University Bulletin (2023-2024)

• Minor
• Major (BA)

The Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx 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.

The Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies (LACLS) 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 LACLS major and minor moves beyond a particular area to view communities and regions as embedded within global processes.

The deep commitment of faculty in LACLS 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 completion of the upper level writing intensive seminar designated each semester as fulfilling the requirement for the major or minor and the fact that many students focus on one or two specific disciplines in completing their major or minor.

LACLS 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 the upper level writing intensive seminar designated each semester as fulfilling the requirement for the major or minor, 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 LACLS 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 LACLS 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 Latinx people living in the US or elsewhere outside of the geographic boundaries of Latin America and the Caribbean;
3. The hemispheric and global connections between Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinx communities and people and other places and peoples;
4. One or more languages spoken in Latin America (not including English).

Core Skills

The LACLS major also emphasizes core skills in data collection, critical thinking and communication. LACLS 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 Latinx Studies and/or Latin America and the Caribbean;
3. Generate original, informed ideas and insights about Latin America and the Caribbean,  and Latinx people, 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 LACLS 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 LACLS 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 LACLS major will be prepared to:

1. Pursue graduate study and a scholarly career in Latin American, Caribbean, and/or Latinx 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.

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.

Elizabeth Ferry, Chair
(Anthropology)

Patricia Álvarez Astacio
(Anthropology)

Gregory Childs
(History)

Maria Durán
(Romance Studies)

Charles Golden
(Anthropology)

Sarah Mayorga
(Sociology)

Lucia Reyes de Deu
(Romance Studies)

Fernando Rosenberg
(Romance Studies)

Faith Lois Smith
(African and African American Studies; English)

Alejandro Trelles
(Politics)

Javier Urcid 
(Anthropology)

Affiliated Faculty (contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)
Cristina Espinosa (Heller School)
Ricardo Godoy (Heller School)
Charlie Goudge (Anthropology)
Prakash Kashwan (Environmental Studies)
James Mandrell (Romance Studies; Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies)
Aldo Musacchio (IBS)
Laurence Simon (Heller School)

The minor in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies consists of five semester courses in at least three departments.

1. One upper level writing intensive seminar designated by the program as fulfilling the seminar requirement.
2. Four additional semester courses from the course listings under Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx studies.
3. 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 LACLS.
4. No course with a final grade below C- can count toward the LACLS minor. No course taken pass/fail may count toward the minor requirements.
5. No more than three study abroad courses may count towards the minor.

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 LACLS.

1. LALS 1a, designated as fulfilling the oral communication requirement.
2. One upper level writing intensive seminar designated by the program as fulfilling the seminar requirement.
3. Seven additional elective classes are required. At least two of these must be humanities courses offered by departments and programs in the Division of Humanities or Creative Arts. At least two of these electives must be social science courses offered by departments and programs in the Division of Social Sciences.
4. Language requirement: majoring in LACLS requires a passing grade in any 30-level Spanish or French class, or equivalent placement. This can be substituted by a reading competency examination in Spanish, French or another language spoken in Latin America such as Portuguese, Nahuatl, or Aymara, for example (with permission of the LACLS committee).
5. Foundational Literacies: As part of completing the Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies major, students must:
   • Fulfill the writing intensive requirement by successfully completing one of the following: The upper level writing intensive seminar designated each semester as fulfilling the requirement for the major, or equivalent.
   • Fulfill the oral communication requirement by successfully completing: LACLS 1a.
   • Fulfill the digital literacy requirement by successfully completing: Any LACLS  course approved for DL.
6. No course with a final grade below C- can count toward the LACLS 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.
7. No more than four study abroad courses may count towards the major.

