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65309-01 - Proseminar: Four Hundred Years of Slavery: Slaves and Slave Trades in Africa and the World, 1400-1800 (3 CP)
| Semester | spring semester 2024 |
| Course frequency | Irregular |
| Lecturers | Ettore Morelli (ettore.morelli@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Slavery is often thought of as a thing of the past. As something distant from us, both in time and space. But is it, really? The recent re-emergence of this subject within public debates on contemporary racism and the legacies of colonialism in Europe, the Americas, and Africa suggests a different answer. In this perspective, slavery constitutes one of the original faults of the world we live in today, and an inherent structure that still casts a shadow on modern societies and economies. On the other hand, slavery has existed, in a form or another, in most human societies and most, if not all, regions of the world. Indeed, one of the great scholars working on the subject, Orlando Patterson, said that ‘there is nothing notably peculiar about the institution of slavery’, denouncing the paradox that keeps turning slavery into a repressed memory. The proseminar addresses the history and theories of slavery from the late Middle Ages to the early nineteenth century and focuses on the growing impact that the institution had on the societies of the African continent. Beginning from a discussion of the concept itself, the proseminar studies the different forms of slavery rooted in the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean, in Islam, and in West and West Central Africa, analyses their entanglement into the structure of the Atlantic Slave Trade, and explores their enduring legacies in our present. |
| Bibliography | Paul E. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa, Cambridge, 2011. |
| Admission requirements | Für Studierende des BSF Geschichte im Grundstudium mit abgeschlossenem Einführungskurs Geschichte. Teilnahme an der ersten Sitzung ist obligatorisch. Die Teilnehmerzahl ist auf 25 beschränkt. Bei Überbelegung werden Studierende des BSF Geschichte, die noch kein Proseminar in dem Modul absolviert haben, bevorzugt zugelassen. |
| Language of instruction | German |
| Use of digital media | No specific media used |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Wednesday | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
Dates
| Date | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday 28.02.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 06.03.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 13.03.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 20.03.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 27.03.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 03.04.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 10.04.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 17.04.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 24.04.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 01.05.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Tag der Arbeit |
| Wednesday 08.05.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 15.05.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 22.05.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 1 |
| Wednesday 29.05.2024 | 14.15-16.00 | Departement Geschichte, Seminarraum 4 |
| Modules |
Modul: Basis Frühe Neuzeit (Bachelor's degree subject: History) Modul: Basis Mittelalter (Bachelor's degree subject: History) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Aktive Teilnahme. |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | as often as necessary |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Departement Geschichte |