Nov 14, 2024
OHIO University Undergraduate Catalog 2024-25
POLS 4225 - Law and Colonialism
This course focuses on how law was a central instrument of European and American colonial projects during the 19th and 20th centuries. Students explore how the imposition of colonial law affected colonized societies and their preexisting legal systems; they also examine how western fears and apprehensions vis-à-vis ‘native’ societies affected western law and society in turn. Academic texts as well as a sampling of novels, poetry, plays, and movies provide students points of entry for tracing how law helped establish and manage colonial projects and ideology. This course has an experiential component: students engage in archival research to increase their knowledge about colonialism; they also complete a research paper on a primary source to hone their skills in assessing who a primary source was written by, for whom, and to what end.
Requisites: Jr or Sr
Credit Hours: 3
OHIO BRICKS: Bridge: Learning and Doing
Repeat/Retake Information: May be retaken two times excluding withdrawals, but only last course taken counts.
Lecture/Lab Hours: 3.0 seminar
Grades: Eligible Grades: A-F,WP,WF,WN,FN,AU,I
Learning Outcomes:
- Students will be able to connect a primary source written about or in the context of a colonial experience to academic knowledge about law and colonialism.
- Students will be able to see and make connections in the description of colonialism in literary works and first-hand accounts with social science research on law and colonialism.
- Students will be able to adapt and apply social science theories about law and colonialism to primary sources pertaining to colonialism or post-colonial phenomenon that resembles colonial legal, economic, and/or political patterns.
- Students will be able to design, plan, and deliver a written project that is organized coherently and logically and that integrates relevant primary source evidence with examples from the world of politics and government.
- Students will be able to demonstrate a developing sense of self as an archival researcher by writing a paper based on primary source research and journaling about their process.
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