LACLS 1a Introduction to Latin American/LatinX: Cultures, Histories, and Societies
[ nw oc ss ]

Provides a broad overview of the histories, cultures, and politics that continue to shape the Americas; specifically of the vast regions and populations of what came to be labeled as "Latin America," "the Caribbean" and what we now call "Latinx " populations in the USA. The class provides an introduction to Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies. It draws from different disciplines and fields of study that compose this field, such as history, anthropology, literature, visual arts, film, political science, among other perspectives and methodologies. Usually offered every year.
Staff

LACLS 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

LACLS 98a Independent Study

Usually offered every year.
Staff

LACLS 98b Independent Study

Usually offered every year.
Staff

LACLS 99d Senior Research

Independent research and writing, under faculty director, of a senior thesis. Usually offered every year.
Staff

LACLS 152a Race and Nation in the Caribbean
[ deis-us djw hum ]

The Caribbean is an emblematic site for understanding the origins of modern forms of capitalism, globalization, and trans-nationalism. In this course, we will explore how academics and people in the Caribbean deploy ideas about 'race' and 'nation' to make sense of these transformations and impacts in the region. In particular, we will discuss the founding moments of Caribbean history, including colonialism, the genocide of Native populations, the enslavement of African people, the rise of plantation economies, and the development of global networks of goods and peoples. We will also examine tourism and debt as the continuation of long- extractive colonial practices that continue to generate stark inequalities and racial hierarchies in the region. Special one-time offering, spring 2021.
Isar Godreau

ANTH 119a Conquests, Resistance, and Cultural Transformation in Mexico and Central America
[ djw 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
[ djw ss wi ]

Anthropology and LACLS 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 Astacio or Elizabeth Ferry

POL 144a Latin American Politics
[ djw nw ss wi ]

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

ANTH 129a Culture in 3D: Theory, Method, and Ethics for Scanning and Printing the World
[ dl ss ]

Designed to train students in the methods needed for the successful application of 3D modeling and printing for the documentation, conservation, and dissemination of cultural patrimony. Students will acquire the technical skills and engage in the ethical debates surrounding ownership and reproduction of such patrimony. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden and Ian Roy

ANTH 156a Power and Violence: The Anthropology of Political Systems
[ deis-us dl 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

HISP 123b Supernatural Latin America: The Visual Culture of the Unknown
[ dl hum ]

Latin America is haunted by the specters of countless colonial genocides, ritual sacrifices, fratricidal wars, thousands of disappeared. Its vast territory is swarming with ruins, ghost towns, the emptiness of devastated fauna and languages killed by ecocide. This course explores the numerous ways Latin American artists have made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and the supernatural, developing a rich visual culture of the intangible. Some of the topics that we will address in this journey into the unknowable are: popular culture and the paranormal/supernatural; otherworldly visitors; aura, trauma, and art; avant-gardes and the supernatural; hauntology; contemporary witch culture; uncanny spaces. Works by Jayro Bustamante, Leonora Carrington, Guillermo del Toro, Mariana Enríquez, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Samanta Schweblin, Xul Solar, among others. Usually offered every third year.

Staff

HISP 198a Experiential Research Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies
[ dl hum oc ]

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 Staff

HIST 162a Writing on the Wall: Histories of Graffiti in the Americas
[ djw dl 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

SOC 110a Latinx Sociology
[ deis-us dl ss ]

Focuses on the sociology of Latinx communities within the United States. The course will cover a variety of topics that are of interest to sociologists, including race, gender, sexuality, class, family, immigration, and activism. Usually offered every third year.
Sarah Mayorga

LACLS 1a Introduction to Latin American/LatinX: Cultures, Histories, and Societies
[ nw oc ss ]

Provides a broad overview of the histories, cultures, and politics that continue to shape the Americas; specifically of the vast regions and populations of what came to be labeled as "Latin America," "the Caribbean" and what we now call "Latinx " populations in the USA. The class provides an introduction to Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies. It draws from different disciplines and fields of study that compose this field, such as history, anthropology, literature, visual arts, film, political science, among other perspectives and methodologies. Usually offered every year.
Staff

ANTH 119a Conquests, Resistance, and Cultural Transformation in Mexico and Central America
[ djw 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
[ djw ss wi ]

Anthropology and LACLS 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 Astacio or Elizabeth Ferry

POL 144a Latin American Politics
[ djw nw ss wi ]

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

AAAS 124a After the Dance: Performing Sovereignty in the Caribbean
[ hum oc ss ]

Utilizing short fiction, essays, plays, poetry, and the visual arts, this class theorizes movement and/as freedom in the spectacular or mundane movements of the region, including annual Carnival and Hosay celebrations. Usually offered every third 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
[ djw 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

