An interdepartmental program in Latin American and Latino Studies

Last updated: July 19, 2013 at 1:38 p.m.

Objectives

The Latin American and Latino studies program provides a major and a minor to all interested undergraduate students who wish to structure their studies of Latin America, Latinos or the Latin American Diaspora in the United States. The program offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and the Latin American Diaspora in the United States. Students with widely ranging interests are welcome.

Learning Goals

The Latin American and Latino Studies (LALS) Program at Brandeis offers an interdisciplinary major and minor. The program draws on faculty in nine departments in the school of Arts and Sciences as well as in the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and International Business School. Although individual classes might emphasize local and regional studies, the LALS major and minor moves beyond a particular area to view communities and regions as embedded within global processes.

The deep commitment of faculty in LALS to a multidisciplinary approach to the study of Latin America and Latinos is evidenced in the range of courses available and the program distribution requirements. This structure enables students to appreciate the subject matter in its rich social, economic, political, cultural, and historical implications, and encourages students to develop methodological flexibility. Such intellectual breadth is complemented through the required LALS 100a course and the fact that many students focus on one or two specific disciplines in completing their major or minor.

LALS majors must take nine courses within the major, of which no more than four can be within the same department (thus ensuring disciplinary breadth). The courses must include LALS 100 (an upper level, writing intensive seminar), the colonial or modern history survey course, a course in Latin American politics and a course in Latin American or Latino literature or cultural studies. Other course offerings in these disciplines and in anthropology, economics and fine arts round out the major’s offerings.

The learning goals for students completing the LALS major are threefold: knowledge about the region of Latin America and Latinos in the United States;core skills that can be used in graduate study or in a variety of professions; andcritical awareness and engagement as the basis for social justice and global citizenship.

Knowledge: Students completing the major in LALS will come away with a strong understanding of:

  • the history and current circumstances of Latin America and the peoples living there;
  • the history and current circumstances of Latinos living in the US or elsewhere outside of the geographic boundaries of Latin America;
  • the hemispheric and global connections between Latin America, Latinos and other places and peoples;
  • one or more languages spoken in Latin America (not including English).

Core Skills: The LALS major also emphasizes core skills in data collection, critical thinking and communication. LALS majors will be well prepared to:

  • conduct scholarly or professional research applying different critical methods, such as textual analysis and fieldwork, using primary and secondary sources;
  • evaluate information and cultural artifacts critically, with particular attention to examining taken-for-granted assumptions about U.S. Latinos and/or Latin America;
  • generate original, informed ideas and insights about Latin America and U.S. Latinos, expressed in a variety of written and oral formats, such as traditional, web-based, visual and other media.

Critical Awareness and Engagement (Social Justice): The LALS curriculum provides graduates with the knowledge and perspectives needed to participate as informed citizens in a global society. The exposure to a variety of cultural traditions and social formations gives LALS majors a grounded view of global processes. The possibility of curricular or extra-curricular experiential learning components, such as community engaged courses working with Latinos in Waltham, field study in relation to a thesis, internships, and more, also provides tools and opportunities for those committed to Brandeis's ideal of learning in service of social justice.

Upon Graduating: A Brandeis student with a LALS major will be prepared to:

  • pursue graduate study and a scholarly career in Latin American studies or in one of the disciplines represented in the program;
  • pursue professional training and a range of careers including healthcare, government, business, law, journalism, education, arts, and non-governmental work in local and international settings.

How to Become a Major or a Minor

Students in the major and the minor work closely with an adviser to develop an individual plan of study that combines breadth with a focus in one discipline (usually anthropology, history, politics, or Spanish). Students whose interests do not easily fit the courses available at Brandeis may arrange independent study with members of the staff. Students may also take advantage of the resources of neighboring institutions through the Boston Area Consortium on Latin America and the Greater Boston Latino Studies Connection. Courses may be taken at Boston College, Boston University, Tufts University, and Wellesley College. Study in Latin America for a term or a year is encouraged. In the past, students have studied at universities in Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Peru, and Brazil, and other possibilities are available. Credit may also be obtained for internships in organizations related to Latin America. Transfer students and those studying abroad may obtain credit for up to half the required courses from courses taken elsewhere, with the approval of the program chair.

