Class Schedules

This course offers a general survey of the complex and heterogeneous region we somewhat reductively term Latin America. It follows a roughly chronological approach, beginning with the eve of encounter and continuing through the contemporary era. Discussions will consider themes such as the institution and legacy of colonialism, the search for new national identities, and the onset of modern racial and political strife. The course will emphasize the import of global economic, political, and cultural trends on the formation of the region.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

In 2019, according to the International Organization for Migration, the United States had the largest foreign-born population in the world. During this same year, immigrants represented 15% of the United States population; 53% of the foreign-born migrants came from Latin America. Immigrant Voices in Times of Fear will examine recent U.S. immigration from a sociological viewpoint. That means we will consider migration as part of a global phenomenon, as the outcome of historical processes, and as a part of lived experiences. The course will include consideration of how immigration relates to social institutions such as the family, the nation-state, and work. We will also learn about different immigration policies—including those before and after the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Services Act (commonly known as the Hart-Celler Act), which eliminated the quota system to prioritize family reunification, employment, and refugee status. While we will become familiar with immigration policies, we will pay attention to the experiences of young (unaccompanied) migrants from Latin America and how they navigate the (deportation) immigration system in the U.S. We will explore questions such as: What motivates people to migrate? How does migration reconfigure social relations, such as parental and community relations? How do immigrants adapt to the new country? How are immigrants received by the larger society? This discussion-based course includes guest speakers and a community engagement project with a local organization.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course seeks to provide an overview of politics in Latin America, examining the formation of the region's political institutions. The course begins by learning about the evolution of political institutions during the 1930s and 1940s, influenced by industrialization and populism, which laid the groundwork for military dictatorships. We will explore how many of these regimes decline and regional democratic transition. In the second half of the course, we'll analyze how countries across the region have adapted to contemporary challenges, such as identity politics, criminal violence, and economic inequality. The course will blend lectures and student-led discussions, exploring the work of academics, musicians, and authors who have contributed to our understanding of the region.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course presents the student with essential tools for the critical analysis of a broad range of topics and forms of cultural production (literature, cinema, art, e-texts, etc.) in the Hispanic world. It also teaches the student advanced language skills in written composition and public oral presentation. This course satisfies the Area 2 requirement for the Spanish major. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 305 or SPAN 306.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Europeans were by no means the first peoples to explore new territories and human populations. Renaissance scientific methodology, however, led European travelers to meticulously document each New World encounter in writing and develop new tools with which to navigate and represent space, devices that subsequently became weapons of colonial domination. But as Nature and indigenous populations refused to be subjected to European epistemology, failure and disaster were frequent events: shipwrecks left Old World survivors stranded among unknown lands and peoples in the Americas; Amerindians rejected the imposition of a foreign culture and religion, murdering colonists and missionaries; Africans rebelled against slavery and escaped to mountains and jungles to form autonomous communities. An examination of maps, exploration logs, missionary histories, travel literature, historiography and colonial documents will provide the foundation for this course on the ambivalent reality of the Old World's encounter with the Americas, in which Europeans were often the losers. This course satisfies the Area 1 requirement for the Spanish major. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 305 or SPAN 306 (though SPAN 307 recommended) and another 300-level Spanish course, or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Explorations of the relationship between women and violence typically take place from the perspective of women as victims. However, how does the discourse change when the traditional paradigm is inverted and we explore women as perpetrators of violence? This seminar examines representations of women who kill in Latin American and Latino narratives (including novels, short stories, films, and newspapers). Drawing on feminist theory, media studies, criminology, and literary criticism, we will seek to understand the ways women's violence has been read and framed in contemporary society as well as how their violence intersects with discussions of nationalism, race, class, and gender. This course satisfies the Area 2 requirement for the Spanish major. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 307 or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This seminar considers the interaction between visual culture and the establishment of global empires. It will include examples from the early modern and modern era, beginning with the establishment of European colonization of the Americas and parts of Asia in the 16th century and continuing through semicolonial projects of the 20th century. The course will focus on the interaction between visual representation of empire and the constitution of empire building. The course will follow a broadly chronological focus but will be organized thematically according to forms of visualizing imperial constructions of such topics as racial difference, scientific and technological development, landscape and environmental determinism, and the broader cult to rationality that undergirds the project of "modernity". Students will work with primary and secondary materials to develop original research projects. Counts toward the Global/Comparative, Race and Indigeneity, and Colonization/Empire fields in the History major.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The word crônica in Portuguese does not have the same meaning as chronicle, its English equivalent. In Brazil, a crônica is a “short composition, often humorous in tone, that may at times resemble a short story or an essay or that may be a commentary on almost any subject.” In this course, students will improve their proficiency in Portuguese in the four language skills –listening, speaking, reading, and writing– and also gain a deeper cultural knowledge on contemporary Brazil through the discussion of a selection of crônicas. We will analyze these short texts written by famous Brazilian authors (published in the 1970s, 1990s, or 2010s) that will provide us with opportunities to learn more about historical and current Brazilian cultural environments.Prerequisite: PORT 221 or permission of the instructor

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

An integrative, research-oriented capstone which gathers senior majors of diverse regional and disciplinary focuses during the final semester. A faculty convener will integrate a schedule of issue-area seminars, faculty methods and topics presentations, talks by visiting speakers, and student reports on research projects. The course culminates in a lengthy final paper.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

