Undergraduate Course: Global Architectures of Colonial Latin America (ARHI10051)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course examines the colonial architecture of Latin America as a nexus of global architectural exchange. Using primary sources and postcolonial critique, it explores how models of construction, urban planning, ornament, and architectural expertise moved between cultures of Latin America and Europe, Africa, and Asia in the early modern period. |
| Course description |
This honours course explores the global architecture of Latin America from the beginnings of contact between Europeans and non-Europeans to the postcolonial era. We will take the cosmopolitan character of pre-Columbian architecture, long defined by interactions between empires, as well as the diversity of Iberian building, with its assimilation of Islamic, African, Italian, Netherlandish, and German forms, as points of departure. Through close reading of primary and secondary sources, we will examine how Spanish, Portuguese, and other European building traditions interacted with the indigenous architectural cultures of present day Central and South America. We will also explore how these encounters shaped the architecture of the Iberian imperial dominions in Asia and Africa up to the 19th century. The goal of this course is to empower students with the critical tools to investigate intercultural exchanges in the growing field of global architectural history.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2020/21, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 20 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
196 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Formative Assessment Class and Assignment:
Each student will present one reading to the entire class (once a semester). The presentation will 1) review the content of the article and chapter and 2) critically assess the thesis, methods, and conclusions of the text. A discussion with the entire class and verbal feedback from lecturer/tutor will follow the presentation.
Summative Assessment:
The assessment is entirely based (100%) on one written assignment with two components to be submitted in the examination period:
Component 1: Creation of a log with evaluation of each week's readings and/or seminar discussion. This log will include one section of around 300 words per week/topic. For each entry, the student can choose to respond critically to one of the weekly readings or to develop a line of inquiry covered in the weekly discussion. Students should submit the completed logbook of around 3000 words during the Examination period. Weighting 40%.
Component 2: Development and submission of a 3,500-word research essay focusing on one of the themes presented during the course. Students can elect to compose either a literature review of one of the weekly themes or an original research paper on a more specific topic, i.e. individual monument(s) or architect(s). The student must clear the choice with the tutors by mid-semester. This submission is also due during the Examination period. Weighting 60%. |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate multidimensional grasp of colonial and global architecture in the premodern era, attained by augmenting skills in critical analysis and effective verbal and textual expression.
- Demonstrate greater preparedness to navigate an increasingly global society through intensive engagement with issues of intercultural exchange and its related power structures.
- Demonstrate fluency in participating in productive, respectful intellectual exchanges, rooted in an amplified ability to pose relevant and impactful questions to experts and peers.
- Demonstrate capacity to develop an original work of research in a historical or historiographic topic, attained through enhanced understanding of working with primary sources and performing bibliographic research.
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Reading List
Bailey, Gauvin Alexander. 'The Renaissance Abroad. Iberian Empires in Asia and Africa.' In Art of Colonial Latin America. London: 2005, 355-375.
Cummins, Tom. 'Town Planning, Marriage, and Free Will in the Colonial Andes,' The Archaeology of Colonialism. co-editors Claire Lyons and John Papadopoulos, Issues and Debates Series, LA: Getty Press, 2002, 199-40.
Escobar, Jesús. 'Field Note: Architecture in the Age of the Spanish Habsburgs.' In Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 75, no. 3 (September 2016): 258-262.
Gruzinski, Serge. 'Art History and Iberian Worldwide Diffusion: Westernization / Globalization / Americanization.' In Circulations in the Global History of Art. Edited by Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Catherine Dossin, and Béatrice Joyeaux-Prunel. Farnham, UK: 2015, 1-22.
Kaufmann, Thomas DaCosta. 'Islam, Art, and Architecture in the Americas: Some Considerations of Colonial Latin America.' RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 43 (2003): 42-50.
Verdi Webster, Susan. 'Masters of the Trade: Native Artisans, Guilds, and the Construction of Colonial Quito.' Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 68, no. 1 (March 2009): 10-29. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. A critical understanding of the principal theories, concepts and principles.
2. A critical review and consolidation of knowledge, skills, practices and thinking in a subject area
3. Demonstration of presentations skills that convey, formally and informally, information about specialised topics to informed audiences.
4. An exercise of autonomy and initiation in professional/equivalent activities. |
| Keywords | Colonialism,Transculturation,Globalisation |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Elizabeth Petcu
Tel: (0131 6)50 2619
Email: Elizabeth.Petcu@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Amanda Fleet
Tel: (0131 6)50 2328
Email: afleet@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
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