Program Faculty

Elizabeth Ferry, Chair
(Anthropology)

Jerónimo Arellano (on leave spring 2014)
(Romance Studies)

Cristina Espinosa
(Heller)

Ricardo Godoy
(Heller School)

Charles Golden (on leave academic year 2013-2014)
(Anthropology)

Donald Hindley
(Politics)

Ricardo Lopez
(Economics)

James Mandrell
(Romance Studies; Women's and Gender Gender Studies)

Wellington Nyangoni
(African and Afro-American Studies)

Lucia Reyes de Deu
(Romance Studies)

Fernando Rosenberg (on leave academic year 2013-2014)
(Romance Studies)

Laurence Simon
(Heller School)

Faith Smith
(African and Afro-American Studies; English)

Javier Urcid
(Anthropology)

Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
Jerónimo Arellano (Romance Studies)
Elizabeth Ferry (Anthropology)
Charles Golden (Anthropology)
Donald Hindley (Politics)
Wellington Nyangoni (African & Afro-American Studies)
Fernando Rosenberg (Romance Studies)
Faith Smith (African and Afro-American Studies)
Javier Urcid (Anthropology)

Requirements for the Minor

A. Four semester courses from the course listings under Latin American and Latino studies below.

B. LALS 100a (Seminar: Topics in Latin American and Latino Studies) or another upper-level writing-intensive seminar to be designated as fulfilling the seminar requirement.

C. No more than two of the required five courses may be from the same discipline, even if offered by different departments; and no more than two courses may be electives requiring a paper to count for LALS.

D. No course with a final grade below C- can count toward the LALS minor.

Requirements for the Major

A. The major consists of nine semester courses. No more than four of the nine required courses may be from the same department, and no more than two courses may be electives requiring a paper to count for LALS.

B. LALS 100a (Seminar: Topics in Latin American and Latino Studies) or another upper-level writing-intensive seminar to be designated as fulfilling the seminar requirement.

C. One survey in the Social Sciences: ANTH 131b, HIST 71a, 71b, POL 144a, 144b.

D. One survey in the Humanities: AAAS 133b, ENG 107a, ENG 127b, HECS 169a, HISP 111b, HISP 164b, HISP 167b.

E. Six additional semester courses from the listing provided below.

F. Passing grade in any 30-level Spanish language course. This can be substituted by a reading competency examination in Spanish or Portuguese. Another foreign language spoken in Latin America or the Caribbean may be substituted with the permission of the LALS committee.

G. Candidates for the degree with honors in Latin American and Latino studies must be approved by the committee and must complete LALS 99d, a two-semester senior thesis.

H. No course with a final grade below C- can count toward the LALS major.

Courses of Instruction

(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

LALS 92a Internship
Combines off-campus experience in a Latin America-related internship with written analysis under the supervision of a faculty sponsor. Students arrange their own internships. Counts only once toward fulfillment of requirements for the major or the minor.
Staff

LALS 98a Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff

LALS 98b Independent Study
Usually offered every year.
Staff

LALS 99d Senior Research
Independent research and writing, under faculty director, of a senior thesis. Usually offered every year.
Staff

(100-199) For Both Undergraduate and Graduate Students

LALS 100a Seminar: Topics in Latin American and Latino Studies
[ wi ]
May be repeated for credit. Fall 2013: ANTH 131b counts for LALS 100a. Spring 2014: HIST 175a counts for LALS 100a.
Examines major themes and problems in Latin American studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. Topics vary from year to year.
Staff

LALS Elective Courses

AAAS 125b Caribbean Women and Globalization: Sexuality, Citizenship, Work
[ ss wi ]
Utilizing perspectives from sociology, anthropology, fiction, and music to examine the relationship between women's sexuality and conceptions of labor, citizenship, and sovereignty. The course considers these alongside conceptions of masculinity, contending feminisms, and the global perspective. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

AAAS 133b The Literature of the Caribbean
[ hum nw ss wi ]
An exploration of the narrative strategies and themes of writers of the region who grapple with issues of colonialism, class, race, ethnicity, and gender in a context of often-conflicting allegiances to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

ANTH 119a Conquests, Resistance, and Cultural Transformation in Mexico and Central America
[ nw ss ]
Examines the continuing negotiation of identity and power that were at the heart of tragedy and triumph for indigenous peoples in colonial Mexico and Central America, and which continue in the modern states of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Golden