ENG 168b Plotting Inheritance
[ djw dl hum ]

Examines novels published in the last two decades set during slavery and indenture in the British Caribbean, alongside (and as) theorizations of accumulation, inheritance, and freedom. How does fiction account for and plot material, moral and emotional worth? Usually offered every third year.
Faith Smith

FA 77b Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Latin American Art
[ ca nw ]

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 second year.
Staff

HISP 85a Introduction to U.S. Latinx Literatures and Cultures
[ deis-us djw dl hum ]

Introduces students to U.S. Latinx cultural productions and to the interdisciplinary questions that concern U.S. Latinx communities. Latinxs have played a vital role in the history, politics, and cultures of the United States. U.S. Latinx literary works, in particular, have established important socio-historical and aesthetic networks that highlight Latinx expression and lived experiences, engaging with issues including biculturalism, language, citizenship, systems of value, and intersectional identity. Though the Latinx literary tradition spans more than 400 years, this course will focus on 20th and 21st century texts that decolonize nationalist approaches to Latinidad(es) and therefore challenge existing Latinx literary 'canons.' Taught in English. Usually offered every year.
María J. Durán

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.
Staff

HISP 111b Introduction to Latin American Literature and Culture
[ djw 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.
Lucía Reyes de Deu or Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 121b Sexualidades disidentes del sur (ensayo, ficción, cine)
[ djw fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HISP 108a, HISP 111b, or instructor approval

We will study cultural texts (fiction, essay, film) to approach issues of gender and sexuality in Latin America. The last three decades have been characterized by the emergence of gender and sexualities as central to the articulation of political and cultural dissent, with profound impact on all aspects of social life. LGBTQ+ and new generation feminist movements, artists, and cultural agents incorporate issues of class, ethnicity, coloniality, and the environment in their interventions and struggles. Usually offered every third year.

Fernando J. Rosenberg

HISP 122b Made in las Americas: Stories about Growing up Latinx
[ deis-us djw hum ]

Examines what it means to grow up Latinx in a multicultural United States through a focus on Latinx young adult literature and Latinx youth culture. Surveying a range of literary works that address the development of Latinx children and adolescents, we will pay special attention to coming-of-age stories that explore how Latinx negotiate ethno-racial identity, find and assert their own voice, and gain a greater understanding about their cultural differences. We will explore what intimate knowledge Latinx youth share and how they make meaning of critical, even ostensibly trivial, life moments to construct their ever-evolving sense of self and their relationship to both Latinx and non-Latinx communities. Usually offered every second year.

HISP 123b Supernatural Latin America: The Visual Culture of the Unknown
[ dl hum ]

Latin America is haunted by the specters of countless colonial genocides, ritual sacrifices, fratricidal wars, thousands of disappeared. Its vast territory is swarming with ruins, ghost towns, the emptiness of devastated fauna and languages killed by ecocide. This course explores the numerous ways Latin American artists have made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and the supernatural, developing a rich visual culture of the intangible. Some of the topics that we will address in this journey into the unknowable are: popular culture and the paranormal/supernatural; otherworldly visitors; aura, trauma, and art; avant-gardes and the supernatural; hauntology; contemporary witch culture; uncanny spaces. Works by Jayro Bustamante, Leonora Carrington, Guillermo del Toro, Mariana Enríquez, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Samanta Schweblin, Xul Solar, among others. Usually offered every third year.

Staff

HISP 152b Monsters, Creatures, and Cyborgs in Latin/x American Cinema, Fiction, and BioArt
[ hum nw ]

Taught in English.

Explores posthuman and creaturely life in monster films, science fiction, and bioart created by Latin American and Latinx artists. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which the non- and post-human emerges as a space in which artists wrestle with otherness, identity, racial capitalism, and the rise of new technologies. Usually offered every second year.

Staff

HISP 158a Latina Feminisms
[ deis-us djw hum ]

Taught in English.

