Upper-Division

Lays the conceptual, theoretical, and analytical groundwork for subsequent LALS upper-division courses. Examines key concepts and major theoretical frameworks within the interdisciplinary fields of Latin American studies and Latina/o/e/x studies, with particular emphasis on the power and value of bridging them. First third of the course explores theories, concepts, and practices in Latin American studies. Second third considers theories, concepts, and practices in Latina/o/e/x studies. Final third examines the rich new understandings and perspectives allowed when we bridge the interdisciplinary fields of Latin American and Latina/o/e/x studies. Taken together, these three sections of the course form the foundation of LALS. Prior or concurrent enrollment in an introductory LALS course is highly recommended.

Introduces research design and methods in the interdisciplinary field of LALS. Combines the analysis of existing LALS research with hands-on experience in a range of research strategies: reading archives, administering surveys, interviewing, conducting participant observations, analyzing quantitative data, and interpreting texts. Students also learn the overall process of designing a research project, from formulating research questions to writing a critical literature review to the effective presentation of research findings. This course emphasizes research oriented toward the pursuit of social change and social justice. (Formerly Social Science Analytics.)

Course provides hands-on training in the design of a research project and in the principal methods used in LALS. (Formerly Social Science Analytics Lab.)

Examines immigration to U.S. from colonial era to present with special emphasis on issues of citizenship, social identities, and social membership.

Evaluates the links between media and the production of national identities in Latin America. Focuses on theories of nationalism, media, and globalization to examine the production of national histories and representations.

Examines how social media reconfigures daily lives, cultures, and economies and explores how recent leaps in communication technologies breed digital divides and new forms of activism.

Taught in Spanish. Examines the relationship between cinema, gender, the nation, and modernity. Focusing on films by key women filmmakers in Latino and Latin America, the seminar examines their engagement with identity, cultural imaginaries, coloniality, sexuality, and gender.

Explores the history and practice of Latino media in the U.S. with an emphasis on work created by, for, with, and about Latino constituencies. Course highlights the role that media plays in struggles for social change, political enfranchisement, creative self-expression, and cultural development. Course content varies with instructor.

Taught in Spanish. Analyzes and compares the rise of authoritarian regimes throughout Latin America in the 20th century through selected films and documentaries. Themes include U.S. foreign policy toward the region, ethnic cleansing, neoliberalism, and memory/resistance/reconciliation through artistic representations.

Taught in Spanish. Examines the ways memories have been created, protected, organized, and suppressed in Latin America, focusing specifically on the cultural technologies involved. Addresses the following questions: What do we remember and why? Who gets to remember? Who decides what is remembered? What does memory mean for our understanding of ourselves and the places we live? The purpose of this course is to provide students with intellectual tools to read against the grain of what becomes legitimized as official and hegemonic knowledge.

Explores assimilation and assimilability in the United States, especially as related to the education and languages of Latinos, via literary forms, such as the memoir, novel, essay, short fiction, film, and/or poetry. (Meets the methods requirement in Latin America and Latino studies.)

Focus on art forms and visual representations of Latina/os in the United States. Emphasis on visual art created by artists associated with the Chicano/o movement and the Central American diaspora. Topics include cultural identity, murals, public art, and fine art.

Course taught in Spanish. Focuses on El Salvador, with attention to cultural expressions and representations, literature, historical perspectives, and contemporary societies.

Interdisciplinary study of tourism in Latin America and its interconnections with culture, power, and identity. Examines contemporary trends of tourism (ethnic tourism, diaspora tourism, sex tourism, and favela tours) and explores how regional, national, and transnational identities shape and are shaped by tourism.

Explores the intersection of race, gender, science, technology, the environment, and the future in speculative fiction by and about Latinxs, migrants, and people of color.