ANTH 131b Latin America in Ethnographic Perspective
[ ss wi ]
Anthropology and LALS majors and minors have priority for enrollment.
Examines issues in contemporary Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean from the perspective of sociocultural anthropology, based primarily on books and articles drawing on long-term ethnographic research. Topics may include: the Zapatista Rebellion in Mexico; tin mining and religion in Bolivia; mortuary cannibalism in the Amazon; the role of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexican national identity; love and marriage among young migrants from Mexico and the United States; weaving, beauty pageants, and jokes in Guatemala; and daily life in revolutionary Cuba. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ferry

ANTH 147b Mesoamerican Civilizations and Their Legacies
[ nw ss ]
This is an experiential learning course.
Traces the development of social complexity in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, from initial colonization in the Late Pleistocene to the Spanish conquest in the sixteenth century. Reviews major societal transformations like food production, the role of competitive generosity and warfare in promoting social inequalities, and the rise of urban societies. It also examines indigenous social movements against Spanish colonialism, and considers the legacies and role of indigenous peoples in the contemporary nations of Middle America. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Golden or Mr. Urcid

ANTH 168a The Maya: Past, Present and Future
[ nw ss ]
Explores the culture of the Maya in Mexico and Central America through nearly 3000 years of history. Using archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnography, studies their ancient past and their modern lives. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Golden

ECON 26a Latin America's Economy
[ nw ss ]
Prerequisite: ECON 2a or 10a.
Introductory survey of economic, financial, and institutional problems, distortions, and reforms in Latin America. Topics include the role of government, privatization, liberalization of trade and capital flows, pension fund reforms, inflation, stabilization, and international debt crises. Current and future trends will be discussed. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

ENG 107a Women Writing Desire: Caribbean Fiction and Film
[ hum ]
About eight novels of the last two decades (by Cliff, Cruz, Danticat, Garcia, Kempadoo, Kincaid, Mittoo, Nunez, Pineau, Powell, or Rosario), drawn from across the region, and read in dialogue with popular culture, theory, and earlier generations of male and female writers of the region. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

ENG 127b Migrating Bodies, Migrating Texts
[ hum ]
Beginning with the region's representation as a tabula rasa, examines the textual and visual constructions of the Caribbean as colony, homeland, backyard, paradise, and Babylon, and how the region's migrations have prompted ideas about evolution, hedonism, imperialism, nationalism, and diaspora. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Smith

FA 178a Frida Kahlo: Art, Life and Legacy
[ ca nw ]
Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) has become an international cultural icon. Her innovative paintings brilliantly re-envision identity, gender and the female body, inspiring celebrities from Madonna to Salma Hayek. This course explores the art and life of Frida Kahlo, as well as her immense influence on contemporary art, film and popular culture. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ankori

FREN 164a Haiti, Then and Now
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: FREN 106b or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Studies Haiti's cultural history through literature, music, painting, film, and journalism. Topics include: Haiti's first inhabitants, the Arawaks and Taino; slavery and colonialism; the world's first black republic; dictators and presidents; Creole and French; Catholicism and Vaudou; the island's ecology; the 2010 earthquake and international aid. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Hale

HECS 169a Travel Writing and the Americas: Columbus's Legacy
[ hum ]
Open to all students. Conducted in English with readings in English translation.
Following the arrival of Columbus, the continent later known as America engaged with other continents in a mutual process of cultural, historical, geographical, and economic representation. The development of some of those representations is explored, beginning with travel writing and ending with recent images of the encounter. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HISP 108a Spanish for Heritage Speakers
[ fl hum wi ]
Designed specifically for students who grew up speaking Spanish and who would like to enhance existing language skills while developing higher levels of academic proficiency. Assignments are geared toward developing skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking about U.S. Latino/as and the Spanish-speaking world. Students may use this course to fulfill the foreign language requirement. Usually offered every year.
Ms. Reyes

HISP 111b Introduction to Latin American Literature and Culture
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: HISP 106b, or HISP 108a, or permission of the instructor.
The goal of this course is to recognize trends in Latin American literary and cultural production. Examines a range of key Latin American texts (poems, short stories and excerpts from novels, chronicles, comics, screenplays, cyberfiction) from the time of the conquest to modernity. Emphasis is placed on problems of cultural definition and identity construction as they are elaborated in literary discourse. Looks at continuities and ruptures in major themes (coloniality and emancipation, modernismo and modernity, indigenismo, hybridity and mestizaje, nationalisms, Pan-Americanism, etc.) throughout Latin American intellectual history. Usually offered every semester
Mr. Rosenberg or Mr. Arellano