Explores the theoretical frameworks and literary productions of feminisms developed by Latina/xs. It introduces students to a diversity of backgrounds and experiences (Chicana, Dominican American, Cuban American, Salvadoran American, and Puerto Rican authors) as well as a variety of genres (i.e. novel, poetry, short stories, drama). Using intersectionality as a theoretical tool for analyzing oppressions, students will explore the complex politics of gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, and race in the lives of Latina/xs. They will also explore Latina/x feminists' theoretical and/or practical attempts to transcend socially-constructed categories of identity, while acknowledging existing material inequalities. Usually offered every third year.
María J. Durán

HISP 160a Culture/Media and Social Change in Latin America
[ djw fl hum nw wi ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.

The central topic of this class is the role of the creative arts (creative writing, visual arts, music, film, performance) in their role as fostering political change in Latin America. We will examine key eras of 20th and 21st century cultural production in relation with shifting mass-media landscapes, from the revolutionary impetus of the early 20th century avant-gardes in literature and visual arts, popular music in the 1940s, documentary film during and the 1960s guerrillas, artistic resistance to the dictatorship, to the street art accompanying human rights and grass roots identity movements of the 2000s. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 163b Narratives of the Borderlands and Border Crossers
[ deis-us djw fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Taught in Spanish.

Explores the U.S.-Mexico border and the many ways in which it has intimately shaped the experiences of people living in the borderlands and/or moving across the border. It will examine literary works that survey the U.S.-Mexico borderlands in terms of their figurative and material realities, with specific attention to how the borderlands are represented in today's society and how the U.S.-Mexico border might be reimagined. This course will also probe the experiences of migrants and border-crosses through the lens of testimonios. Usually offered every second year.
María J. Durán

HISP 164b Studies in Latin American Literature
[ fl hum nw ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Course may be repeated for credit. Does not fulfill writing intensive beginning fall 2020.

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.

Staff

HISP 165b The Storyteller: Short Fiction in Latin America
[ djw fl hum nw ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor.

Through a study of Latin American short stories, some of them by consecrated writers, some of them by less well-known, we will reflect on the power of storytelling and narrative to shape subjectivity and community. We will examine topics that traverse Latin American cultures and are expressed in these stories, such tensions between literacy and oral traditions, hegemonic and minority voices, cultural diversity, ethnicity, class, migration, as well as contemporary concerns around issues of gender and sexuality, and in relation to the natural world. This class has an optional creative writing component, as students will have the chance, if so inclined, to write fiction applying concepts and themes studied in class (instead of critical/analytical assignments). Usually offered every third year.
Fernando Rosenberg

HISP 175b Millennial Latin American Literature and Cinema
[ fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Taught in Spanish.

Explores new trends in Latin American literary fiction and cinema from the last two decades. Usually offered every second year.

Staff

HISP 178b Latinx Futurisms
[ deis-us djw hum ]

Examines critical theory about and cultural productions of Latinx futurisms. Engaging with Latinx speculative and science fiction aesthetics, it will explore questions of race, ethnicity, citizenship, immigration, gender, and sexuality, among other sociopolitical issues. Special one-time offering, spring 2020.
Maria Duran

HISP 182a Storytelling in the Drug Wars: Colombia, Mexico, U.S.A.
[ fl hum nw ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. 

Narratives about the drug trade and the war on drugs have become nearly ubiquitous. This course examines the making and unmaking of stereotypes associated to the contemporary drug trade, and the role of storytelling at a time of crisis, by looking at portrayals of narco culture in cinema, literary fiction, theater and television. We will focus on two regions, Colombia in the 1970s and 80s and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands in the contemporary present. Usually offered every second year.
Staff

HISP 192b Latin American Global Film
[ hum nw oc ]

May be taught in English or Spanish.

