credit to the work
of others compounds to academic integrity. For more on this see page 13.
Take care
• Your academic success depends, above all, on your health. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can sometimes
be hard during the semester. Remember that BC has numerous resources across campus to help you care
for yourself (see page 13).
• Accommodations: I am happy to accommodate your needs so that you are successful in this course. If you
have a disability and will be requesting accommodations for this course, please register with either Dr.
Kathy Duggan ([email protected]), Associate Director, Connors Family Learning Center (learning
disabilities or AHD) or Dean Rory Stein, ([email protected]), Assistant Dean for students with disabilities,
(all other disabilities). Advance notice and appropriate documentation are required for accommodations.
Ask
• Last but not least, asking questions is at the center of history as a discipline and of liberal arts education
more broadly. Raising questions is as important as trying to answer them, so don't hesitate!
• I hold "Student Hours" for you to come to my office and ask questions or voice concerns. If you have other
classes during my office hours, you are welcome to e-mail me to set up an appointment on a different day.
ASSIGNMENTS
FORMATTING WRITTEN WORK
WEIGHED ASSIGNMENTS ✅ Always be formal, unless otherwise stated.
✅ For written assignments, use 12pt Times New
Participation 15% Roman for the main body, double spaced, and 1-inch
Non-graded assignments 10% margins. Include page numbers and your name on all
Presentation & Summary 10% pages except the first one. On the first page, write
Weekly commentaries 10% your name, course, and title of the assignment.
Collab I (Mid-Term) 20% Footnotes should be in 10pt font.
Book Analysis 15% ✅ ALWAYS cite the sources, bibliography, artwork,
Collab II (Final project) 20% etc. that you use. In history, we tend to employ
Chicago Manual of Style.
ORAL PRESENTATION
CLASS SUMMARY
✅ Once during the semester, you will deliver an
oral presentation about one of the readings. ✅ On the day’ you present on the readings, you
will be in charge of taking class notes.
✅ Presentations should be 5-7 minutes long.
✅ After class, you will write a blog post
✅ You should provide the historical context to summarizing the readings, synthesizing the
understand the reading and discuss the main weekly commentaries to the readings (which you
arguments. should have also done for the presentation), and
✅ Presentations should include some reference providing additional resources that you think the
to weekly commentaries from your peers. You rest of the class might find useful.
summarize them or choose to focus on one or ✅ Take advantage of digital tools, such
two. hyperlinks, to make your post as rich as possible.
✅ Finally, the presentation should make ✅ If you used a slide in your presentation, feel
connections to other themes/readings from the free to share it here.
syllabus.
Last revised January 12, 2020
Picone – 5
POSSIBLE AREAS
POSSIBLE THEMES
✅ Bolivia’s access to the ocean (this is a long-
✅ Border-crossing and migration.
standing issue) (Peru-Chile-Bolivia).
✅ Militarization and border security.
✅ The Beagle Channel (Chile-Argentina).
✅ Border negotiations.
✅ The US-Mexico border.
✅ Capitalism, extractivism, and environmental
✅ The Ecuadoran Amazon (Ecuador-Brazil).
justice.
✅ Lake Titicaca and the surrounding cities (Bolivia-
✅ Gender and labor.
Peru)
✅ Indigeneity and social justice.
✅ Internal frontiers (Eg: southern Chile, the
Amazon, etc.) ✅ Islands as frontiers (think piracy, border
crossing, etc.)
✅ Caribbean as border region.
🗣 Ask a question or make a comment to a fellow student showing you listened attentively.
🗣 Make a comment that brings two other views together.
🗣 Use body language to show you are listening to what others have to say.
🗣 Ask a question that summarizes differing views and moves the conversation forward.
🗣 Post a comment to your peers’ work on Canvas.
🗣 Ask a question or make a comment that brings into the conversation previous readings.
🗣 Bring to class a resource (news article, website, twitter thread, book, movie clip, etc.) that is not on the
syllabus but that contributes to our learning.
🗣 Make a comment on why you found somebody else’s ideas compelling.
🗣 Contribute something that builds on, or springs from, what someone else has said. Be explicit about the
way you are building on the other person's thoughts – this can be done online.
