#but if u wanna learn abt colonization i would recommend going to like. africana studies or even gender studies departments before poli sci

[rollercoasterwords]

hello! i was just thinking abt thtf (as one does) and i remembered your focus on colonization when dorcas talked abt her heritage and how in ur notes u mentioned that it was something to do with your major or something u were learning about? sorry if i got that wrong it’s been a while since i read it, but that just seems soooo interesting to me and i love the way u write it!! so i was just wondering what ur major is/was? if thats something you’d be willing to share <3 xxx

yeah sure! i studied international studies & history as an undergrad & that’s what my bachelor’s degree is in; my area focus was latin america which is where a lot of the postcolonial stuff was coming from—not sure what it’s like elsewhere but in the u.s. if ur studying like. asia, latin america, or africa in history/i.s. depts learning abt colonization is pretty unavoidable for obvious reasons. my impression is that there is perhaps less of a chance of encountering colonial/postcolonial perspectives if ur focusing on u.s. or european history, but it kinda depends on what ur studying…there’s definitely a bit of a split in more “traditional” veins of scholarship (wwii, medieval history, ancient greece & rome, western civ, etc) vs “area studies” where scholars have kinda fought to recognize the full scope & impact of colonization, which is then slowly incorporated more into “traditional” areas of study—like studying u.s. & european history should, realistically, entail at least some study of colonial histories, but universities tend to be pretty conservative lol & history & poli sci (of which i.s. is a subset) are particularly notorious for hanging onto their notions of traditionalism.

anyway. i’m now in grad school for gender studies broadly but most of the work i do currently is pretty historical & if i do go on to do a phd it’ll likely be in history—i ended up moving away from i.s. bc there was just too much about the field that i disliked & even tho history definitely comes w its own set of problems it ended up being a better fit for me. if ur interested in learning more abt colonialism, postcolonial studies, anti-imperialism, etc then there’s a broad variety of fields u could look into—history, anthropology, international studies, etc. it has less to do with the field & more to do w the specific scholars/professors in that field; i also would definitely not overlook departments like africana studies, gender studies, latin american studies, etc. many universities in the u.s. have these smaller “area studies” depts. that sometimes only offer minors & are made up solely of professors who are cross-listed w other depts, but they tend to be much more interdisciplinary & often have the kind of people doing work that focuses on the impact of colonization etc in their area of research. like the queer theory course i took as an undergrad introduced me to a lot more anti-imperialist writing than like my intro international studies class lmao