We will study the dynamic between local and global imagination and forces in the production, circulation, and reception of films from and/or about "Latin America." Local productions, traditional topics and genres are now refashioned for international audiences. Some film directors and actors have gained mainstream global visibility; U.S.-based ‘platforms’ finance local productions for international markets. How are all these new and old images and narratives mobilized? What are all these forces and projections doing? Analysis of visual representation and film techniques will be combined with an attention to socio-cultural backgrounds. Usually offered every second year.
Fernando J. Rosenberg

HISP 196a Topics in Latinx 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. latinx. Topics will vary from year to year but may include autobiography, detective fiction, or historical fiction. Usually offered every third year.
James Mandrell, María Durán, or Staff

HIST 71a Latin American and Caribbean History I: Colonialism, Slavery, Freedom
[ djw 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

AAAS 104a Colorism in Paradise
[ djw dl oc ss ]

Introduces the concept of colorism, its relationship to racism, and consider the prevalence of color over race as a preferred identity and socio-political category across Latin America and the Caribbean. The course requires students to read interdisciplinary academic texts and utilize critical race and social praxeology theory to interrogate specific, national contexts within the Latin American and Caribbean region. Special one-time offering, Fall 2021.
Rachel Cantave

AAAS 124a After the Dance: Performing Sovereignty in the Caribbean
[ hum oc ss ]

Utilizing short fiction, essays, plays, poetry, and the visual arts, this class theorizes movement and/as freedom in the spectacular or mundane movements of the region, including annual Carnival and Hosay celebrations. Usually offered every third year.
Faith Smith

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

ANTH 107a Value, Wealth, and Power in a World without Money
[ djw 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 131b Latin America in Ethnographic Perspective
[ djw ss wi ]

Anthropology and LACLS 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 Astacio or Elizabeth Ferry

ANTH 147b Archaeology of Indigenous Mesoamerica
[ djw 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 152a The Social Fabric: An Anthropology of Fashion
[ ss ]

An ethnographic exploration of fashion as industry and cultural practice. This course addresses how fashion shapes our gendered, ethnic and individual identities. Understanding how much seemingly personal processes unfold within larger economic structures illuminates linkage between power, modernity and capitalism. Usually offered every second year.
Patricia Alvarez Astacio

ECON 23a Latin American Economic Development
[ djw nw ss ]

Prerequisite: ECON 2a or ECON 10a.

Introductory survey of the economic, financial, and institutional forces that drive Latin American economic development. The course combines economic theory, empirical evidence, and a historical approach to develop students' ability to analyze these forces. Topics include poverty and inequality, human capital, geographical determinants, institutions, debt crises and the macroeconomy. Usually offered every second year.
Oriana Montti

ENVS 130a Environmental Politics and Justice in Latin America
[ ss ]

Provides an overview of socioenvironmental issues in Latin America. Explores the relationship between nature and development, and specifically, what difference climate change makes and to whom in the region. Topics include conservation, colonialism, indigenous rights, gender, socio-environmental movements, and North-South and regional inequalities. Usually offered every year.

Claudia Horn

HIST 71a Latin American and Caribbean History I: Colonialism, Slavery, Freedom
[ djw 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 175b Resistance and Revolution in Latin America and the Caribbean
[ djw nw ss wi ]

Focuses on questions of race, gender and modernity in resistance 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

HIST 176a Haiti and the Modern Caribbean
[ djw ss ]

Studies how Haitian political thought traveled throughout and the Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some of the themes we will thus encounter include: race and the formation of nation-states in the 19th century Caribbean; the place of Haiti in the world economy; Haiti-US diplomatic relations; and interactions, antagonisms, and entwined histories of Haiti with other Caribbean societies. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs

HSSP 136a Comparative Public Health Systems in Latin America
[ djw ss ]

Offered through the Brandeis in Mérida: Public Health in the Yucatán Peninsula study abroad program.

Through this course, students gain an introductory knowledge on how public health is addressed in Latin America; the system organization and the main indicators used to produce public policies. What are the social and economic determinants of health in the region? What are the principal issues in the Latin American context? How do different systems across countries address them? The human rights approach in Latin America and North American approach to health challenges. Differences between Latin American and US systems. Social medicine and its contributions. Role of the State, private sector, NGOs and international organizations, and their interrelations. How features of Latin American systems can constitute an input to a global comprehension of public health. Usually offered every year.

Staff

HSSP 137a Contemporary Issues in Public Health in the Yucatan

Offered through the Brandeis in Mérida: Public Health in the Yucatán Peninsula study abroad program.

