Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies

Focuses on contemporary Latin American artists working in and out of Latin America: Gabriel Orozco, Guillermo Gomez Peña, Adriana Varejao, Teresa Margolles, Carlos Garaicoa, Betsabeé Romero, Javier Tellez, Nadín Ospina, Tania Bruguera, and Nicolás de Jesus. Students analyze the way these artists address such questions as urban violence, social inequality, pollution, emigration, and national identity.

Credits: 4

A broad look at modern and contemporary Mexican art, using an interdisciplinary and comparative approach. Special emphasis is on the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) and its aftermath throughout the 20th century. Students analyze links between the visual arts (including mural painting, prints, and photography) and the literature, the popular scene and the mainstream, the street art and the gallery art.

Credits: 4

Since the late 1800s, pre-Columbian art and history have inspired Latin American artists. This course investigates that phenomenon through an in-depth study of the work of individual artists, including Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, as well as more contemporary figures. Students are also introduced to pre-Columbian art and architecture.

Credits: 4

Third cinema was a movement proposed by Latin American directors in the 1960s and further developed by African directors in the 1970s. It addresses important questions about independent national cinemas, colonialism, race, and identity. This course examines the movement and its global influence, with emphasis on the cinemas of Latin America, Africa, black Britain, and American minorities.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: CIN1500 And CIN1510

A survey of the history of Mexican cinema from the early 1930s to the present. Students examine popular genres like la comedia ranchera (Mexican cowboy musical), el género cabaretil (dancehall film), and el cine de luchadores (wrestling film) as well as the work of the most prominent Mexican filmmakers (e.g., Arturo Ripstein, Jaime Humberto Hermosillo, Nicolás Echeverría, María Novaro, Guillermo del Toro).

Credits: 4

Drawing from the rich cinematography of Latin America, this course focuses on the interaction between film and culture in Latin America. Students discuss and analyze films in the context of sociopolitical events and aesthetic movements, with emphasis on the cultural perspective.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: CIN1500 And CIN1510

An overview of economic conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean, with a focus on competing strategies for national and regional development. Topics include the consequences of the region’s deepening immersion in the global economy; its investment, trade, and labor-market ties to the U.S. economy; and the roots of its principal socioeconomic conflicts.

Credits: 4

A study of major developments in French Caribbean literature of the 19th through 21st centuries. This course focuses on questions of language, race, gender, geography, and class, with emphasis on local, regional, and global frames of reference.

Credits: 4

An introductory survey of the history of Latin America from colonial times to the present. Topics include geography, indigenous peoples, colonization and nation formation, society, politics, economy and culture of contemporary Latin America, and its place in today’s world.

Credits: 4

Explores major social, cultural, economic, and political developments in Latin America from the period following the Wars of Independence to the present. The historical roots of such problems as racism, persistent poverty, and political repression are examined, focusing on “subaltern” groups (e.g., peasants, workers, women, and people of color).

Credits: 4

An introductory survey of the history of the Spanish and Portuguese conquest and colonization of the Americas from 1450 to 1810, i.e., from the late preconquest period to the Latin American struggle for independence. Lectures, readings, and discussions provide an overview of the economic, political, social, and cultural dimensions of colonization.

Credits: 4

Focuses on the history of Latinos in urban centers across the U.S. and Latin America. Students explore how Latinos established and maintained distinctive social and cultural identities in the Americas. The historical definition of “Latinidad” is also discussed through the study of colonization, immigration, diaspora, globalization, and the history of the racialization of Latin American descendants.

Credits: 4

Covers the history of Brazil from independence to the present. During this period, Brazil has transformed from a colonial, agrarian, slave society to a predominantly urban, industrialized nation and an aspiring world power. Students explore slavery, racism, urban life, immigration and industrialization, changing gender roles, political repression and military rule, carnaval and popular culture.

Credits: 4

Cinematic representations of Latinos and Latinas are explored as crucial elements in the configuration of “America” as a national community, taking into account key historical moments in the relationship between the United States and Latin America.

Credits: 4

Focuses on the relationship between cities, urban life, and form, and the construction of social and political rights in the Americas. The emphasis is on how cities and citizenship are mutually constituted historically, looking at ideas and policies that regulate the city, and how urbanites produce and consume urban space and claim their rights as citizens and urban residents.

Credits: 4

History of U.S.–Latin American relations from the mid-19th century to the present day. It explores how Latin America and the Caribbean became the object of US intervention into the region’s realities and how Latin American societies involved into nationalist, anti-imperialist, class, racial, and gender struggles that shaped policy outcomes in ways unanticipated by the US.

Credits: 4

Introduces students to cultural and political history in Latin America from the end of World War I to the Sandinista Revolution in 1979. Focusing on the role of intellectuals, students explore debates on nationalism, immigration, culture, modernization, and development in the context of the consolidation of new Latin American states, the Alliance for Progress, the Chinese and Cuban Revolutions, and the student and guerrilla movements.

Credits: 4

While many African-descended peoples throughout the world identify with a particular nationality—being Brazilian or Cuban, for example—many have also forged connections with each other across national boundaries and have recognized commonalities that transcend national contexts. To comprehend their shared experiences, students explore the history of the linkages created by Afro-Latin Americans and Afro-North Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries, using fiction, memoir, and recent historical scholarship.

Credits: 4

Examines the new historiography on gender and sexuality in Latin America. It is organized around the themes of changing gender roles and shifting constructions of masculinity, femininity, and honor, with particular attention to issues of sexuality, sexual preferences, constraints, and transgressions.

