In fourteen hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But what happened before Columbus' great journey? And, more to the point, why did he and his contemporaries feel entitled to simply claim whatever land they found? This course proposes to explore the medieval experiences of cultural and racial Otherness in order to better understand the roots of some of the assumptions about difference (interpersonal, intercultural, and international) that continue to play out in American society today. Taught in English. (Same as HIST 285.)