Introduces the role dance has played and continues to play in the formation of the Americas. Students engage with a diverse range of perspectives on dance practices and analyses of ways dance has contributed to the constitution of identities and as resistance against colonial domination throughout histories of the Americas. Broadening notions of what dance is and what those who participate in dancing experience in different social, cultural and political contexts, this class is inspired by dancing bodies as bearers of socio-cultural knowledge. Class provides tools for deeper appreciation of dance as a primary human activity, as generative of socio-political identities, as negotiation with and resistance against bio-political institutions, and as a category of methods for imagining desirable futures. (Formerly Dancing in the Americas.)

Race and ethnicity have been--and continue to be--powerful forces shaping the U.S. experience. This course examines a range of conceptual approaches and monographic studies grounded in the history of the U.S. The readings provide various criteria for studying and understanding these phenomena. The course problematizes race by asking what the readings tell us about race-making and the reproduction of racial ideologies in specific historical contexts. Similarly, ethnicity is treated as a historically specific social construct. (Meets the methods requirement in Latin America and Latino studies.)

Analyzes the global, social, economic, and political forces that shape transnational, national, and regional societal formations and consequently the entire environment for social change. Examines the evolution of revolutionary struggle and its origins within and impact upon the evolving capitalist system.

Explores current historical and theoretical writings on the lived experiences of Chicanas and Mexicana women in U.S. history. Themes include domination/resistance politics, (re)presentations, contestation, social reproduction, identity and difference. Meets the methods requirement in Latin America and Latino studies.

Focuses on the analysis of collective action by underrepresented groups in Latin America. Concepts and issues include political participation and impact, gender, ethnicity and race, class, the environment, religion, non-governmental organizations, and social capital.

Taught in Spanish. Engages a critical study of violence, social relations, and everyday life in contemporary Latin America. Focuses on the relationship between narratives and acts of violence, and the constitution and social effects of these representations. Requires proficiency in Spanish (written and spoken), and advanced reading knowledge of Spanish. (Formerly LALS 194R .)

Challenges the racial hierarchy of knowledge production by making whiteness into a central object of study and scrutinizing the power that stems from its alleged invisibility. Studies whiteness in three specific Latin American countries and vis-a-vis their respective dominant national discourses: Mexico and its narratives of mestizaje, Brazil and the myth of racial democracy, and Argentina and its discourses of Europeanness. Also examines how whiteness and its "Others" (I.e. blackness, indigeneity, and Asianness) have been imagined, embodied, avoided, and embraced in these three Latin American countries.

Explores the lives of African descendants in the Americas, including the Caribbean. Students learn about the settlement patterns of Afro-Latinos/as and Afro-Latin Americans in the region and the ways in which African descendants negotiate their multiple identities and broaden racial frameworks in the United States and Latin America.

Focuses on the intersection between mobility and race, examining both how mobility is racially informed and how differential mobilities inform the construction of racial identities, the production of racial processes, and the representation of racialized spaces. Examining different facets of mobility—movement, meaning, and practice—course topics include: the mutual constitution between mobility and racial identities (blackness, whiteness, Latinidad, and indigeneity); white control over the mobility of "others;" bodily movements (dancing, walking) as sites of resistance and policing; prototypical whiteness and the surveillance of non-white mobile bodies border crossing; and the intersections between racial mobility politics and gender and class dynamics.

Examines the circuits of media, commodities, and migration connecting the Americas in an age of globalization. Issues of states, transnational markets, social relations, and cultural representations addressed. Relationship between consumption, nationalism, and globalization is considered critically.

Introduces students to the study of youth in Latin America through discussions about theoretical approaches to youth in Latin America. Students examine the challenges, obstacles, and experiences of exclusion faced by young people in the region and learn about Latin American youth through a variety of topics, including poverty, education, culture, social movements, and COVID-19.

Examines the histories, structures, and practices of Latin American and Latino youth movements. Analyzes the patterns, themes, and differences of social movements using primary documents. Addresses the dynamics of age, generation, race, ethnicity, and nation. Uses youth activism to explore questions relevant to the study of contemporary social movements in the Americas.

Provides students with an introduction to the emerging scholarly field of transitional justice. Examines transitional justice in a broad sense and through elected case studies.

