Provisional University Bulletin (2026-2027)

• 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;
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 Latinx people 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 faculty. 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.

Patricia Álvarez Astacio
(Anthropology)

Gregory Childs
(History)

Maria Durán
(Romance Studies)

Elizabeth Ferry
(Anthropology)

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, Interim Chair
(Anthropology)

Affiliated Faculty

(contributing to the curriculum, advising and administration of the department or program)

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. LACLS 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, Caribbean, and Latinx studies must be approved by the committee and must complete LACLS 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 and LatinX: Cultures, Histories, and Societies
[ djw 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.

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.

LACLS 98a Independent Study

Usually offered every year.

LACLS 98b Independent Study

Yields half-course credit. Usually offered every year.

LACLS 99d Senior Research

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

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.

ANTH 131b Culture, Power, and Meaning in Latin America
[ 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.

HISP 142b Literature, Film, and Human Rights in Latin America
[ djw fl hum nw wi ]

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

ANTH 152a The Social Fabric: An Anthropology of Fashion
[ dl 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 the linkage between power, modernity, and capitalism. Usually offered every second year.

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.

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.

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

Offered in English.

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." Usually offered every year.

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

May be taught in English or Spanish.

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.

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.

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.

LACLS 1a Introduction to Latin American and LatinX: Cultures, Histories, and Societies
[ djw 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.

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.

ANTH 131b Culture, Power, and Meaning in Latin America
[ 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.

HISP 142b Literature, Film, and Human Rights in Latin America
[ djw fl hum nw wi ]

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

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.

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.

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.

AAAS 65a The Caribbean's Global Intimacies
[ djw hum ss ]

“Not an inch of this world devoid of my fingerprints…and my filth in the glitter of gems!” These words of Martinican poet and politician Aimé Césaire capture the Caribbean’s violent enrichment of the world and the ways in which global intimacies or entanglements have shaped the Caribbean. Examining sand, oil, sex work, hurricanes, care work, and earthquakes in the work of artists and other commentators, we will learn to analyze theme and form, and become familiar with concepts related to Caribbean cultural and political life. Usually offered every second year.

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.

ENG 68a Salvage Work: Reimagining in Caribbean Ruins
[ hum ]

How do we imagine alternative futures in a space of ruin? This course is imagined in relation to Angela Naimou’s term salvage work, which “requires the acceptance and incorporation of existing loss, ruin, and injury into the fragments that are nonetheless generative of something more than absence” (Naimou 11). It references a sort of recovery or possibility rooted in the imagination of what these remnants or ruins can be in the Caribbean archipelago and beyond.

“Salvage Work” offers one way in which the Caribbean engage with ruin, imagination, and worldbuilding through the works of Shani Mootoo, Maisy Card, Nala Hopkinson, Tessa Mars, and other writers, painters, and filmmakers who explore the archives, motherhood, kinship, queerness, intimacy, inheritance, and return. These twentieth/twenty-first-century texts return to various periods, like enslavement, indentureship, postcolonial independent movements, Windrush, and other moments in the past.

By considering how race, class, gender, and sexuality overlap and relate, this class will create a space to reflect on the relationships between identity and belonging, oppression and resistance, literature, place, and people across generations and geographies. Special one-time offering, spring 2025.

ENG 107a Women Writing Desire: Caribbean Fiction and Film
[ hum ]

Literature and film of the last two decades drawn from across the Caribbean and its diasporas, and read in dialogue with popular culture, theory, and earlier generations of artists. Usually offered every third year.

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.

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.

FA 35a Latin American Art: From the Encounter to the Mexican Revolution
[ ca ]

Surveys Latin American art from precolonial times through the Mexican Muralist movement of the early 20th century. Students will examine how colonial conquest brutally reconfigured indigenous artistic traditions, exploring how artists developed distinctive visual languages under European imperial rule (1492-1821). The course then investigates art's role in independence movements and nation-building throughout Latin America, analyzing how artists responded to both local conditions and global influences. Special attention is given to art as a medium for cultural exchange, resistance, identity formation, and political expression across regions including Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. No prior knowledge of art history or Latin American studies required. Usually offered every year.

FA 49a Art and Revolution: Visual Culture in the Americas
[ ca djw ]

Explores how art and social transformation intersected in the Americas during the 20th and 21st centuries. Examines the dynamic relationship between visual culture and revolutionary movements, from the Mexican Revolution's muralist movement to contemporary social activism. Students analyze how artists, photographers, and filmmakers both documented and shaped pivotal moments of political change across Latin America, including the Cuban Revolution and responses to various dictatorships. The course emphasizes how artistic movements both emerged from and influenced political circumstances throughout the Americas. Usually offered every year.

FA 77b Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Latin American Art
[ ca djw 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.

