An interdepartmental program in Latin American and Latino Studies

Last updated: July 16, 2018 at 2:40 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), two courses in the humanities and two courses in the social sciences. Other course offerings in the disciplines 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; and critical 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:

  1. The history and current circumstances of Latin America and the peoples living there;
  2. The history and current circumstances of Latinos living in the US or elsewhere outside of the geographic boundaries of Latin America;
  3. The hemispheric and global connections between Latin America, Latinos and other places and peoples;
  4. 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:

  1. Conduct scholarly or professional research applying different critical methods, such as textual analysis and fieldwork, using primary and secondary sources;
  2. Evaluate information and cultural artifacts critically, with particular attention to examining taken-for-granted assumptions about U.S. Latinos and/or Latin America;
  3. 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:

  1. Pursue graduate study and a scholarly career in Latin American studies or in one of the disciplines represented in the program;
  2. 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 including 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

Jerónimo Arellano, Chair
(Romance Studies)

Patricia Álvarez Astacio
(Anthropology)

Greg Childs
(History)

Cristina Espinosa
(Heller)

Elizabeth Ferry
(Anthropology)

Charles Golden
(Anthropology)

Lucia Reyes de Deu
 (Romance Studies)

Fernando Rosenberg
(Romance Studies)

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

Alejandro Trelles
(Politics)

Javier Urcid 
 (Anthropology)

Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
Laura Brown (Latin American and Latino Studies; Romance Studies)
Ricardo Godoy (Heller School)
James Mandrell (Romance Studies; Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies)
Wellington Nyangoni (African and Afro-American Studies)
Laurence Simon (Heller School)

Requirements for the Minor

The minor in Latin American and Latino studies consists of five semester courses in at least three disciplines.

A. 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.

B. Four additional semester courses from the course listings under Latin American and Latino studies.

C. No more than two of the required five courses may be from the same department; 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. No course taken pass/fail may count toward the minor requirements.

E. No more than three study abroad courses may count towards the minor.

Requirements for the Major

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.

A. 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.

B. At least two LALS courses in the Social Sciences.

C. At least two LALS courses in the Humanities.

D. Four additional elective courses may be taken from courses listed as counting for LALS credit.

E. A passing grade in any 30-level Spanish class, or equivalent placement. This can be substituted by a reading competency examination in Spanish, Portuguese, or another language spoken in Latin America (with permission of the LALS committee).

G. No course with a final grade below C- can count toward the LALS major. No course taken pass/fail may count toward the major requirements. 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 more than four study abroad courses may count towards the major.

Courses of Instruction

(1-99) Primarily for Undergraduate Students

LALS 1a Introduction to Latin American and Latino Studies: History, Politics, and Culture
[ nw ss ]
Provides a broad overview of the histories, cultures, and politics that continue to shape the Americas, from Tierra del Fuego to the United States. This requires a truly interdisciplinary approach, drawing on all of the disciplines that constitute Latin American and Latino Studies, including anthropology, politics, history, Hispanic studies, and more. Usually offered every year.
Staff

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 2018: HISP 198a Experiential Research Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies counts for LALS 100a. Spring 2019: AAAS 133b The Literature of the Caribbean 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 170a Sports, Games, and Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean
[ ss wi ]
Sports are one of Latin America's biggest exports and imports. This course, engaging with cultural studies theory and interdisciplinary readings, examines the politics and social forces behind sports such as soccer, cricket, baseball, wrestling, and bullfighting. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Brown

Electives in Humanities

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.
Faith Smith

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.
Faith Smith

ENG 127b Migrating Bodies, Migrating Texts
[ hum nw ]
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.
Faith Smith

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.
Lucía Reyes de Deu or Staff

