RACE, RELIGION AND ETHNICITY IN THE AGE OF EMPIRE

Drawing mainly from early modern Spanish and Colonial texts, covers encounters and relations with different forms of "otherness". Move from America to Spain and across the Mediterranean world to Istanbul, from the late 15th century to the 17th. Discuss issues of race, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. Spain's long history of relations between Muslims, Jews and Christians will form a backdrop to interactions with Amerindians, sub-Saharan Africans, Jews, Moriscos, Gypsies, North African Muslims and Turks. One of the millions of slaves during this period was Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. He and many other writers would reflect profoundly on questions of "otherness" in works that would have universal implications and continue to connect with our concerns in the 21st century.