HISP 160a Culture and Social Change in Latin America
[ fl hum nw wi ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
We will examine the relationship between art (including literature, film, and fine arts) and society in Latin America during the twentieth century. We will use significant examples drawn from three major socio-historical eras: the political and artistic vanguards of the 1920s (with particular attention to the Mexican Revolution and its aftermath); the 1960s and the cultural significance of the Cuban Revolution; and the 1990s period of transition to democracy and emergence of identity and minority-based social movements, with a renewed significance of artistic and literary languages. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Rosenberg

HISP 161b Reality Effects: From the Realist Novel to the Reality Show
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Explores the pursuit of the illusion of reality in modern/contemporary Latin American narrative, documentary film, and media. We focus on four case studies: realist fiction; documentary film; testimonial discourses; reality television and its influence on contemporary fiction from the region. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Arellano

HISP 163a The Latin American Boom and Beyond
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit.
Examines texts of the Latin American "boom" as well as contemporary narrative trends. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Arellano

HISP 164b Studies in Latin American Literature
[ fl hum nw wi ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit.
A comparative and critical study of main trends, ideas, and cultural formations in Latin America. Topics vary year to year and have included fiction and history in Latin American literature, nation and narration, Latin American autobiography, art and revolution in Latin America, and humor in Latin America. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Rosenberg

HISP 165b The Storyteller: Short Fiction in Latin America
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. This is an experiential learning course.
Reflects on storytelling, authority, cultural transmission, the power of narrative in shaping subjects and communities in Latin American short stories. We will examine more culturally specific topics such as the conflictive filiations of the short story (pre-Columbian, European, etc), the tension between literacy and oral traditions, peripheral modernities, and the formation of the public and citizenship. Students are encouraged to write their own fiction applying what they learn in class and will have the opportunity to organize a story-telling event working with Waltham's Spanish-speaking community. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Rosenberg

HISP 167b Colonial Imaginaries and Postcolonial Fictions in the Americas
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisites: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Explores the ongoing and often conflicted dialogue that writers, essayists and filmmakers in the modern/contemporary Americas establish with texts, historical figures, and socio-cultural processes of the colonial period. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Arellano

HISP 175b Contemporary Latin American Fiction
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Explores excerpts from works of fiction by Nobel-prize laureates Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa, published in the 1960's and 70's, then contrasts these narratives to very recent developments in Latin American fiction of the 21st century. We will discuss how young writers in Latin America depart from their famous predecessors and set out to explore a range of new topics, including global pop culture, the Latin American drug trade, and love relationships in cyberspace. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Arellano

HISP 192b Latin American Global Film
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisites: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
An examination of films from Latin America or about Latin American topics. Considering film production and circulation, the class focuses on how images travel, how local stories and images are projected globally, and how Latin America and its "local" cultures are processed outside of their borders. Close analysis of visual representation complemented by a historically and culturally informed background. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Rosenberg

HISP 196a Topics in Latina/o Literature and Culture
[ hum ]
May be repeated for credit. Taught in English.
Offers students the opportunity for in-depth study of a particular aspect of the diverse literary and cultural production of U.S. latinas and latinos. Topics will vary from year to year but may include autobiography, detective fiction, or historical fiction. Usually offered every third year.
Mr. Mandrell

HIST 71a Empire and Its Discontents: Latin America from Conquest to Independence
[ hum nw ss ]
Introduction to the historical foundations of Latin America: Amerindian civilizations, Spanish conquest, colonial economy and society, independence movements, and their aftermath. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Fernandez

HIST 71b Latin American History, 1870 to the Present
[ hum nw ss ]
Modern Latin America, with stress on the interactions of economics, politics, and external dependency in the region. Usually offered every year.
Staff

HIST 171b Latinos in the U.S.
[ ss ]
No longer writing intensive beginning spring 2013.
History of the different Latino groups in the United States from the nineteenth century when westward expansion incorporated Mexican populations through the twentieth century waves of migration from Latin America. Explores the diversity of Latino experiences including identity, work, community, race, gender, and political activism. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HIST 172a 20th Century Social Movements in the Americas
[ ss ]
Examines social movements in Latin America in the 20th and 21st centuries, covering feminism, labor activism, ethnic mobilization, peasant rebellion, environmental defense, resistance to dictatorship, anti-imperialism, and related topics. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HIST 173b Latin American Women: Heroines, Icons, and History
[ nw ss wi ]
Graduate students who wish to take this course for credit must complete additional assignments.
Explores Latin American women's history by focusing on female icons and heroines such as La Malinche, Sor Juana, Eva Perón, Carmen Miranda, and the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. Topics include conquest, mestizaje, religion, independence, tropical exoticism, dictatorship, and social movements. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HIST 175a Topics in Latin American History
[ nw ss wi ]
Course may be repeated for credit.
Examines a major theme or problem in Latin American history. Topics very from year to year. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