HISP 111b Introduction to Latin American Literature and Culture
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: HISP 106b, or HISP 108a, or permission of the instructor.
Examines key Latin American texts of different genres (poems, short stories and excerpts from novels, chronicles, comics, screenplays, cyberfiction) and from different time periods from the conquest to modernity. This class places emphasis on problems of cultural definition and identity construction as they are elaborated in literary discourse. Identifying major themes (coloniality and emancipation, modernismo and modernity, indigenismo, hybridity and mestizaje, nationalisms, Pan-Americanism, etc.) we will trace continuities and ruptures throughout Latin American intellectual history. Usually offered every semester.
Jerónimo Arellano, Lucía Reyes de Deu, or Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 142b Literature, Film, and Human Rights in Latin America
[ hum nw ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took HECS 42b in prior years. May be taught in English or Spanish.
Examines literature, film (fiction and non-fiction) and other artistic expressions from Latin America, in conversation with the idea of human rights—from the colonial arguments about slavery and the 'natural rights' of the indigenous, to the advent of human rights in the context of post-conflict truth and reconciliation processes, to the emergence of gender and ethnicity as into the human rights framework, to the current debates about rights of nature in the midst of a global ecological crisis. Usually offered every third year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 160a Culture and Social Change in Latin America
[ fl hum nw wi ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Examines the relationship between the arts (including literature, film, and fine arts) and society in Latin America during the twentieth century by focusing on three historical conjunctures when this relationship was particularly rich: the political and artistic vanguards of the 1920s (with particular attention to the Mexican Revolution and its aftermath); the 1960s, marked by the historical turning point of the Cuban Revolution; and the decade of the 1990s, characterized by the transition to democracy, the emergence of human rights and other social movements. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 162b New Latin American Cinema: From Revolution to the Market
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Studies and compares two pivotal periods of film production, both of which were considered "new waves" of Latin American cinema. On the one hand, the new cinemas of the 1960s and 1970s, which accompanied moments of radical change and movements of revolutionary insurrection. On the other hand, the film boom of the 1990s and 2000s, in which aesthetic experimentation intersected with new realities of neoliberal policies and market globalization. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 164b Studies in Latin American Literature
[ fl hum nw wi ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b 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.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 165b The Storyteller: Short Fiction in Latin America
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Through a study of Latin American short stories, we will reflect on the power of storytelling and fictional narrative to shape subjectivity and community. We will also examine some culturally specific topics reflected in these stories, such as conflictive cultural filiations (pre-Columbian, European, etc), the tension between literacy and oral traditions, the dynamics of modernity in the periphery, and the formation of the reading public and citizenship. This class has an experiential-creative component, as students will have the chance to write fiction applying techniques studied in class. In addition, when the practicum is offered students will have the opportunity to organize a story-telling event working with Waltham's Spanish-speaking community. Usually offered every third year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 167b Twice-Told Tales: Colonial Encounters and Postcolonial Fiction in the Americas
[ hum nw wi ]
Taught in English.
A wide range of modern and contemporary writers and artists in the Americas have examined the legacies of European colonialism in the continent. This course explores this persistent engagement with colonialism in narrative fiction and cinema from Latin American and the United States. The first part of the course introduces key texts from the colonial period, written by European and indigenous chroniclers of the colonization of the New World. In the second part of the course we look at fiction, film, and visual art by Latin American, African American and Native American artists who set out to retell colonial histories in the present, oftentimes in controversial ways. Materials discussed include works by Juan José Saer, Octavia Butler, Coco Fusco, Guillermo Gómez Peña, Gerald Vizenor, Peter Greenaway, and Nelson Pereira dos Santos, among others. Usually offered every second year.
Jerónimo Arellano

HISP 175b Millennial Latin American Fiction and Graphic Novels
[ fl hum ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Taught in Spanish.
Examines literary fiction and graphic novels written in Latin America in the last twenty years. We will explore how new generations of writers and graphic novelists in Latin America distinguish themselves from preceding generations and set out to explore a range of new narrative forms and social issues, such as new forms of horror and fantasy, contemporary forms of precarity and social marginality, global commodity culture, and online dating, among others. Usually offered every second year.
Jerónimo Arellano

