International Conflict The Origins of Global Fury Afghanistan and the Origins of Global Fury - Spring 07 Afghanistan and the Origins of Global Fury - Fall 06 Cuba and Haiti Religious Revolutions and violence Haiti and the Caribbean Contemporary Issues in International Relations Introduction to International Relations South Asia in a Global and Historical Context Politics of the Third World

Seeing "War of the Worlds": Global politics through Popular films Music of the African Diaspora Worlds of Music Musical Meaning in a Global Context Politics and Literature

Global Political Economy of Oil Understanding Capitalism Foundations in the Political Economy

Ideas and Ideology Love, Hate and Sexual Desire Under Colonialism Junior Year Honors Seminar: Cultural Encounters, 1999-2000

Cuba and Haiti
310-401

Spring 2001
Williams 222
Office phone: 274-3028
Naeem Inayatullah (naeem@ithaca.edu)
Muller 325
Office Hours: MWF 11:00-11:50 and 1:15-2:30

1. Starting Assumptions

The history, culture, and political economy of Cuba and Haiti strike me as remarkable for three reasons. First, in the Colombian era (1492-present) few places have been as pivotal to the unfolding of European/ North American politics, economics, and culture as Cuba and Haiti. Second, our historical and intellectual amnesia over Cuba's and Haiti's importance signals an unwillingness to know, learn, and accept the role of the 'other' in the constitution of the 'self.' Third, recovering the reality of Cuba's and Haiti's resistance and struggle may suggest not only 'their' emancipation but 'ours.' We may learn that our fate and theirs intertwine and jointly construct our mutual past, present, and future.

We will pursue our relationship with Haiti and the Caribbean by examining two revolutions: 1) the slave revolt and revolution that occurred in the late eighteenth century in San Domingo (what we now call Haiti) and 2) the socialist revolution of Cuba in this century. Our examination of these revolutions will be historical in nature but for the Cuban revolution we will pose an additional question. We will ask if, and how, that revolution and its aftermath might or might not be consistent with current conceptions of "democracy." If there is interest, we will also analyze the history of U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba and Haiti.

This course will frustrate those who accept the following assumptions uncritically: that we can learn about foreign others with a distant detachment. In my experience, studying others loses both its innocence and its clinical separation when we acknowledge that the question of 'who studies' and 'who is studied' revolves around structures of power and privilege. That is, while knowledge and power remain logically separable categories, in the existent world, knowing and studying others usually becomes a prelude to assimilating and conquering them. Such conquest, it seems to me, occurs not only in the battle fields but also in classrooms. As class proceeds we may wish to wonder if our act of studying Cuba and Haiti is similarly assimalationist. Are we inevitably bound to treat knowledge as a form of power?

2. Readings

Carollee Bengelsdorf, The Problem of Democracy in Cuba: Between Vision and Reality, Oxford, 1994.

Guy Endore, Babouk, Monthly Review, 1991 [1961])

C.L.R. James, The Black Jacobins: Toussant L'ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution, Vintage, 1963.

Louis A. Perez, Jr., Cuba: Between Reform and Revolution, Oxford, 1995.

Mona Rosendahl, Inside the Revolution, Cornell, 1997.

Peter Kornbluh, Bay of Pigs Declassified, New Press, 1998.

Course Reader (To be purchased from Lynne Roberts, 309 Muller):
1. Lori S. Robinson, “Race and Revolution,” Emerges, April 1998, Vol. 9, #6, 54-7.

2. Joy Gordon, “Cuba’s Entrepreneurial Socialism, Atlantic Monthly,” January 1997, Vol. 279, #1, 18-30.

3. John Cassidy, “The Return of Karl Marx,” The New Yorker, October 20+27, 1997, 248-59.

4. Lorenzo Albacete, “The Poet and the Revolutionary,” The New Yorker, January 26, 1998, 36-41.

5. Russell Mead, “Castro’s Successor?” The New Yorker, January 26, 1998, 42- 49.

6. Castro’s Statement of Welcome to the Pope, Wednesday 1/21/98.

7. Randall Robinson, “Race, Money, and Foreign Policy: The Cuba Example,” in The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks, Dutton, 2000, pp. 121-160.

8. Marfelli Perez-Stable, The Cuban Revolution, Oxford University Press, 1993, p. 15-97.

9. Strayer, Gatzke, and Harbison, “The French Revolution and Napoleon” in The Mainstream of Civilization Since 1660, 2nd Edition, 1974, pp. 522-42.

10. Susan Buck-Morss, “Hegel and Haiti,” Critical Inquiry, Summer 2000, pp. 821-865.
Instructor and students will jointly determine the pace and selection of the readings. I expect that we will read between 100 to 150 pages a week.

3. Evaluation

I will determine your grade by evaluating two take-home essays and a comprehensive final paper based on the readings. I may distribute a range of essay topics. For each exam you will have a week to prepare one essay between 1500-2500 words in length. You may compose your own topic for any essay. Essay topics will synthesize reading materials, lectures, and discussions. Each essay will count towards one third of your final grade.

The comprehensive final essay will also count for one third of your grade. The purpose of the exam is to assess your understanding of our texts. I think this essay might be between 15-20 pages in length.

An "entrypaper" and an "exitpaper" are required but not graded.

Entry paper: due Monday, January 29.

First essay due: Monday, February 26.

Second essay due: Monday, April 2.

Comprehensive Final essay due: noon, Tuesday, May 8.

Exit paper: (due date to be announced)

Comprehensive oral exam (scheduled by student for finals week)

4. Course Outline

In effect, there is no course outline. Often students mistake what is really intended to be a dynamic and process oriented design for the absence of a structure. Please understand that it is my intention that the course outline and structure be created from our interaction with the texts and with each other. Such a design may be novel to you. Let me see if the following analogy helps.

I think of the design of a course as similar to a style of music. Most courses follow "classical(European)music" in design. That is, the audience hears music pre-determined by the score. The music may change slightly from performance to performance but this change is not part of the design of classical music. In contrast, Jazz and classical Indian music combine the structure of the tune, the interpretative skill of the players, and the response of the listeners to create a specific structured improvisation. Accordingly, I have designed this course to change from one performance to another according to the interaction of students, instructor, and the reading materials. Thus no classes or performances should be the same because the interaction of the three differs on each occasion. This design embraces the necessity of improvisation.

A Jazz design has consequences for our sense of time in the course. To some the course will feel less structured and slower than what they might expect. The good news is that the course will also feel like something we create together.

5. Writing Suggestions for Essays

I hesitate to present a set of suggestions on writing essays because they may stifle your style. In addition you may be tempted to follow my suggestions to the letter thereby missing the larger point which has more to do with the attitude you bring to the writing and the tone you create. Nevertheless, I offer these suggestions because you may need and appreciate a certain amount of direction. Also, I wish to emphasize a particular style of writing that I hope you will add to your repertoire of skills - the style of an essay. Please take these instructions as "suggestive" and make your own decision on whether you wish to follow them. I would like to register a warning: While this style of writing may have great personal benefits it is not usually favored. The academy stresses a much more certain and assertive style.