Taught in Spanish. Examines major social upheavals in Latin America since 1900, exploring revolution as a distinctive form of social conflict and change. Analyzes political, economic, social, and cultural conditions that gave rise to, and linked, revolutions across the Americas.

Explores and applies basic tools of Latin American political economy to map the evolution of the region's main patterns of economic growth and accompanying social structures across past centuries. Reviews the effects of neoliberal capitalist globalization on contemporary Latin America, resistance to destructive consequences, and the nature of emerging alternatives.

Introduces critical approaches to topics in international development, based on an understanding of development as a fundamentally power-ridden field. The first half of the course examines how the idea of the underdeveloped Third World has been produced, exploring topics such as global governance for poverty reduction, transnational actors, foreign aid, neoliberalism, and shifting policy focus on international development. The second half is devoted to case studies on gender mainstreaming, extractivism, diversity, and the financialization of the social.

Examines the peoples and cultures of lowland South America, particularly the historical, economic, and environmental processes that have shaped the Amazonian region. Students acquire tools to critically approach traditional representations of Amazonian cultures and understand their relevance to global issues.

Through comparative methods, this course explores the many ways Afro and Indigenous populations cultivated spiritual connections to and with death and nature. More specifically, we address the ways displacement, forced migration, and enslavement have affected Black and Indigenous peoples' exchange with the land, the water, and the cosmos from the early colonial period through the present. This course focuses specifically on Afro-descended and Indigenous populations in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.

Explores contemporary issues facing Peru by addressing the formation of the state and the country's troubled history with political and state violence. Students learn about Peru's multicultural/racial population and about ongoing conflicts and hopes for the country today.

Analyzes issues of globalization, culture, and representation in order to understand the meanings and emergence of Global Latinidades. Evaluates and discusses the formation of global and Latin/o/a/e/x subjects within and beyond the United States, Latin America, Europe, and other regions through texts about transnationalism, visual culture, celebrity culture, spaces of consumption, and related topics. Although course focuses on specific case studies, a broad and critical perspective on these issues will be developed as well.

Examines the history of various forms of connection between people, governments, cultures, and social movements across the Americas. From military intervention to transnational anti-imperialist agendas to contemporary artistic collaboration, many forms of foreign relations have shaped the American hemisphere. (Formerly Inter-American Relations.)

Examines the southernmost region of South America, commonly referred to as the Southern Cone, exploring the historical trajectories of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, and southern Brazil, from independence through the end of the 20th century.

Focuses on the way Natives of First Peoples have interacted voluntarily and involuntarily with nonindigenous cultures. Examines their perspectives, thoughts, frustrations, and successes. Touches on land issues and examines the way current indigenous cultures of Latin America face and adapt to social change. Focuses mainly on the Andes, lowland Amazon, Mesoamerica, and other areas.

Taught in Portuguese. Examines blackness and whiteness in Brazil through the lens of the intersectionality of race, gender, and class identities. Topics include: national narratives of racial democracy, racism, black activism, and the emerging studies of whiteness in Brazil.

Explores how visual artists take up the subject of human rights in response to urgent challenges facing Latina/o and Latin American communities across the Americas. Examines the imprint of film and media arts reshaping human-rights discourse. Considers persistent themes in Latina/o representation, including colonialism and state terrorism; self-representation and the rights of collectives (racial, ethnic, and sexual groups); social and economic rights. (Meets the methods requirement in Latin America and Latino studies.)

Through an interdisciplinary, cross-border approach, examines complex nature of Latino health in relation to migration and how women and men experience health problems differently. Examines how health problems are created by economic and social conditions, how migrants experience access to care, and how agencies can design culturally sensitive programs.

Conceptualizes the socio-economic, political, racial, cultural, and environmental factors that influence health conditions among migrant Latinx communities. Explores health-related issues among Latinx migrant communities already established in the United States as well as those in transit. Examines the negative health consequences of various U.S. policies, including migrant policing, deportation, asylum, and the global drug war. Students read and discuss texts from public health, medical anthropology to explore the concepts of structural violence, structural vulnerability, ecosocial theory, and social determinants of health as these relate to the migrant Latinx community. Students also discuss the relevance of solidarity and activist research methods used to challenge health inequities impacting migrant Latinxs.

