Europe meets Latin America
Mission: the project aims to use comparative method of learning about European history and culture through comparisons with the history of Latin America. The main focus is not on differences and similarities within Europe but to explore how Europe is different/similar from/to other parts of the world.
Topics:
- Comparison of pre-European civilizations of Latin America (Incas, Mayas and Aztecs) with medieval Europe – the focus will be on the structure of the society; political and family organisation; religion and rights of women and marginalised groups.
- Contemporary Christianity – the project will explore the conflict within the Catholic church between the Liberation Theology – which was very popular in Latin America – and the Neo-Scholastic school of Catholicism which dominates the Vatican. What are the differences between these two schools of Catholicism and why was one dominant in Europe and the other in Latin America. The project will also explore why so many, especially poor, Latin Americans are converting to Evangelical Christianity. What are the failures of Catholicism and advantages of Evangelical Christianity?
- The challenges of liberal democracies – Latin America exemplifies the challenges to maintaining a healthy democracy. In its history it boasted many democratically elected leaders who would use their popularity with the people to dismantle the democratic institutions and checks-and-balances (Peron in Argentina and Chavez in Venezuela are probably the most famous examples). The project will explore two issues:
- Populism – what makes populism different from liberal democracies and what are the similarities and differences between populist leaders in Europe and Latin America.
- Rights and positions of marginalised groups, including refugees/migrants (comparison of how Latin American countries deal with Venezuelan refugee crisis and how Europe dealt with Syrian refugee crisis), women and LGBTI.
