First Year Seminar 191HFA41 - FYS- Topics in HFA

First-year (R1ST) Topic-Whose Land? Black and Indigenous Histories of Place in New England
Course Description - This course invites first-year students to explore the intertwined histories of Black and Indigenous peoples in southern New England (Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut), with particular attention to claims and connections to land, belonging, memory, and "justice." Beginning with the lands on which UMass Amherst is built upon, students will examine Indigenous histories of place, colonial dispossession, Black life in New England, public memory, environmental justice, reparations, Land Back, and Black-Indigenous solidarity. Through accessible readings, multimedia materials, local case studies, discussion, and reflective assignments, students will consider whose histories are remembered in the landscape, who gets to decide how land is used, and how communities continue to struggle for justice and belonging today.