People, Plants, and Medicine: Atlantic World Amerindian, African, and European Science

Explores the global circulation of plants, peoples, disease, medicines, technologies, and knowledge. Considers primarily Africans, Amerindians, and Europeans in the eighteenth-century Atlantic World and focuses on their exchanges in the Caribbean, in particular within the French and British empires. We also take examples from other knowledge traditions, where relevant. Readings treat science and medicine in relation to voyaging, the natural history of plants, environmental exchange, racism, and slavery in colonial contexts. Colonial sciences and medicines were important militarily and strategically for positioning emerging nation states in global struggles for land and resources. Upper-level undergrads must apply for 243C; please fill in this short form: https://forms.gle/XpUXwfT6ULiwC8P19 Graduate students taking the course should enroll in 343C.