IGS 170a The Rise of Brazil
[ ss ]
Examines how Brazil now wields global influence in energy, South-South politics, culture and environmental affairs. This course looks at key elements - from the favela to high finance, carnvial to Candomblé - that make up one of the world's most dynamic societies. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Lino e Silva

POL 131b Social Movements in Latin America
[ ss ]
Origins, dynamics, and social and cultural impact of movements among indigenous groups, women, peasants, and blacks in Latin America since the 1980s. Comparative study of other social movements in Latin America and elsewhere in the world. Usually offered every year.
Staff

POL 144a Latin American Politics I
[ nw ss ]
Revolution, order, and regime transition in northern Latin America. Specific examination of the Mexican and Cuban revolutions and their outcomes. POL 144a is independent of POL 144b. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Hindley

POL 144b Latin American Politics II
[ nw ss ]
Emphasis on elite control, the military, the political role of populist politics, and the uncertain process of democratization. Brazil and Argentina are examined specifically. POL 144b is independent of POL 144a. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Hindley

THA 147a Latino Theater
[ ca ]
A survey and practice oriented course for students interested in learning about the history and legacies of U.S. Latino theater. Students will read assigned work, write critical reflections and create original works. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

LALS Elective Courses (requiring a substantial paper)

The following electives, which include Latin America or the Caribbean as one of the several areas studied, normally count toward the major or minor only if students write a paper on Latin America, the Caribbean, or the Latin American Diaspora.

AAAS 123a Third World Ideologies
[ nw ss wi ]
Analyzes ideological concepts developed by seminal Third World political thinkers and their application to modern political analysis. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AAAS 126b Political Economy of the Third World
[ nw ss wi ]
Development of capitalism and different roles and functions assigned to all "Third Worlds," in the periphery as well as the center. Special attention will be paid to African and Afro-American peripheries. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Nyangoni

AMST 55a Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration in American Culture
[ ss ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took AMST 169a in prior years. This is an experiential learning course.
Provides an introductory overview of the study of race, ethnicity, and culture in the United States. Focuses on the historical, sociological, and political movements that affected the arrival and settlement of African, Asian, European, American Indian, and Latino populations in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Utilizing theoretical and discursive perspectives, compares and explores the experiences of these groups in the United States in relation to issues of immigration, population relocations, government and civil legislation, ethnic identity, gender and family relations, class, and community. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ANTH 55a Anthropology of Development
[ nw ss ]
This course combines an examination of the historical development of "development" concepts and institutions with case studies of particular developmental projects in the United States and abroad. Throughout the course, we will sustain a dynamic interplay between development theory and practice. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ferry

ANTH 136a Archaeology of Power: Authority, Prestige, and Inequality in the Past
[ nw ss ]
Anthropological and archaeological research and theory provide a unique, long-term perspective on the development of inequality and rise of hierarchical societies, including the earliest ancient states such as the Moche, Maya, China, Sumerians, Egyptians, and others through 5000 years of human history. A comparative, multidisciplinary seminar examining the dynamics of authority, prestige, and power in the past, and the implications for understanding the present . Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Golden

ANTH 153a Writing Systems and Scribal Traditions
[ nw ss ]
Explores the ways in which writing has been conceptualized in social anthropology, linguistics and archaeology. A comparative study of various forms of visual communication, both non-glottic and glottic systems, is undertaken to better understand the nature of pristine and contemporary phonetic scripts around the world and to consider alternative models to explain their origin, prestige, and obsolescence. The course pays particular attention to the social functions of early writing systems, the linkage of literacy and political power, and the production of historical memory. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Urcid

ANTH 156a Power and Violence: The Anthropology of Political Systems
[ nw ss ]
Political orders are established and maintained by varying combinations of overt violence and the more subtle workings of ideas. The course examines the relationship of coercion and consensus, and forms of resistance, in historical and contemporary settings. Usually offered every second year.
Ms. Ferry