An increased diversity in the socioeconomic, ethnic, and racial composition of our communities has presented health care providers with many new challenges when responding effectively to patients’ healthcare well-being. This course will expand on these, while providing the knowledge of the basics about healthcare in the Mexico and in Yucatan, examining the public and private health care systems of Mexico, mainstream and traditional care in the urban and rural setting, as well as a study of local prevailing health issues, from a cross-cultural competency to understanding the patients' expectations from their own cultural context. Usually offered every year.

Staff

LACLS 1a Introduction to Latin American/LatinX: Cultures, Histories, and Societies
[ nw oc ss ]

Provides a broad overview of the histories, cultures, and politics that continue to shape the Americas; specifically of the vast regions and populations of what came to be labeled as "Latin America," "the Caribbean" and what we now call "Latinx " populations in the USA. The class provides an introduction to Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies. It draws from different disciplines and fields of study that compose this field, such as history, anthropology, literature, visual arts, film, political science, among other perspectives and methodologies. Usually offered every 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.
Ralph Thaxton

POL 161b Good Neighbor or Imperial Power: The Contested Evolution of US-Latin American Relations
[ djw oc ss wi ]

Studies the ambivalent and complex relationship between the U.S. and Latin America, focusing on how the exploitative dimension of this relationship has shaped societies across the region, and on how Latin American development can be beneficial for the U.S. Usually offered every year.
Alejandro Trelles

SOC 113b Sociology of Race and Racism
[ deis-us ss ]

Provides an introduction to the study of race and racism and focuses on specific socio-historical issues surrounding racial inequality in the United States. A variety of media to examine topics such as the institutionalization of white privilege, the social construction of "otherness", racial formation processes, and racial segregation are used" Usually offered every third year.
Sarah Mayorga or Derron Wallace

AAAS 104a Colorism in Paradise
[ djw dl oc ss ]

Introduces the concept of colorism, its relationship to racism, and consider the prevalence of color over race as a preferred identity and socio-political category across Latin America and the Caribbean. The course requires students to read interdisciplinary academic texts and utilize critical race and social praxeology theory to interrogate specific, national contexts within the Latin American and Caribbean region. Special one-time offering, Fall 2021.
Rachel Cantave

ENG 168b Plotting Inheritance
[ djw dl hum ]

Examines novels published in the last two decades set during slavery and indenture in the British Caribbean, alongside (and as) theorizations of accumulation, inheritance, and freedom. How does fiction account for and plot material, moral and emotional worth? Usually offered every third year.
Faith Smith

FA 77b Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Latin American Art
[ ca nw ]

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 second year.
Staff

HISP 85a Introduction to U.S. Latinx Literatures and Cultures
[ deis-us djw dl hum ]

Introduces students to U.S. Latinx cultural productions and to the interdisciplinary questions that concern U.S. Latinx communities. Latinxs have played a vital role in the history, politics, and cultures of the United States. U.S. Latinx literary works, in particular, have established important socio-historical and aesthetic networks that highlight Latinx expression and lived experiences, engaging with issues including biculturalism, language, citizenship, systems of value, and intersectional identity. Though the Latinx literary tradition spans more than 400 years, this course will focus on 20th and 21st century texts that decolonize nationalist approaches to Latinidad(es) and therefore challenge existing Latinx literary 'canons.' Taught in English. Usually offered every year.
María J. Durán

HISP 121b Sexualidades disidentes del sur (ensayo, ficción, cine)
[ djw fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HISP 108a, HISP 111b, or instructor approval

We will study cultural texts (fiction, essay, film) to approach issues of gender and sexuality in Latin America. The last three decades have been characterized by the emergence of gender and sexualities as central to the articulation of political and cultural dissent, with profound impact on all aspects of social life. LGBTQ+ and new generation feminist movements, artists, and cultural agents incorporate issues of class, ethnicity, coloniality, and the environment in their interventions and struggles. Usually offered every third year.

