European Colonialism, and the Establishment of Empires: An Exciting Opportunity for Research & Creative Portfolio

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Maxine Oland, a full-time lecturer in Commonwealth Honors College will be teaching the eight credit thesis seminar: Colonialism and Empire (Honors 499AA) in the Spring of 2024. Oland has a PhD in anthropology with a specialization in the archeology of colonialism. Throughout her continued research Oland has asked, “What is colonialism? How does it affect people and how is it interpreted by Indigenous peoples and how do Indigenous peoples shape colonial interactions?” It is these questions that drove Oland to teach this thesis seminar. 

The class itself focuses largely on European colonialism, the establishment of empires, and how these two things shaped the modern world through political, economic and social changes. The class will also examine how colonialism and empires have not only shaped these things, but also ideas about culture, religion, sexuality, gender, architecture, and material lives. 

Through researching and discussing these topics students will be able to critically analyze how colonialism has shaped our modern world, and through this will gain research skills and knowledge. 

“There are a lot of research skills that are going to be used, including the looking for and using of your primary sources. And that could be creatively, it could be art, and it could be architecture, it could be photographs, it could be maps.” 

Not only does Oland feel that students will leave the seminar with improved research skills, but also with enhanced writing skills, peer review abilities, and public engagement performance. 

While the seminar itself is focused on colonialism, the curriculum is designed so that students of any major can find a place where their interests fit in. 

“It's a kind of a class that can appeal to really any kind of academic interest that you have, and relate it to colonialism. We could use it as a lens to understand what you're interested in, or use what you're interested in to understand colonialism in a different way. And so I would say that this is a great opportunity to apply your interests to these historical and contemporary situations.”

In terms of the final piece of work students will be tasked with completing, Oland is asking students to do a Creative Portfolio. The format will involve a written document that is paired with a creative artifact. This could be a performance, musical score, architectural blueprint, engineering invention, or many more things. The portfolio itself will be a curated virtual exhibit that ties in with colonialism and empire. The exhibit must contain 16 primary sources - such as artifacts, everyday objects, maps, pieces of art, documents, photographs, sound recordings, and architectural plans.

“There's plenty of research involved because every single document or object that you put in your museum has to be written about in a few paragraphs. What is the research of it? Why did you include it? How does it tell part of the story?” 

Oland intends for the seminar itself to be hard work, but work that is achievable, fun and creative. Having students create a Creative Portfolio is how she believes they can accomplish all three of those things. In order to help students understand the curation process, she will be inviting a museum curator to speak to the students about how and why one chooses objects or pieces to be displayed in a museum.

Oland shared that because of colonial practices, historically museums have showcased history from a dominant top-down perspective. However, people have been working to decolonize museums as a way to change the way stories are told – into a bottom-up perspective. 

Overall, Oland believes this seminar will be a mind opening and exciting opportunity for students to apply what they have learned as undergraduates and take it to the next level.

“It'll be a small group setting in which they [students] have a chance to really work with each other and work individually and come out with something that's enlightening to themselves and hopefully to the public as well.”