Undergraduate Course: Imaging/Imagining the Americas: Cartography and Ecology across the Renaissance Atlantic (HIAR10188)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course examines a variety of different types of representations of land and nature that were produced in the wake of the 'discovery' of the Americas, by both European colonists and Indigenous peoples. Critical attention is paid to how transcultural exchanges were crucial to the production of knowledge during the Early Modern period, and how images like those under study blur modern distinctions between art and science. |
| Course description |
Immediately following the 'discovery' of the Americas, Europeans made copious efforts to render the New World visually intelligible. This included mapping out its terrain cartographically, as well as representing its plants, animals, and peoples, in various media. Moreover, Europeans were not alone in these endeavours. Indigenous peoples, at times at the behest of colonial authorities, at others independently, created their own representations of the lands and peoples of the Americas during the Early Modern period, even developing entirely new genres of visual media.
A rapidly emerging body of art historical scholarship has examined how representations of the Americas produced both in the New World and the Old were figurative in the production and exchange of knowledge across oceans during the Early Modern period. These images were crucial to the development of bodies of 'scientific' knowledge that came to construct and define the Americas as a bounded space, as well as understandings of its people, flora, and fauna. These bodies of knowledge were often marshalled in service of colonial European exploitation, yet Native groups also produced images that were meant to help assert their own rights and privileges, working both within and against colonial power structures and knowledge regimes.
This course is delivered over ten weeks, meeting in a two-hour seminar once per week. Seminars will involve a mix of lecture from the instructor, student presentations, and critical discussion. Students will independently read assigned readings in preparation for each seminar. Some instruction may take place in local museums and libraries, including the university's Heritage Collections.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Pre-Requisites - Visiting students should have at least 3 History of Art courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. As numbers are limited, visiting students should contact the Visiting Student Office directly for admission to this course. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 14 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 20,
Formative Assessment Hours 1,
Summative Assessment Hours 3,
Revision Session Hours 1,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
171 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
50 %,
Coursework
50 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has 2 assessment components.
1) Essay, 2500 words, 50%, due Weeks 8-10, relating to all LOs
2) Exam, 2 hours, 50%, May exam diet, relating to all LOs
Resit Information
The resit arrangements for this course are as follows.
- The resit task for assessment component 1 is Essay, 2500 words.
- The resit task for assessment component 2 is Exam, 2 hours
Students will receive further resit information as per University regulations where necessary. |
| Feedback |
Formative Feedback
Students give short, in-class presentations during Weeks 2-7. Students receive verbal feedback from the instructor and questions/comments from their peers in class. Feedback on the is relevant to the essay and/or exam since analytic skills and knowledge developed through the presentations can be applied to both.
Summative Feedback
The Course Organiser will provide written feedback on both summative assessment components via TurnItIn.
Students will be given the opportunity of a 1:1 meeting with the Course Organiser to discuss feedback on request.
Summative feedback will be provided according to University regulations. |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | Imaging/Imagining the Americas: Cartography and Ecology across the Renaissance Atlantic (HIAR10188) | 195 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Apply skills of visual analysis and interpretation in looking in detail at early maps and representations of nature.
- Analyse the ways in which both European colonists and Indigenous peoples produced images of the Americas and put them toward different purposes.
- Compare early European and American methods of cartography, interrogating their roles in knowledge production.
- Critically examine the ways in which cultural/ideological assumptions regarding the nature of the world are embedded in visual representations of it.
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Reading List
Crosby, Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1972.
Markey, Lia. Imagining the Americas in Medici Florence. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2016.
Marroquín Arredondo, Jaime and Ralph Bauer, eds. Translating Nature: Cross-Cultural Histories of Early Modern Science. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019.
Mundy, Barbara E. The Mapping of New Spain: Indigenous Cartography and the Maps of the Relaciones Geogra'ficas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Padrón, Ricardo. The Spacious Word: Cartography, Literature, and Empire in Early Modern Spain. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2004. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Research and enquiry
You will analysis, synthesize and critically evaluate visual sources and current scholarship related to depictions of land and nature in the Americas.
Communication
You will develop skills in communicating complex ideas both verbally and in written form, through participation in seminars and assessments. Presentations will also help you develop skills communicating ideas through a range of visual media. |
| Keywords | Latin America,Mexico,Renaissance,Colonialism,Maps,Cartography,Environment,Ecology,Nature |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jamie Forde
Tel:
Email: Jamie.Forde@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mx Hannah Pennie Morrison
Tel: (0131 6)51 5763
Email: Hannah.PM@ed.ac.uk |
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