New World Encounters

This site shares the final student projects from History 173, New World Encounters, taught by Prof. Katharine Olson in Spring 2025.

This class offered a survey of the encounters between Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the Americas (with a focus on those areas which today comprise United States, Mexico, Canada, and Peru), c.1500-1800. It examined contemporary ideas and popular perceptions of “otherness” and difference, race,  religion, indigenous cultures and socities, identity, tolerance, intolerance,  and much more, using digital humanities tools and methods and an ethnic studies perspective. It was designed with the generous support of a Digital Ethnic Futures Consortium Teaching Fellowship funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation. 

We explored the history of European exploration in the Americas; ideas of wider world, maps, and travel narratives; Columbus, Vespucci, the Americas, early Spanish exploration, and its impact on indigenous peoples and societies; the Aztecs, Incas, their societies and cultures; the conquistadors, the Spanish Empire, the conquest of Mexico, and its impact on indigenous societies and cultures; English settlement in North America and interactions with the Wampanoag and other indigenous peoples from Jamestown and Roanoake to New England; indigenous cultures and societies in North America; Spanish settlements and missions in Florida and California, and interactions with the indigenous peoples; French missions and interactions with the indigenous peoples of Canada, and  the experiences of enslaved persons of African descent in the Caribbean and Americas and their religions, cultures, societies, and traditions.

Final Student Projects

Statement on Harmful Content

This site contains content that may be harmful or difficult to view. The student projects that make up this site have included a wide variety of historical and interdisciplinary materials, as well as artifacts from many cultures and time periods. As a result, some of the materials presented here may reflect outdated, biased, offensive, and possibly violent views and opinions due to pervasive systemic intolerance.

These projects represent the research, interpretation, and perspectives of the individual students who have created them.