🗣 Ask a cause and effect question - for example, "can you explain why you think it's true that if these things
are in place such and such a thing will occur?"
🗣 Find a way to express appreciation for the enlightenment you have gained from the discussion. Try to be
specific about what it was that helped you understand something better. Again, this can be done online if
this suits you better.
🗣 Compare other people’s point of view.
🗣 Explain how somebody else’s ideas move you to think further about a topic.
History courses tend to be reading-heavy. This sometimes requires you go through a lot of information in very
little time. In order to be prepared for class, I’d recommend:
✅ Read for understanding, don’t try to remember everything.
✅ Take notes of key points and examples that illustrate these points.
✅ Build your own timeline/mind map.
✅ Jot down some questions. Bring these questions to class
✅ Try to paraphrase the main points.
✅ Make connections with other topics discussed in class.
✅ Think about how the readings intersect with the main themes of this class.
CALENDAR
Tuesday, January 14 – Introduction
• Introduction
Thursday, January 16
• Read: Jackiewicz, Edward, and Fernando J. Bosco. “The Making of a Region: Five Hundred Years of
Change from Within and Without.” In Placing Latin America: Contemporary Themes in Human
Geography, edited by Edward Jackiewicz and Fernando J. Bosco, 25–37. Lanham, Md.: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2008.
• One of the following:
o Aiton, Arthur S. “Latin-American Frontiers.” In Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in Latin
American History, edited by David J. Weber and Jane M. Rausch, 19–25. Jaguar Books on
Latin America ; No. 6. Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1994.
o Belaúnde, Víctor Andrés. “The Frontier in Hispanic America.” In Where Cultures Meet:
Frontiers in Latin American History, edited by David J. Weber and Jane M. Rausch, 33–42.
Jaguar Books on Latin America ; No. 6. Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1994.
o Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino. “Frontier Barbarism.” In Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in
Latin American History, edited by David J. Weber and Jane M. Rausch, 26–32. Jaguar
Books on Latin America ; No. 6. Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1994.
o Turner, Frederick Jackson. “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” In
Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in Latin American History, edited by David J. Weber and
Jane M. Rausch, 1–18. Jaguar Books on Latin America ; No. 6. Wilmington, Del.: SR Books,
1994.
o Zavala, Silvio. “The Frontier in Hispanic America.” In Where Cultures Meet: Frontiers in
Latin American History, edited by David J. Weber and Jane M. Rausch, 42–50. Jaguar
Books on Latin America ; No. 6. Wilmington, Del.: SR Books, 1994.
Tuesday, January 21 – No class
Thursday, January 23
Read:
• Yaremko, Jason M. “‘Frontier Indians’: ‘Indios Mansos,’’Indios Bravos,’and the Layers of
Indigenous Existence in the Caribbean Borderlands.” In Borderlands in World History, 1700-1914,
edited by Paul Readman, Cynthia Radding, and Chad Bryant, 217–36. Basingstoke: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2014.
• Langfur, Hal. “Native Informants and the Limits of Portuguese Dominion in Late-Colonial Brazil.”
The [Oxford] Handbook of Borderlands of the Iberian World, 2019.
• Readman, Paul, Cynthia Radding, and Chad Bryant, eds. “Environment, Territory, and Landscape
Changes in Northern Mexico during the Era of Independence.” In Borderlands in World History,
1700-1914, 65–82. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.
• Fernández, Pablo Azócar, and Zenobio Saldivia Maldonado. “Maps, Power, and the Pacification of
La Araucanía-Chile, 1850–1900.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History,
September 30, 2019.
Presenter:
Tuesday, January 28
Read:
• Chesterton, Bridget María, ed. The Chaco War: Environment, Ethnicity, and Nationalism. London ;
Oxford ; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Introduction.
Presenter:
Thursday, January 30
Read:
• Hecht, Susanna. The Scramble for the Amazon and the “Lost Paradise” of Euclides Da Cunha.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. Part 1.
Presenter:
Tuesday, February 4
Read:
• Beckman, Ericka. “The Creolization of Imperial Reason: Chilean State Racism in the War of the
Pacific.” Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 18, no. 1 (March 1, 2009): 73–90.
