Languages and Cultures - Spanish Taster Session

By modern standards the ancient and medieval worlds were very brutal, savage and not particularly just societies, but they were crucially not racist societies. Although people have always excluded and discriminated against other groups of people, racial discrimination is a modern phenomenon.

This talk will explore the origins of racism and focus particularly on the contribution of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires.

We will explore how modern day notions of race have been shaped by a myriad of factors: from the concept of blood purity in medieval Iberia, the persecution of the Jews and the establishment of the Atlantic slave trade to the independence of the Latin American colonies in modern times and the views of the Latin American elites and foreign Europeans as to the racial mixtures in these newly independent countries.

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Please note this is a repeat session of the events ran between April - November 2020. You are welcome to attend again, however, please be aware the content of the session will be the same.