FA 194a Studies in Latin American Art
[ ca djw oc ]

Builds a theoretical foundation and art historical background for discussing art and theories coming from Latin America. The subject matter (specified in the topic that accompanies the title) in this seminar may vary depending on the instructor and year. Examples of topics include: Indigenous Art; Women Artists, Latinx Art, and Colonialism and Geopolitics.Usually offered every third year.

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

Offered in English.

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." Usually offered every year.

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.

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.

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

Prerequisite: 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.

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

Offered in English.

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 ]

May be taught in English or Spanish.

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.

HISP 124a Nature and Ecology in Latin American Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

HISP 125a Transatlantic Journeys: Cultural Intersections between Spain and Latin America
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: HISP 111b or permission of the instructor.

Explores the rich cultural and historical ties between Spain and Latin America from a transatlantic perspective. Emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach, it covers mutual influences, themes, and circuits of material and symbolical interchange between both territories, spanning from the era of colonization to contemporary globalization. The course places a strong emphasis on themes of myth, sorcery, and religious beliefs, with a special focus on transgressive identities such as rebels, madmen, witches, demons, and mythical creatures. It also delves into other important areas, such as the role of African and Indigenous cultures in the transatlantic colonial and postcolonial era, transnational narratives of race, processes of migration, and circuits of influence in arts and sports. Throughout the semester, students will critically analyze cultural artifacts, understand historical contexts, and engage in comparative studies to appreciate the unique and shared aspects of Spanish and Latin American cultural identities and narratives. This exploration aims to enhance their Spanish language proficiency and research skills, provide a nuanced understanding of the dynamic transatlantic exchanges that have shaped both regions, and invite discussion of past and present trends. Usually offered every third year.

HISP 126a Race and Media in Latin America
[ hum ]

HISP 127a Latin American Theater and Performance
[ fl hum oc ]

Prerequisite: HISP 111b.

Explores an array of rituals, performances, plays, and stage-to-film adaptations in Latin America from colonial times to the present. We will examine the transgressive nature of theater and performance in multiple dimensions: as alternative sites of cultural memory versus hegemonic texts and archives, as disruptors of media boundaries and realities, and as transformational acts that frequently challenge structures of power and oppression. Special attention will be devoted to Black theatrical practices and aesthetics: religious ceremonies, spirit possession, carnival, and related subgenres and movements such as Teatro bufo (a variant of Cuban blackface) and Teatro Experimental do Negro (one of the first and most influential Afro Brazilian theater groups). Our discussions will include not only works by renowned playwrights (Nelson Rodrigues in Brazil, Lola Arias in Argentina, Eugenio Hernández Espinosa in Cuba, and Sergio Blanco in Uruguay, among others), but also collective initiatives like Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani in Perú and Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol in Mexico. Usually offered every second year.

HISP 142b Literature, Film, and Human Rights in Latin America
[ djw fl hum nw wi ]

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

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.

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

Offered 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.

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.

Explores the role of various 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 to shifting mass-media landscapes, from the revolutionary impetus of the early 20th century avant-gardes in literature and visual arts, the Mexican Revolution, popular music in the 1940s, documentary film and music, and the anti-establishment movements of the 1960s-1970s 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.

HISP 162b New Latin American Cinema: From Revolution to the Market
[ fl hum ]

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

Places two pivotal periods of film production in conversation with one another, both of which were considered "new waves" of Latin American cinema. On the one hand, there were the new cinemas of the 1960s and 1970s, which accompanied decolonial, anti-establishment, insurrectional movements. On the other hand, there was a more market-oriented film boom that emerged in the 2000s, in which aesthetic experimentation intersected with new realities of neoliberal policies and globalization. Usually offered every second year.

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

Prerequisite: 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.

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

Prerequisite: 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.

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

Prerequisite: HISP 111b or permission of the instructor.

Through the reading of modern short stories of the 20th and 21st centuries from different Spanish-speaking countries, we reflect on the power of storytelling to shape subjectivity and community. From known literary classics (Borges, García Márquez) to contemporary, emerging younger authors (Bolaños, Enriquez, Schweblin), we examine relevant topics that span Latin American cultural history (colonization, multi-ethnicity, oral and lettered cultures), as well as more contemporary struggles (gender identity, youth culture, ecological concerns). This class uses tools of literary creativity to invite students to connect with their own capacity to develop their own stories. Usually offered every third year.

HISP 192b Latin American Global Film
[ djw 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.

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.

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.

HIST 71b Latin American and Caribbean History II: Modernity, Medicine, Sexuality
[ djw 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.