HISP 182a Narco Cultures in Latin America and the United States
[ fl hum nw ]
Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.
Explores literature, cinema, visual art, and music that engage with narco cultures and the war on drugs in contemporary Latin America and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. We will situate these narratives and artworks in relation to the history of the commerce and prohibition of mind- and mood-altering substances (e.g. coca, tobacco, mescaline, chocolate) in the colonial Americas. Usually offered every second year.
Jerónimo Arellano

HISP 192b Latin American Global Film
[ hum nw ]
May be taught in English or Spanish.
Studies films that re-imagine Latin America’s place in the world, focusing on how images are produced and consumed transnationally. ‘Traditional’ topics like cultural identity are refashioned for international consumption, and local issues are dramatized as already crisscrossed by global flows of which the films themselves partake. Close analysis of visual representation and film techniques will be complemented in each case by a study of historical and cultural background. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 196a Topics in Latina/o Literature and Culture
[ hum wi ]
May be repeated for credit. May be taught in English or Spanish.
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.
James Mandrell or Lucía Reyes de Deu

HIST 71a Latin American and Caribbean History I: Colonialism, Slavery, Freedom
[ hum nw ss ]
Studies colonialism in Latin America and Caribbean, focusing on coerced labor and struggles for freedom as defining features of the period: conquest; Indigenous, African, and Asian labor; colonial institutions and economics; Independence and revolutionary movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Childs

HIST 71b Latin American and Caribbean History II: Modernity, Medicine, Sexuality
[ hum nw ss ]
Studies the idea of "modernity" in Latin America and Caribbean, centered on roles of health and human reproduction in definitions of the "modern" citizen: post-slavery labor, race and national identity; modern politics and economics; transnational relations. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Childs

NEJS 132a The Jews of Latin America
[ hum ]
Through historical analysis of literature, theater and art, this course will explore the multiple understandings of Jewishness that arose in Latin America from the colonial times to the present, as well as how the idea of Jewishness and Jewish inclusion in society was incorporated into larger national conversations of identity and belonging. Usually offered every second year.
Dalia Wassner

Electives in Social Sciences

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.
Faith 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.
Faith Smith

ANTH 107a Wealth, Value, and Power in a World without Money
[ nw ss ]
Examines the relationships of value, wealth, power, and authority in the Aztec Empire, Inka Empire and Classic period Maya kingdoms of the Prehispanic Americas. In so doing it raises questions about the origins of these relationships in modern states. Usually offered every third year.
Charles Golden

ANTH 119a Conquests, Resistance, and Cultural Transformation in Mexico and Central America
[ nw ss wi ]
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.
Charles 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.
Patricia Alvarez or Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 147b Mesoamerican Civilizations and Their Legacies
[ nw ss ]
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.
Javier Urcid

ANTH 168a The Maya: Past, Present and Future
[ nw ss wi ]
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.
Charles Golden

HIST 71a Latin American and Caribbean History I: Colonialism, Slavery, Freedom
[ hum nw ss ]
Studies colonialism in Latin America and Caribbean, focusing on coerced labor and struggles for freedom as defining features of the period: conquest; Indigenous, African, and Asian labor; colonial institutions and economics; Independence and revolutionary movements. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Childs

HIST 71b Latin American and Caribbean History II: Modernity, Medicine, Sexuality
[ hum nw ss ]
Studies the idea of "modernity" in Latin America and Caribbean, centered on roles of health and human reproduction in definitions of the "modern" citizen: post-slavery labor, race and national identity; modern politics and economics; transnational relations. Usually offered every year.
Gregory Childs

HIST 171b Latinos in the U.S.
[ ss ]
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 174a U.S. Relations with Latin America and the Caribbean
[ nw ss wi ]
Explores United States economic, political, and cultural relations with the major Caribbean nations in the context of U.S. relations with Latin American nations. Topics include interventions, cultural understandings and misunderstandings, migration, and transnationalism. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

