S25F-111 Preternatural Visions & Experiences in the Amazon
Stillwater | Available (Membership Required)
What if the forest is not just a backdrop, but a living force? This course explores the Amazon as both real and visionary space through film, art and music. We'll discuss two movies, Embrace of the Serpent (2015) and The Lost Children (2024), which center Indigenous perspectives, ancestral knowledge, and the tension between mysticism and rationalism. Visual works like those of the Huni Kuin Artists Movement will deepen our conversation on memory, spirituality, and nature—not just as scenery, but as an active presence in human experience and storytelling.
Juan Carlos Rozo
Juan Carlos Rozo, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Languages and Literatures Department at OSU. He specializes in Colonial and Postcolonial Latin American literature, with a focus on early modern texts that depict the conquest and colonization of the Amazon region and the Caribbean, as well as how contemporary historical fiction revisits this period. He concentrates on the production of countries such as Colombia, Peru or Venezuela. Part of this research will be published in an anthology related to depictions of geography and the environment in colonial and early modern texts. Dr. Rozo earned his PhD in Spanish and Latin American Literature at the University of Houston.