Assignment | Schedule of Presentations | Grading | Useful Resources
For three consecutive weeks, beginning October 20, students will break into small groups and take on the presentation of teaching lessons based upon one of three assigned historical monographs about the Bolivarian world.
At the core of each lesson will be an extended, critical, and collective discussion about the monograph's central arguments and supporting evidence.
Although each group is invited to be creative in how it decides to teach the assigned book, each lesson should cover the following basic items:
Each two-hour lesson should be budgeted to include presentation from members of the group, some in-class work with prepared materials, and group discussion.
All students are expected to read each of the three monographs in their entirety.
October 20 |
Helg, Liberty and Equality in Caribbean Colombia |
October 27 |
Lasso, Myths of Harmony |
November 3 |
Díaz, Female Citizens, Patriarchs, and the Law
in Venezuela |
The course ELMS site has group discussion pages set up for easy exchange of ideas and working materials.
Group presentations represent 15% of the total grade for the course.
Individual grades will be determined by the overall quality, thoroughness, and creativity of the group presentation weighted by an individualized grade assigned by the professor. That individual grade will be based, in part, upon a student's self-assessment of the amount and quality of work done in the larger group effort. The self-assessment will be turned in to the professor; it will not be shared with the other students.
To repeat: all students are expected to read each of the three monographs in their entirety. Their engagement with the group presenters forms part of the course participation grade.
Reference | Major Portals | Maps | Writings of Bolívar | Newspapers and Pamphlets | Constitutions
Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. 2nd ed. [ResearchPort]
Handbook of Latin American Studies
University Libraries Latin American Studies Guide
Latin American Network Information Center [LANIC]
World Scholar: Latin America and the Caribbean [ResearchPort]
Library of Congress Maps Collection
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection
Archivos del Libertador. Archivo General de La Nación de Venezuela.
Bolívar, Simón. El Libertador: Writings of Simón Bolívar. David Bushnell, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Bolívar, Simón. Selected Writings. Compiled by Vicente Lecuna. edited by Harold A. Bierck, Jr. Translation by Lewis Bertrand. New York, Colonial Press, 1951. [McKeldin Stacks AND MCK Reserves F2235.3 .A13]
Bolívar, Simón. The Political Thought of Bolívar; Selected Writings. Ed. and with introductions by Gerald E. Fitzgerald. The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1971. [McK Stacks F2235.3 .A1296]
Chibán, Alicia, ed. Discursos bolivarianos: autoimágenes e itinerario político. Bogotá: Presidencia de la República, 1997. [McK Stacks F2235.3 .C45 1997]
19th-century Newspapers and Pamphlets
Venezuelan Herald (1898-1905) [Latin American Newspapers Collection in ResearchPort]
Latin American Pamphlet Digital Collection, Harvard University
Many of the constitutions and "fundamental laws" of the republics established during Bolivar's political career are available full-text in the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes and the Political Database of the Americas. Note that these databases typically include just the Spanish-language original.
The constitutions most relevant to the group projects are listed below. Active links indicate an English-language version published at the time.