NEJS 132a The Jews of Latin America
[ djw 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

ANTH 113b Race and Ethnicity: Anthropological Perspectives
[ ss ]

Examines theories and ethnographies of race and ethnicity through three units: literary and social scientific theories of race and othering; the race system in the U.S. today; and a comparative look at the American racial system to explore ways in which America's race system varies cross-societally and cross-historically. One goal of the course is to understand changing ideas of race and ethnicity that have emerged from anthropologists and cultural critics. Usually offered every fourth year.

ANTH 131b Culture, Power, and Meaning in Latin America
[ 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.

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.

ANTH 151b Nature, Culture, Power: Anthropology of the Environment
[ ss ]

Examines the relationships among human and natural worlds. Topics include: the politics of food insecurity and famine, forest, hurricanes and disaster capitalism, forest fires and theories of degradation, climate injustice, and environmental justice/racism. Ethnographies based on research in the United States, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia will enable students to explore how anthropology offers insight into the pressing environmental issues of today. Usually offered every second year.

ANTH 152a The Social Fabric: An Anthropology of Fashion
[ dl 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 the linkage between power, modernity, and capitalism. Usually offered every second year.

ED 171b Latinx-e K-12 Education: Challenges and Possibilities
[ dl ss ]

Examines conceptualizations of Latine/x families and communities in U.S. K-12 schools, and how a range of actors, entities, and inequities shape the experiences that Latine/x students have in U.S. schools. This seminar course also analyzes key socio-historical conditions that shape contemporary approaches toward Latine/x student learning and schooling. Usually offered every year.

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.

HIST 71b Latin American and Caribbean History II: Modernity, Medicine, Sexuality
[ djw 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.

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.

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.

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

Offered through the Brandeis in Mérida: Public Health in the Yucatán Peninsula summer 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.

HSSP 137a Contemporary Issues in Public Health in the Yucatan

Offered through the Brandeis in Mérida: Public Health in the Yucatán Peninsula summer 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.

LACLS 1a Introduction to Latin American and LatinX: Cultures, Histories, and Societies
[ djw 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

FA 77b Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Latin American Art
[ ca djw 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.

FA 194a Studies in Latin American Art
[ ca djw oc ]

Builds a theoretical foundation and art historical background for discussing art and theories coming from Latin America. The subject matter (specified in the topic that accompanies the title) in this seminar may vary depending on the instructor and year. Examples of topics include: Indigenous Art; Women Artists, Latinx Art, and Colonialism and Geopolitics.Usually offered every third year.

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

Offered in English.

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." Usually offered every year.

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

Prerequisite: 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.

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

May be taught in English or Spanish.

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.

HISP 124a Nature and Ecology in Latin American Culture
[ djw fl hum ]

HISP 125a Transatlantic Journeys: Cultural Intersections between Spain and Latin America
[ hum ]

Prerequisite: HISP 111b or permission of the instructor.

Explores the rich cultural and historical ties between Spain and Latin America from a transatlantic perspective. Emphasizing an interdisciplinary approach, it covers mutual influences, themes, and circuits of material and symbolical interchange between both territories, spanning from the era of colonization to contemporary globalization. The course places a strong emphasis on themes of myth, sorcery, and religious beliefs, with a special focus on transgressive identities such as rebels, madmen, witches, demons, and mythical creatures. It also delves into other important areas, such as the role of African and Indigenous cultures in the transatlantic colonial and postcolonial era, transnational narratives of race, processes of migration, and circuits of influence in arts and sports. Throughout the semester, students will critically analyze cultural artifacts, understand historical contexts, and engage in comparative studies to appreciate the unique and shared aspects of Spanish and Latin American cultural identities and narratives. This exploration aims to enhance their Spanish language proficiency and research skills, provide a nuanced understanding of the dynamic transatlantic exchanges that have shaped both regions, and invite discussion of past and present trends. Usually offered every third year.

HISP 126a Race and Media in Latin America
[ hum ]

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

Prerequisite: 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.

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.

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

Offered through the Brandeis in Mérida: Public Health in the Yucatán Peninsula summer 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.

HSSP 137a Contemporary Issues in Public Health in the Yucatan

Offered through the Brandeis in Mérida: Public Health in the Yucatán Peninsula summer 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.

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.

THA 147a Latinx Theater
[ ca deis-us ]

Examines the theatrical artistic expression by and about people of the Latin American diaspora in the United States, exploring how theatrical performance, in its many forms, wrestles with questions of faith, family, gender, space, nationhood, and the myriad identities one bears. Students will celebrate, survey, and study the historic and contemporary contributions of artists, movements, and collectives to better understand the rich and distinct identities and artistic practices in the Latino/a/x/e population. Usually offered every fourth year.

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.

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.

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.

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.

ANTH 184b Art in the Ancient World
[ djw 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.

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.

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.

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.