Fernando J. Rosenberg

HISP 123b Supernatural Latin America: The Visual Culture of the Unknown
[ dl hum ]

Latin America is haunted by the specters of countless colonial genocides, ritual sacrifices, fratricidal wars, thousands of disappeared. Its vast territory is swarming with ruins, ghost towns, the emptiness of devastated fauna and languages killed by ecocide. This course explores the numerous ways Latin American artists have made sense of their own experiences of the paranormal and the supernatural, developing a rich visual culture of the intangible. Some of the topics that we will address in this journey into the unknowable are: popular culture and the paranormal/supernatural; otherworldly visitors; aura, trauma, and art; avant-gardes and the supernatural; hauntology; contemporary witch culture; uncanny spaces. Works by Jayro Bustamante, Leonora Carrington, Guillermo del Toro, Mariana Enríquez, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Samanta Schweblin, Xul Solar, among others. Usually offered every third year.

Staff

HISP 163b Narratives of the Borderlands and Border Crossers
[ deis-us djw fl hum ]

Prerequisite: HISP 109b or HISP 111b, or permission of the instructor. Taught in Spanish.

Explores the U.S.-Mexico border and the many ways in which it has intimately shaped the experiences of people living in the borderlands and/or moving across the border. It will examine literary works that survey the U.S.-Mexico borderlands in terms of their figurative and material realities, with specific attention to how the borderlands are represented in today's society and how the U.S.-Mexico border might be reimagined. This course will also probe the experiences of migrants and border-crosses through the lens of testimonios. Usually offered every second year.
María J. Durán

HIST 176a Haiti and the Modern Caribbean
[ djw ss ]

Studies how Haitian political thought traveled throughout and the Caribbean in the 19th and 20th centuries. Some of the themes we will thus encounter include: race and the formation of nation-states in the 19th century Caribbean; the place of Haiti in the world economy; Haiti-US diplomatic relations; and interactions, antagonisms, and entwined histories of Haiti with other Caribbean societies. Usually offered every second year.
Gregory Childs

HSSP 136a Comparative Public Health Systems in Latin America
[ djw ss ]

Offered through the Brandeis in Mérida: Public Health in the Yucatán Peninsula study abroad program.

Through this course, students gain an introductory knowledge on how public health is addressed in Latin America; the system organization and the main indicators used to produce public policies. What are the social and economic determinants of health in the region? What are the principal issues in the Latin American context? How do different systems across countries address them? The human rights approach in Latin America and North American approach to health challenges. Differences between Latin American and US systems. Social medicine and its contributions. Role of the State, private sector, NGOs and international organizations, and their interrelations. How features of Latin American systems can constitute an input to a global comprehension of public health. Usually offered every year.

Staff

HSSP 137a Contemporary Issues in Public Health in the Yucatan

Offered through the Brandeis in Mérida: Public Health in the Yucatán Peninsula study abroad program.

An increased diversity in the socioeconomic, ethnic, and racial composition of our communities has presented health care providers with many new challenges when responding effectively to patients’ healthcare well-being. This course will expand on these, while providing the knowledge of the basics about healthcare in the Mexico and in Yucatan, examining the public and private health care systems of Mexico, mainstream and traditional care in the urban and rural setting, as well as a study of local prevailing health issues, from a cross-cultural competency to understanding the patients' expectations from their own cultural context. Usually offered every year.

Staff

SOC 110a Latinx Sociology
[ deis-us dl ss ]

Focuses on the sociology of Latinx communities within the United States. The course will cover a variety of topics that are of interest to sociologists, including race, gender, sexuality, class, family, immigration, and activism. Usually offered every third year.
Sarah Mayorga

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 African 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 129a Culture in 3D: Theory, Method, and Ethics for Scanning and Printing the World
[ dl ss ]

Designed to train students in the methods needed for the successful application of 3D modeling and printing for the documentation, conservation, and dissemination of cultural patrimony. Students will acquire the technical skills and engage in the ethical debates surrounding ownership and reproduction of such patrimony. Usually offered every second year.
Charles Golden and Ian Roy

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
[ deis-us dl 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 Art in the Ancient World
[ 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
[ djw dl 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
[ djw ss ]

Introduces students to the many ways that people and scholars of African descent have historically struggled against racial oppression 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

HISP 193b Topics in Cinema
[ fl hum ]

Open to all students; conducted in Spanish. Course may be repeated for credit. Does not fulfill writing intensive beginning fall 2020.

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.
Staff

HISP 198a Experiential Research Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies
[ dl hum oc ]

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 Staff