Focuses on the impact of globalization and transnationalism on gender relations in the Americas. Examines gender and power in the context of neoliberalism, modernity, the nation, social movements, and activism. Explores local and transnational constructions of gender, and the intersection of gender with race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality.

Environmental racism is a structural obstacle to achieving environmental and social justice globally. With a focus on Latin America, this course explores how environmental discourses have shaped everyday life, how the power of race and racism have advanced a colonial relationship in the region. Students learn about the role of race in shaping Latin American societies, and how this is deeply connected to racialized territories, and reflect on their understanding of the inter-relationship between environmental racism and environmental justice across the Americas region.

Situates The Border historically and within the context of U.S. imperialism. Examines the formalization of political borders, methods of enforcement, and intra-group conflicts. Examines the varied experiences of colonialism and immigration between Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Native Americans, and Cubans. Explores how the tools of The Border and Borderlands are being used to untangle the roles of race prejudice and sexual and gender discrimination. (Meets the methods requirement in Latin America and Latino studies.)

Examines forced migrations to and within the Americas prior to the invention of national borders. Focuses on African and Indigenous slave trades, penal deportations, and their connections to colonialism and racial thought. Trains students in the analysis of historical research, the interpretation of historical documents, and the use of digital mapping software.

Students complete readings and guided research on key topics in tropical ecology (using a Spanish language Ecología Tropical textbook), and are trained to use various tools (traditional analog as well as digital) related to natural history field observations and species identification. Students couple these topical and skill-building foci with more traditionally LALS-framed humanities and social science readings. The goal is to link guiding frameworks and conceptual pillars of LALS to the way we see and interpret beyond-human worlds/ecologies of this hemisphere.

Taught in Central Veracruz, Mexico. This interdisciplinary field course teaches respectful participant observation and journaling, principles of regional studies, and concepts of fair trade in economies of agriculture, cultural production and tourism, through a guided study of one of the world's global crossroads.

Taught in Veracruz, Mexico. In this field practicum course, students work in small team placements with grassroots organizations in Central Veracruz. Through participant observation, interview, and collaborative work, students research Latin American techniques to promote dialogue and regional participation in problem-solving, justice, and sustainability.

Introduction to field research methods that consider theory, methodological challenges, and epistemology in conducting research. Explains the research process, including designing research questions, interview instruments, concepts maps, and methods of data collection, and data analysis. (Meets the methods requirement in Latin America and Latino studies.)

Weekly seminar with an applied lab where students are trained in the fundamentals of social media literacy skills and analysis, gain an understanding of the context for socio-political conflicts in the Americas region, and consider the ethics of engaging in human rights media research using open source. Students learn how to locate, verify, and analyze digital media for human rights cases using open source investigation tools. Various assignments focus on the region of the Americas. Students prepare and produce human rights social media reports. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor.

Weekly seminar with an applied lab where students are trained in the fundamentals of social media literacy skills and analysis, gain an understanding of the context for socio-political conflicts in the Americas region, and the consider the ethics of engaging in human rights media research using open source. Students will learn how to locate, verify, and analyze digital media for human rights cases using open source investigation tools. Various assignments focus on the region of the Americas. Students prepare and produce human rights social media reports. Enrollment is by permission of the instructor.

Internships with campus or community organizations sponsored and evaluated by a Latin American and Latino studies faculty member. Students write an analytical paper or produce another major work agreed upon by student, faculty supervisor, and internship sponsor; sponsor must also provide review of experience. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Internships with campus or community organizations sponsored and evaluated by a faculty member from Latin American and Latino studies. Students write a short (8-page) descriptive paper or produce another work agreed upon by student and faculty supervisor. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Student internships organized through Global Learning partners sponsored by a Latin American and Latino studies (LALS) instructor. While completing their internship, students write an analytical paper or produce another project agreed upon by the student and the instructor by the third week of the internship.