Presenter:
Thursday, February 6
Read:
• Chesterton, Bridget María, ed. The Chaco War: Environment, Ethnicity, and Nationalism. London ;
Oxford ; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Chapter 2.
Presenter:
Tuesday, February 11
Read:
• Chesterton, Bridget María, ed. The Chaco War: Environment, Ethnicity, and Nationalism.
London ; Oxford ; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Chapters 3-5.
Presenter:
Thursday, February 13
Read:
• Chesterton, Bridget María, ed. The Chaco War: Environment, Ethnicity, and Nationalism.
London ; Oxford ; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Chapters 7-9.
Presenter:
Tuesday, February 18
Read:
• Appelbaum, Nancy P. Mapping the Country of Regions: The Chorographic Commission of
Nineteenth-Century Colombia. Reprint edition. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press,
2016. Chapter 6 or 7. (I suggest everyone reads the introduction to the book).
Thursday, February 20
Read:
• Hecht, Susanna. The Scramble for the Amazon and the “Lost Paradise” of Euclides Da Cunha.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013. Part 2.
Presenter:
Tuesday, February 25
Mid-Term I
Groups will see each other’s report and prepare a response. You will submit a two-page response at the
end of class.
Thursday, February 27
Mid-Term II
Groups will finish the responses to the other party and share them
Tuesday, March 10
Read:
• Redeeming La Raza: Transborder Modernity, Race, Respectability, and Rights. Oxford, New York:
Oxford University Press, 2018. Introduction and Part I.
Presenter:
Thursday, March 12
No reading assignment.
Tuesday, March 17
Read:
• Redeeming La Raza: Transborder Modernity, Race, Respectability, and Rights. Oxford, New York:
Oxford University Press, 2018. Introduction and Part II.
Presenter:
Submit topic of final project before class.
Thursday, March 19
No reading assignment.
Tuesday, March 24
Read:
• MacDonald, Katherine. “‘No Trespassing’: Changing and Contested Rights to Land in the Guyanese
Amazon.” Journal of Latin American Geography 15, no. 1 (March 31, 2016): 59–82.
Last revised January 12, 2020
Picone – 11
• Luna-Firebaugh, Eileen. “The Border Crossed Us: Border Crossing Issues of the Indigenous Peoples
of the Americas.” Wicazo Sa Review 17, no. 1 (2002): 159–181.
Presenter:
Thursday, March 26
Read:
• Chesterton, Bridget María, ed. The Chaco War: Environment, Ethnicity, and Nationalism. London ;
Oxford ; New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Chapter 6.
Presenter:
Tuesday, March 31
Read:
• Blanc, Jacob. “Itaipu’s Forgotten History: The 1965 Brazil–Paraguay Border Crisis and the New
Geopolitics of the Southern Cone.” Journal of Latin American Studies 50, no. 2 (May 2018): 383–
409.
• Freitas, Frederico. “Argentinizing the Border: Conservation and Colonization in the Iguazú National
Park, 1890-1950s.” In Big Water: The Making of the Borderlands between Brazil, Argentina, and
Paraguay, edited by Jacob Blanc and Frederico Freitas, 105–30. Book Collections on Project MUSE.
LCNAMES. Tucson, Arizona: The University of Arizona Press, 2018.
Presenter:
Thursday, April 2
No reading assignment.
Book analysis due today.
Final project’s preliminary bibliography and at least two sources
Tuesday, April 7
Read:
• Hecht, Susanna. The Scramble for the Amazon and the “Lost Paradise” of Euclides Da Cunha.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.
No presenter
Tuesday, April 14
Read:
• Hevilla, Cristina, and Perla Zusman. “Borders Which Unite and Disunite: Mobilities and
Development of New Territorialities on the Chile - Argentina Frontier.” Journal of Borderlands
Studies 24, no. 3 (September 1, 2009): 83–96.
• Freeman, Cordélia. “Identity and the Militarized Border: Mi Mejor Enemigo (Chile, 2005).” Espaço
e Cultura 0, no. 33 (2013): 65–86.
Thursday, April 16
No reading assignment.
•
Tuesday, April 21
Read:
• Berlinger, Joe, Michael Bonfiglio, Third Eye Motion Picture Company, and First-Run Features.