HIST 175b Resistance and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean
[ nw ss wi ]
Focuses on questions of race, gender and modernity in resistence movements and revolutions in Latin American and Caribbean history. The Haitian Revolution, Tupac Amaru Rebellion, and Vaccination Riots in Brazil are some topics that will be covered. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs

LALS 1a Introduction to Latin American and Latino Studies: History, Politics, and Culture
[ nw ss ]
Provides a broad overview of the histories, cultures, and politics that continue to shape the Americas, from Tierra del Fuego to the United States. This requires a truly interdisciplinary approach, drawing on all of the disciplines that constitute Latin American and Latino Studies, including anthropology, politics, history, Hispanic studies, and more. Usually offered every year.
Staff

LALS 170a Sports, Games, and Politics in Latin America and the Caribbean
[ ss wi ]
Sports are one of Latin America's biggest exports and imports. This course, engaging with cultural studies theory and interdisciplinary readings, examines the politics and social forces behind sports such as soccer, cricket, baseball, wrestling, and bullfighting. Usually offered every third year.
Laura Brown

POL 144a Latin American Politics
[ nw ss ]
Examines the development and deepening of democracy in Latin America, focusing on the role of political institutions, economic development, the military, and U.S.-Latin American relations. Usually offered every year.
Alejandro Trelles

POL 149b Narco-Politics
[ ss wi ]
Analyzes patterns of national politics shaped by the illicit drug trade, their causes and effects. Research on corruption and violence will be applied mainly to Latin American and American settings, with the goal of improving policy interventions. Usually offered every year.
Staff

LALS Elective Courses

FA 77b Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Latin American Art
[ ca nw ]
May not be taken for credit by students who took FA 24b in prior years.
This course is a selective survey of the outstanding figures and movements that have made significant contributions to the history of Latin American art. Special focus will be on Mexican, Argentinean, Brazilian, Venezuelan and Cuban artists. Usually offered every third year.
Staff

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.
Gannit Ankori

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.
Wellington 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.
Wellington Nyangoni

AMST 55a Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration in American Culture
[ ss ]
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 ]
Examines efforts to address global poverty that are typically labeled as "development." Privileging the perspectives of ordinary people, and looking carefully at the institutions involved in development, the course relies on ethnographic case studies that will draw students into the complexity of global inequality. Broad development themes such as public health, agriculture, the environment, democracy, poverty, and entrepreneurship will be explored. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

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.
Charles 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.
Javier 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.
Elizabeth 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.
Javier Urcid

HIST 162a Writing on the Wall: Histories of Graffiti in the Americas
[ ss ]
Focuses on the history of graffiti in the U.S. from 1960s forward. Includes the historical role of Caribbean migration, the impact of criminology and economic recession of the 1970s on graffiti culture, and the relationship between private property, public space, and graffiti. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs

HIST 172b Historicizing the Black Radical Tradition
[ ss ]
Introduces students to the many ways that people and scholars of African descent have historically struggled against racial oppresion by formulating theories, philosophies, and practices of liberation rooted in their experiences and understandings of labor, capitalism, and modernity. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs

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.
Ralph Thaxton

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.
Kristen Lucken

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.
James Mandrell or Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 198a Experiential Research Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies
[ hum wi ]
May be taught in English or Spanish.
A research seminar in which each student has the opportunity to become an “expert” in a Hispanic literary or cultural text/topic that captures her or his imagination, inspired by a study abroad experience; an earlier class in Hispanic Studies; community-engaged learning; etc. Instruction in literary/cultural theory, researching a subject, and analytical skills necessary for developing a scholarly argument. Students present research in progress and write a research paper of significant length. Usually offered every year.
Fernando Rosenberg or Jerónimo Arellano