Andrew Crighton
Staff Writer
Recognition of diversity allegedly comes as a strong suit in application to the learning and the teaching of history. A new assistant professor for ISU aims to teach her students about the prospective idea of global citizenship.
This fall of 2015, Kathleen Kole de Peralta started her first semester teaching history at ISU.
Kole de Peralta has a Ph.D. in Colonial Latin American Studies from the University of Notre Dame and authored “Murder and Martyrdom in Spanish Florida: Don Juan and the Guale Uprising of 1597.”
The book discusses what actually happened in a 1597 conflict in Spanish Florida. The story tells of disagreements about marriage and polygamy between Spanish missionaries and natives of the area that culminated in five friars being killed, leaving their missions destroyed. At the time, a man from an indigenous tribe was decided to be responsible and killed publicly for the crime.
Through research in university archives, Kole de Peralta found the politics of the region were the real driving force behind both the death of the friars and the execution of the man, Juanillo.
“[The violence] wasn’t necessarily even directed at the Friars at all, which is contentious, because the Catholic Church likes to look at this episode and say that the friars died in defense of marriage, which is really popular right now,” said Kole de Peralta. “It’s hard for people to hear that and digest that, but when you look at the facts and evidence it’s obvious that it had nothing to do with marriage or polygamy, and had everything to do with indigenous politics.”
The friars were in the crossfire of two indigenous communities’ battles, and Juanillo became the scapegoat for the collateral damage.
Kole de Peralta developed her interest in Colonial Latin America while drawing Incan ruins in Peru during her pursuance of her undergraduate degree.
“I went to Peru and found I couldn’t speak to anyone. I thought I studied Spanish in high school but I could only say very simple sentences that nobody knew how to engage with. It kind of humbled me honestly,” said Kole de Peralta.
That humbling experience is what made Kole de Peralta decide to switch from an art major, to a history major. The concept of being a global citizen soon began to develop.
“I felt that my art was very self-serving and wouldn’t contribute back to society, but history would,” said Kole de Peralta.
The view of global citizenship is something that Kole de Peralta aims to teach to her students.
“I think it’s just a great world view to have. I’m not trying to force students to have that world view but I think that’s important to recognize,” said Kole de Peralta.
Kole de Peralta explained that in her experience, the American education system has a tendency to exclude history that is not its own, though the United States and specifically Idaho is becoming a more culturally diverse community.
“I taught at an inner urban school and I taught at a private school and I would say that ISU is neither extreme, somewhere in the middle,” said Kole de Peralta. “I find that the conversations I’m able to have in class are much more diverse and meaningful than they’ve been at other places I’ve taught.”
Kole de Peralta has focused a lot of research on Latin American history in places like New Mexico, California and Florida.
“The Spanish history of those states often gets ignored by Americanists and Latin Americanists don’t want to talk about it because the spicier topics are Mexico, Peru, areas that have more going on,” said Kole de Peralta.
Kole de Peralta currently teaches three courses this semester, including Global Environmental History and Colonial Frontiers. Although these courses are not specific to Latin America, they do answer many of the same questions because they focus on events in global history and ask questions that are reportedly just as applicable to Asia or Africa as to Latin America.
In the spring 2016 semester Kole de Peralta will offer different courses including The Historian’s Craft where students learn about what it takes to become a historian along with The Foundations of Europe, which studies what actions lead to the creation of Europe.