Credits: 4

Develops students’ interviewing and interpretive skills in the field of oral history. Students learn the theory and methodology and work on a final research project that seeks to bring forward the voices of those frequently excluded from more typical historical sources. Students also learn to produce archival quality interviews, and the final project includes some form of public presentation.

Credits: 4

Read multi-genre literature and social histories and identify and analyze the distinctions and similarities that have shaped the experiences and the cultural imagination among different Latinx communities. Topics include identity formation and negotiation in terms of language, race, gender, sexuality, and class; discuss diaspora and emigration. Authors include Gloria Anzaldúa and Piri Thomas. Taught in English.

Credits: 4

Major works of the most celebrated Latin American novelists, such as Cortàzar, García Márquez, Carpentier, and Guiraldes, emphasizing the cultural and social contexts from which these novels spring. Although this is a literature course taught in English, students with competent Spanish language skills are encouraged to read the works in the original and write their papers in Spanish.

Credits: 4

Students select from an array of experiential options in Latin American studies in consultation with their Latin American studies advisor. Options include service learning, independent study, study abroad, and Project Focus.

Credits: 4

A study of memoirs by male and female authors, politicians, activists, and ordinary citizens describing childhood, communities, social changes, and revolutions. Works are drawn from South Africa, South America, Asia, Cuba, and the U.S. The rubric is the non-West’s interaction with the West, a north-south divide.

Credits: 4

The course revolves around the international political and economic dynamics that have existed historically between the U.S. and Cuba. Although the course emphasizes the post-1959 era (the Castro years), readings introduce students to the imperial relationship that evolved in the early 20th century. Topics include foreign policy, war, human rights, the U.S. embargo, and the politics of Fidel Castro.

Credits: 4

Although human rights have become a significant theme in international relations, ethnic slaughter and political repression continue to afflict the world. This course examines relevant theoretical issues and practical problems, including: How are human rights viewed from different cultural, political, and religious perspectives? In a multicultural world, can common ground be found to address human rights? What is the relationship between sovereignty and the pursuit of human rights?

Credits: 4

What does Latin American hip-hop have to do with social change? How do murga dances in Argentina and Uruguay or “theatre of the oppressed” performances in Brazil challenge “social authoritarianism”? Why are Greenpeace campaigns so successful in raising awareness about the Amazon? Why are carnivals in Oruro, Bolivia, or in Santiago del Estero, Argentina, still so lively and engaging? This course explores the relationship between activism and “culture” in different Latin American countries.

Credits: 3

How do groups mobilize to act for social change and against injustice? This course focuses on contemporary movements that emerge within and outside the United States, e.g., in Latin America. Case studies focus on human rights, feminism, environmentalism, landless rural workers, indigenous peoples, and global justice movements, with a particular focus on how these movements emerge, (re)create their identities, and frame injustice. The class analyzes how 21st-century movements are both global and local.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: SOC1500 Or CSO1500

An examination of the various causes and consequences of international migration on migrants, their sending communities, and their destination countries. Topics include immigration debates, the social structures and economic and social conditions that facilitate labor migration, undocumented migration, refugee migration and forced migration. New York is an amazing place to explore migration, providing firsthand knowledge about migrant communities.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: SOC1500 Or CSO1500 Or ANT1500 Or CAN1500

A global sociological examination of the contemporary debates and studies concerning the social organization of cultures that transcends national boundaries. This course examines the highly debated concept of globalization by studying transnational social organizations and the distinctive dynamics of global political economy and culture. Topics include colonialism and postcolonialism, social movements and social change, social inequality, labor, human rights, democracy, global capitalism, urbanization, and cultural identity.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: SOC1500 Or CSO1500

An advanced seminar in critical race studies specifically designed for juniors and seniors interested in reading theory, history, and research. Focuses on key works that have defined the field and shaped understandings of race in the 21st century, including those of Du Bois, Wacquant, Fanon, hooks, Crenshaw, Davis, Hall, and Said.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: SOC1500

Drawing from the rich cinematography of Spain and Latin America, this course focuses on the interaction between film and culture in Latin America. Films are discussed and analyzed in the context of sociopolitical events and aesthetic movements, with emphasis on the cultural perspective.

Credits: 4

Students explore the various languages and cultures that exist in Spanish-speaking countries. In general terms, the course is structured in two blocks: (1) Iberian Peninsula, pre- and post-Indo-European invasion; and (2) Latin America, pre- and post-Spanish invasion.

Credits: 4

Major novels of 20th-century Latin America and their literary and social contexts. Authors include Guiraldes, Carpentier, Cortàzar, and García Márquez. Taught in Spanish.

Credits: 4

PREREQ: SPA3015

Who had the idea to name part of the world “Latin America”? What makes it “Latin”? Who has an interest in this definition? Who is included and who isn’t? This course asks these questions and others through readings of texts by Bolívar, Martí, Mariátegui, and others.

Credits: 4

Selected examples drawn from the significant number of Latin American writers who have made some of their most interesting contributions in this short form. Selected works from 19th- and 20th-century writers are read closely. Taught in Spanish.

Credits: 4

Engaging with a wide variety of plays and performances, students explore U.S. Latino theatre as a site of personal, cultural, and political intervention. Readings reflect the aesthetics, narratives, historical contexts, and systems of theatrical production pertinent to Latino culture in the U.S.

Credits: 4