JHU Course Catalog: Shipwreck and Empire

John Russell-Wood, the Herbert
Baxter Adams Professor of History, meets with his seminar
class in 315 Gilman Hall.
Photo by Will Kirk / HIPS
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By Amy Lunday Homewood
Editor's note: This is part of an occasional series in
which reporters drop in on interesting classes throughout
the university's nine academic divisions. Suggestions are
welcome at
gazette@jhu.edu.
The course: Shipwreck and Empire. 3 credits. The
enrollment for the seminar was originally limited to 25 but
opened up to 35 when the professor discovered there were 26
students on the waiting list. Offered by the
Department of
History and cross-listed with the
Program in Latin American Studies, both in the Krieger
School of Arts and Sciences.
Meeting time: Mondays and Tuesdays, 11 a.m. to noon,
spring 2007.
The instructors: Teaching the course is John
Russell-Wood, the Herbert Baxter Adams Professor of
History, who specializes in Colonial Latin American history
and the Portuguese seaborne empire. Russell-Wood joined the
Department of History in 1971 and has served as its chair
on three occasions. His most recent book, Slavery and
Freedom in Colonial Brazil (Oxford: OneWorld, 2002), is one
of many publications in his eclectic body of work, which
includes historical studies of art, technology, medicine
and public health, the family, urban life, women, race,
slavery, and administrative and economic history. These
varied interests were reflected in his book The Portuguese
Empire, 1415-1808 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University
Press, 1998).
The teaching assistant for the course is Debra Law, a
graduate student in the Department of History who
specializes in Latin American history.
Syllabus and course work: This course reflects
Russell-Wood's interests in comparative colonialism and the
Portuguese seaborne empire, as well as his belief that
studying history shouldn't be a chore: On his departmental
Web page, Russell-Wood writes, "I am a firm believer in how
the study and writing and teaching of history is highly
enjoyable and can be fun."
With Shipwreck and Empire, he follows that credo by
assigning readings of swashbuckling firsthand accounts of
— what else? — shipwrecks and their harrowing
aftermath. Taken from Dutch, English, French, Portuguese
and Spanish sources in translation, the texts also describe
life at sea, where worlds collided on board vessels whose
passengers included both high-ranking officials and
"undesirables" like convicts, prostitutes and orphans, all
traveling between Spain, Portugal, England and France and
their respective colonies in Africa, the Americas and Asia.
Through critical readings of these original narratives,
students compare the European empires and their maritime
histories. The readings also reveal how people reacted when
faced by death. In addition to the reading, students write
two essays of 10 to 15 pages each.
John Russell-Wood says: "The history of these
'seaborne empires' is both glorious and inglorious. The
latter included exploitation of indigenous peoples,
destruction of cultures, violence, intolerance and
discrimination, and disregard for sovereignty. Shipwrecks
were an inalienable part of these histories and
attributable to the forces of nature — but also to
human failings such as negligence, greed, avarice,
rivalries and self-interest. Using contemporary narratives
for the Arabian Sea and the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific
oceans primarily from the 16th century through to the early
19th century, this course will take the defining moment of
shipwreck and its aftermath to address topics such as
gender, ethnicity, identity, power and authority, social
mobility, religious beliefs and relationships between men
of the sea and landsmen."
A student says: "This course is thus far my favorite
this semester, and I chose the course based on its name,
Dr. Russell-Wood's reputation and my own interest in
shipwrecks. I have read fairly extensively about several of
them. I have really appreciated the assigned readings
because they have provided interesting insights into the
history of not only maritime life but of racial and gender
designations. I have found Dr. Russell-Wood to be engaging
and extremely knowledgeable and genuinely intrigued by the
subject matter. His lectures, in combination with the
precise readings, have really contributed to my overall
comprehension of Portuguese shipwrecks in the Age of
Exploration."
— Jessica Rebarber, a junior international studies
major from East Brunswick, N.J.
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