Our seminar investigates change of various kinds, especially religious transformations and the ways in which people's identities and allegiances are dynamic and the products of interactive emergence. We explore the points of view of those who carried and promoted religion -- and other would-be universal brands -- to others, but also the perspectives of those on the "receiving end," curious about them not only as users, but also as co-creators and re-makers of local systems of belief and practice.

A predominant focus will be the remarkable proliferation of Catholic Christianities in the expanding Spanish world between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. But, in order to avoid seeing this phenomena and period in splendid isolation, we also examine mobility of religion and culture in Europe and the circum-Mediterranean in the Late Antique and Medieval periods, and indeed in other far broader geographical and temporal frames.

Along the way, we will also discuss and employ an array of methods and approaches to historical interpretation, with "thinking tools" drawn from an array of disciplines, most notably anthropology and literature. Students will be challenged to consider their own lives and surrounding cultures as emergent, as experiences and tellings and transformations.

Course Requirements:

Students will be evaluated on: Preparation for, and Engagement and Participation in, Discussion; a series of Short Writing Assignments; Constructive Criticism of peers' drafts and their Own Revisions in response to comments; a Culminating Research Project

Intended Audience:

Upper-level undergraduates (Hist 487) PhD candidates (Hist 594),

Class Format:

Seminar.