Crude. New York: First Run Features, 2009. (available to view online through BC Libraries).
• Sawyer, Suzana. “Fictions of Sovereignly: Of Prosthetic Petro-Capitalism, Neoliberal States, and
Phantom-Like Citizens in Ecuador.” Journal of Latin American Anthropology 6, no. 1 (March 1,
2001): 156–97. https://doi.org/10.1525/jlca.2001.6.1.156.
• https://amazonwatch.org
Presenter:
Thursday, April 23
Read:
• Soluri, John. Banana Cultures. Agriculture, Consumption & Environmental Change in Honduras &
the United States. 1st ed. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005. Chapter 8.
• Nevins, Joseph. “How US Policy in Honduras Set the Stage for Today’s Migration.” The
Conversation. Accessed January 13, 2020. http://theconversation.com/how-us-policy-in-
honduras-set-the-stage-for-todays-migration-65935.
Presenter:
Tuesday, April 28
Read:
• “Hot or Not? Border Conflicts in the Americas.” Accessed January 13, 2020.
http://www.americasquarterly.org/charticles/border-conflicts-in-the-americas/.
No presenter
Thursday, April 30
Final project
• Oral presentations
• Essays due before class
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
LEARNING SUPPORT AT BC 📖
BC Libraries: This should be your go-to place
for studying and research. To schedule an SH*T HAPPENS 💩
appointment with the History Library Liaison,
While we all hope our
click here. semester unfolds smoothly,
The Connors Family Learning Center: life happens. Sometimes, it
especially for tutoring advice regarding brings good things and
writing, time management, and reading skills. sometimes it may bring things that require our full
attention. For these extenuating circumstances,
The Bowman AHANA Intercultural Center: for
you have one Get Out of Jail Free Card to push a
dedicated support to AHANA students. due date three days, no questions asked/no
Counselling Services: For professional mental explanation needed. Invoke the clause via e-mail.
health services. (It cannot be invoked for the final project).
Learning to Learn: Dedicated support for first
generation students.
E-MAIL EXPECTATIONS
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
Academic integrity is a fundamental aspect of learning. I take academic integrity very seriously both
in my teaching and my research. Academic integrity means several things, from do not lie to do not
Last revised January 12, 2020
Picone – 14
claim you said something when you did not. In our classroom, it means that you can claim your work
is yours and nobody else’s. Boston College has a strong policy in place, which you can find here. I
have transcribed a portion of it from the Academic Integrity website:
Cheating is the fraudulent or dishonest presentation of work. Cheating includes but is not
limited to:
• the use or attempted use of unauthorized aids in examinations or other academic
exercises submitted for evaluation;
• fabrication, falsification, or misrepresentation of data, results, sources for papers or
reports, or in clinical practice, as in reporting experiments, measurements, statistical
analyses, tests, or other studies never performed; manipulating or altering data or
other manifestations of research to achieve a desired result; selective reporting,
including the deliberate suppression of conflicting or unwanted data;
• falsification of papers, official records, or reports;
• copying from another student's work;
• actions that destroy or alter the work of another student;
• unauthorized cooperation in completing assignments or during an examination;
• the use of purchased essays or term papers, or of purchased preparatory research for
such papers;
• submission of the same written work in more than one course without prior written
approval from the instructors involved;
Plagiarism is the act of taking the words, ideas, data, illustrations, or statements of another
person or source, and presenting them as one's own. Each student is responsible for learning
and using proper methods of paraphrasing and footnoting, quotation, and other forms of
citation, to ensure that the original author, speaker, illustrator, or source of the material used
is clearly acknowledged.
Collusion is defined as assistance or an attempt to assist another student in an act of academic dishonesty.
Collusion is distinct from collaborative learning, which may be a valuable component of students' scholarly
development. Acceptable levels of collaboration vary in different courses, and students are expected to
consult with their instructor if they are uncertain whether their cooperative activities are acceptable.”
Once you finish reading the syllabus, send me a text entry via Canvas with the country you want to
learn the most about and why (submission via Canvas). Due January 17.
Last revised January 12, 2020
Picone – 16