A Seascape in Transformation: Themes in Indian Ocean History
- Course Code:
- 15PHIC066
- Status:
- Course Not Running 2012/2013
- Unit value:
- 1
- Year of study:
- Year 1 or Year 2
- Taught in:
- Full Year
The course approaches the multilayered social, economic, political and cultural histories of this Afro-Asiatic ‘seascape’ from the perspective of one of its sub-regions. The course will explore the research potential of this perspective – its potential to retrace the entanglements of the histories of the sea with the histories of the land.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
The course does not aim at presenting a detailed historical survey of the period under discussion, though a certain amount of necessary background to specific case studies will be provided.
Students are expected to have acquired a broad overview of the histories of South Asia and the Indian Ocean region, though this will be consolidated through course readings
. The primary objective of the course will instead be to develop a grasp of some of the major themes, debates and theoretical currents in recent writings in South Asian and Indian Ocean history.
Scope and syllabus
The course will discuss a selection of themes. These themes may include the following:
- ecology, human practice and the historical dynamics of the Indian Ocean as a social space;
- trade flows between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean;
- Islam, pilgrimage and religious transformations;
- the evolution of diasporic trading communities;
- shipping, shared material cultures and technological exchange;
- cultural flows, cosmopolitanism and conflict; networks of scholars, soldiers and administrators
- cultures of travel and travel writing;
- states, violence and political authority in the Indian Ocean;
- the history and social dynamics of port cities;
- slavery, indentured labour and seafaring.
A certain thematic flexibility will be maintained to be able to respond to new developments in historiography and further the development of specific research interests.