Examines first-person narratives by migrants, paying close attention to storytelling as a strategy for fomenting cultural, social, and political change. In addition to reading literary and visual texts, student complete a final project based on original research.

Examines the global history of migrating people, things, and ideas. Focuses primarily on case studies of mass migration and displacement in 19th and 20th centuries. Students analyze processes of migration in the Americas within a broader global context.

Examines forced migrations to and within the Americas prior to the 20th century, with a focus on African and indigenous slave trades, indentured servitude, convict labor, and contract labor. Students address the implications and memories of those migrations today.

Explores the emerging field of digital investigations and the concept of human rights witnessing. Within the context of the impact of social media and digital technologies, course explores how ethics, power, and social inequalities affect everyday life in the digital realm, including its use to share stories of injustice and the ways access to social media and other technology is a reflection of societal inequalities. In what ways has the digital divide become more evident due to the COVID-19 pandemic? And finally, in what ways does repeatedly viewing traumatic posts online affect our well-being?

Cross Listed Courses

Enrollment is restricted to junior and senior college members.

Analysis of Chilean politics and society from the election of Salvador Allende in 1970 to the present. Particular emphasis is given to understanding the different forces, internal as well as external, that broke the Chilean tradition of democratic rule in 1973, and to the current configuration.

This senior seminar focuses on the connections between Central America and the United States. Covers Central American history, the political and economic relations between the isthmus and the United States, and Central American media and literature. (Formerly Central American Political Relations with the U.S.)

Provides hands-on guidance in the research and communication skills related to the LALS 194 Senior Seminar.

Senior seminar taught in Spanish. Engages a critical study of violence, social relations, and everyday life in contemporary Latin America. Focuses on the relationship between narratives and acts of violence, and the constitution and social effects of these representations. Requires proficiency in Spanish (written and spoken), and advanced reading knowledge of Spanish.

Students explore and apply "ecocentric" perspectives, and theories such as "natureculture" (introduced by feminist scholar Donna Haraway) as a means of building our own transdisciplinary approach to worlds beyond strictly human social configurations. Course incorporates a broad range of assigned reading and audiovisual resources. Seminar participants engage in class discussions, activities, and guided opportunities for natural history field observations. Course is divided into three topical modules, each of which has the dual purpose of introducing students to scholarship and methods relating to multi-species academic inquiry, and guiding the class through the conception, development, and writing of a relevant research project. Course is taught in tandem with LALS 194L, where students have further support in the multi-stage execution of their research projects.

Explores multiple and contested meanings of youth and citizenship; how youth, civic, and political identities are imagined, produced and negotiated in social and cultural locations; and how different versions of Latina/o youth citizenship are promoted and articulated by social and political institutions.

Traces major historical patterns of migration and related processes in the Americas over the past two centuries. Covers the social, cultural, political, and economic factors that drive and shape the movements of people and considers the ways migration has impacted the sending, transit, and receiving societies. Over the quarter, students come to understand major historical forces of migration that inform our contemporary world, including citizenship, urbanization, identity formations, globalization, and neoliberalism.

Explores, in-depth, how local communities, transnational capital, and state participate in conflicts anchored in extractive sectors, for example, mining, agro-exports, and so on. Through digital-based, case-study research, students identify and explore the logics of action, strategic interests, and the rhetoric of the principal protagonists in socio-ecological conflicts.

Senior thesis writing under direction of major adviser. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Senior thesis writing under direction of major adviser. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Off-campus study in Latin America, the Caribbean, or nonlocal Spanish-speaking community in the U.S. Nature of proposed study/project to be discussed with sponsoring instructor(s) before undertaking field study; credit toward major (maximum of three courses per quarter) conferred upon completion of all stipulated requirements. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Individual studies undertaken off-campus. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Supervised directed reading; weekly or biweekly meetings with instructor. Final paper or examination required. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.

Supervised research and writing of an expanded paper, completed in conjunction with requisite writing for an upper-division course taken for credit in the major. Students submit petition to sponsoring agency.