HSPST-248 From Conquest to Airbnb: An exploration of Travel and Cultural Encounters
The sudden shutting of international borders during the COVID-19 pandemic brought to light travel’s role in providing opportunities for leisure, curiosity about different cultures, and personal growth, among other things. This course explores ideas of travel across a broad temporal time, and its meaning. We will examine the possibilities and expectations of traveling from medieval pilgrimage, studying early interactions between European colonizers and the indigenous people of the Americas, landing into notions of contemporary migration (be forced exile or economic movement), and the social consequences of the arrival of Airbnb to the major cities of Spain. Cervantes’ Don Quijote, early modern autobiographies by Spanish colonizers, films on contemporary migration to and from Spain, newspaper articles and other media are some of the text the class will cover. There will be an emphasis on the importance of new technologies in resignifying travel, with group and individual projects involving new technologies featured during the semester.
Proseminar (16)
Credits
1
Notes
Seniors will need permission from the instructor. Juniors who has been abroad to a Spanish Speaking country cannot enroll in this course.