ANTH 184b Cross-Cultural Art and Aesthetics
[ nw ss ]
A cross-cultural and diachronic exploration of art, focusing on the communicative aspects of visual aesthetics. The survey takes a broad view of how human societies deploy images and objects to foster identities, lure into consumption, generate political propaganda, engage in ritual, render sacred propositions tangible, and chart the character of the cosmos. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Urcid

COML 135a Before the Law: Justice in Literature and Film
[ hum ]
Examines works of fiction and film as a means of addressing the problem of justice, highlighting by the same token the symbolic fabric of the law and the performative elements of legal institutions. We will focus on cultural expressions from Europe and Latin America that address the problem of the state and its subjects in a context of modernity broadly defined. Usually offered every fourth year.
Mr. Rosenberg

ENG 138a Making Modern Subjects: Empire, Citizenship, Intimacy
[ hum ]
Considers inflections of "the modern" across the Americas, allowing us to compare models and strategies at a historical moment when shifts from slavery to "freedom" and from Europe to the U.S.A., frame anxieties about empire, citizenship, technology, vernaculars, and aesthetics. Usually offered every third year.
Ms. Smith

HISP 109b Introduction to Hispanic Cultural Studies
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 106b, or HISP 108a, or permission of the instructor.
Introduces students to basic ideas with respect to the study of Hispanic cultures. "Texts" are drawn from a variety of cultures and traditions and might include literature, film, magazines, music, and people. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Mandrell

HISP 140a Topics in Poetry
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b, or HISP 110a, or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Topics vary from year to year, but may focus on different periods, poets, or poetics from both sides of the Atlantic. Study may include jarchas, Garcilaso de la Vega, Bécquer, the Generation of '98 or '27, Neruda, Vallejo, Rosario Castellanos, Octavio Paz, Huidobro, Borges. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Mandrell

HISP 194b Borderland Literature and Visual Culture in Latin America and the United States
[ hum nw wi ]
Open to all students; conducted in English.
Examines literature, visual art, and cinema produced at the intersection between North and South America, focusing on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Southern United States, and immigrant Latino communities. We consider works by William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Gabriel García Márquez, Junot Díaz, Roberto Bolaño, Coco Fusco, Lourdes Portillo, and Luis Valdez, among others. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Arellano

HIST 115a History of Comparative Race and Ethnic Relations
[ ss ]
Explores and understands the origin and nature of racial and ethnic differences in the United States, South Africa, and Brazil. Explores how theoreticians explain and account for differences, and how race and ethnicity relate to economic class and social institutions. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

POL 128a The Politics of Revolution: State Violence and Popular Insurgency in the Third World
[ nw ss ]
Introduction to twentieth-century revolutionary movements in the Third World, focusing on the emergence of peasant-based resistance and revolution in the world beyond the West, and on the role of state violence in provoking popular involvement in protest, rebellion, and insurgency. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Thaxton

POL 180b Sustaining Development
[ nw ss ]
Prerequisite: Some familiarity with development issues.
Explores different institutionalized approaches to development. Examines how institutions affect development in selected geographic areas, at levels ranging from local to national and international. Considers why similar policies when implemented in different ways may lead to quite distinct outcomes. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

SOC 122a The Sociology of American Immigration
[ ss ]
Most of us descend from immigrants. Focusing on the United States but in a global perspective, we address the following questions: Why do people migrate? How does this affect immigrants' occupations, gendered households, rights, identities, youth, and race relations with other groups? Usually offered every second year.
Staff

LALS Elective Courses (if Latin America or Caribbean is primary focus)

The following electives count toward LALS only in those years when they analyze films or texts from Latin America, the Caribbean, or the Latin American Diaspora.

HISP 193b Topics in Cinema
[ hum wi ]
Open to all students; conducted in English. Course may be repeated for credit.
Topics vary from year to year but might include consideration of a specific director, an outline of the history of a national cinema, a particular moment in film history, or Hollywood cinema in Spanish. Usually offered every second year.
Mr. Mandrell or Mr. Rosenberg

POL 146b Seminar: Topics in Revolutions in the Third World
[ nw ss ]
May be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor.
Explores revolutionary situations, revolutionary movements (successful and unsuccessful), and revolutionary regimes in the Third World since World War II. Specific topics may vary from year to year. Usually offered every year.
Mr. Hindley