This course will introduce students to the study of folklore, belief, and religious folklife of the Maya people at different points in history. We will consider examples of folktales, myths, foodways, material arts, paranormal experience narratives, magic, healing, and other traditions as they relate to religion. We will pay particular attention to the complex and sometimes problematic relationships between missionaries and Maya people in the construction of official and unofficial religions. By examining folklore that emerges within, between, and in reaction to religious traditions, students will be challenged to move beyond simple notions of culture, religious authority, and doctrine.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course explores cross-cultural encounters in the Americas that characterized the meetings of Europeans, Africans, and Americans in the early modern world between 1492 and 1763.  During this period, the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent land masses became critical locations for economic, biological, and cultural exchanges.  This course focuses on the Americas as sites for discovery, mutual incomprehension, and exploitation.  The course explores the ways that conquest, resistance, and strategic cooperation shaped peoples' "new worlds" on both sides of the Atlantic. It also considers how colonialism framed and was framed by scientific inquiry, religious beliefs, economic thought, and artistic expression.  Students interrogate primary sources-written, visual and aural--that emerged from these encounters and the secondary literatures that have sought to make sense of them.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course offers geographical perspectives on one of the world's most vibrant regions, Latin America and the Caribbean. Extending from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego, this world region stretches across diverse landscapes, from tropical rainforests to the snowcapped peaks of the Andes, from mega-cities to verdant plains and sparsely populated deserts. This course combines thematic and regional approaches to understanding the geography of Latin America. Major topics include the dynamics of climate, physical geography, and natural hazards; how indigenous peoples of the Americas transformed their environments, especially through agriculture; how European colonialism and the Columbian Exchange altered patterns of land use, labor, and trade; the development patterns of modern nation-states within a globalized economy; the environmental and social impacts of commodity production (e.g. coffee in Central America, rubber in the Amazon); challenges to and persistence of small-scale agriculture in the Andean region; the causes and consequences of tropical deforestation; conflicts over land and natural resources; the resilience and political resurgence of indigenous groups and people of African descent, and the evolution of pluriethnic or multinational states; the causes of mass urbanization and the environmental problems of cities; patterns of international migration, including flows between Latin American countries and towards the US and Europe; and the development of Latino culture and identity in the U.S. Along the way, we will examine the human-environment geography of various regions and countries such as The Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, Brazil, the Andean Countries, and Argentina.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

During the Cold War, Latin America was a decidedly "hot zone." This course considers this phenomenon as a result of internal and external pressures, including political and socioeconomic instability, a deep tradition of revolutionary and socialist activism, and the region's conflictive relationship with the United States. The class examines dramatic moments of the Latin American Cold War, such as the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala, the Cuban and Nicaraguan revolutions, and the Dirty Wars in Chile and Argentina. It also examines less heralded aspects of the Latin American Cold War, such as its important role in fostering transhemispheric solidarities, the creative possibilities of Cold War cultural production, the emergence of a youth counterculture, and the many attempts by Latin Americans across the political spectrum to reject the premise of the Cold War altogether.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

Varies by semester. Consult the department or class schedule for current listing.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

The transatlantic slave trade forcibly dispersed millions of Africans across the Americas, creating diverse Black communities whose experiences with state power and societal inclusion have varied widely. This course aims to understand these variations. Focusing on Latin America and the US, we will explore ongoing struggles for justice, identity, and belonging throughout the Americas to try to understand how blackness has become a politically salient category.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Criminal violence claims more lives globally than any other form of violence, yet much about its causes and effects remains unclear. Why do people participate in crime? How do criminal organizations shape the social, economic, and political landscapes of the areas where they operate? How do communities cope with or resist this violence? Does policing effectively prevent crime? We will aim to answer these questions by diving deep into Latin America’s struggle with organized crime, using the US as a supporting case for many of our discussions.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course presents the student with essential tools for the critical analysis of a broad range of topics and forms of cultural production (literature, cinema, art, e-texts, etc.) in the Hispanic world. It also teaches the student advanced language skills in written composition and public oral presentation. This course satisfies the Area 2 requirement for the Spanish major. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 305 or SPAN 306.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course provides an interdisciplinary discussion of the Latinx experience in the United States with a focus on Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban- Americans. Using fiction, poetry, films and critical essays, we will examine issues of race and ethnicity, language, identity, gender and sexuality, politics, and immigration. This course satisfies the Area 2 requirement for the Spanish major. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 305 or SPAN 306

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Feminism means both understanding the construction of gender and sexuality in society and challenging the oppressive structures that constrain people of all genders. This class will focus on feminisms (theory and praxis) in the Americas, their histories, politics of liberation and resistance, struggles, and transnational collaborations and solidarity from the 2000s onwards. We will pay particular attention to their fight against gender-based violence. We will engage with memoirs, academic scholarship, and activist production. We will read Brenny Mendoza, Sara Ahmed, Rita Segato, Ochi Curiel, María Lugones, Gloria Anzaldua, Audre Lorde, among others. The central questions we will address are: What constitutes transnational feminism(s)? How do members of communities in the Americas understand and articulate their relationships to feminism and feminist organizing? How do activists in specific cultural contexts resist multiple forms of gender-based violence?

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of contemporary filmmaking in Abya Yala, a term that reclaims the Indigenous identities and knowledges of the territories known as the Americas. Through an examination of 21st century feature films and documentaries, we will discuss how both Indigenous and non-Indigenous directors use cinema to portray the history of colonial violence, its lasting legacies, and the ongoing struggle for indigenous sovereignty in Abya Yala/Latin America. Recognizing the ethical complexities inherent in filmmaking, in this course we will critically analyze the representation of Indigenous identities, collaborations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous creators, and the rise of Indigenous-led film production. Along with film screenings and in-class discussions, students will elaborate a video essay to deepen their understanding of the politics of representation in Abya Yala/Latin American cinema, and explore the region’s ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights and self-determination. This course satisfies the Area 2 requirement for the Spanish major. Prerequisite(s): SPAN 307 or consent of the instructor.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials