This course examines colonialism not simply as a historical period as much as the key, the methodology, to rethink the present –our messy, out of joint, post-pandemic, conflict-ridden present. The meanings of keywords that shape our world such as capitalism, development, environment, nation, property, race, or revolution are up for grabs. To make sense of these concepts in the 21st century, we must look at the context in which they assumed their meaning: colonialism. The course proposes an interdisciplinary approach to understand colonialism through the lens of political economy, history, anthropology and international relations, as well as films and novels from/on the Global South. Through our readings and class discussions we will focus on two overarching questions. First, when you think about the history of colonialism, are you on the shores (the “native”) or are you on the ship? And if on the ship are you above deck (the white conquistador/settler) or below (the slave/the migrant)? Second, what is “silenced” and made “unthinkable” in the weaving of these keywords of the present? Through authors such as Chinua Achebe, Mariano Azuela, John M Coetzee, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Antje Kroeg, and Manuel Scorza, we will examine how colonial legacies reflect in today’s political forms. Our present political vocabulary is unthinkable without colonialism."