Songs are effective mediums to tell stories, communicate ideas, and convey emotions. In this course we will explore the long and widespread practice of singing Spanish Songs. We will engage with a variety of sources and methodologies that trace different forms of preservation, transmission, and circulation from thirteenth-century cantigas to Billboard hits enjoyed today in personal portable devices. The song repertory will give you the opportunity to develop critical thinking and analytical writing as you engage with a variety of ideas including memory, love and desire, race and identity, power and propaganda, cultural resistance and protest. We will consider narratives of music, musicians, and musical instruments that illustrate transcultural musical encounters around the globe, covering topics from the Spanish Reconquista to the Latinx and Caribbean diasporas in the US. (Same as: MUS 1018)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

What is social justice? What are human rights? Where did they begin and why? How do literature, art, history, and other methods of cultural production in North and South America engage with social justice and human rights discourses? How do different genres of cultural production document social justice, power, and inequity in the Americas? This course explores the concepts of social justice and human rights within the Americas. In this course we will read historical accounts, novels, poems, short stories, and critical race and gender scholarly articles, as well as view visual performances, photographs, and films. Students will learn how struggles of culture, gender, and race work to shape human rights discourse in the Americas, from colonialism to present-day immigration issues. The major goals for this seminar are to improve students’ skills in close reading, critical thinking, communication, and analytical writing and to explore the relationships between the four skills. (Same as: GSWS 1045)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

Explores the lives of particular Latin American people who found themselves being "boxed in," and the ways in which they have sought to remain outside, or even in-between, categories. We will consider issues of personal identity, social belonging, and state power through the lives and stories—some well-known, and some surprisingly obscure—of Latin Americans, from the 1500s to the present. Course writing gives students the opportunity to engage with primary sources, perform independent research, and explore how personal identities have been created, maintained, and challenged over the centuries. This course aims to improve students’ skills in close reading, critical thinking, and analytical writing, while the relationships between these skills are closely considered. In addition to discussing the texts in class, students will write responses to them in a variety of forms, from close analysis, to creative projects, to a final research paper. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for History majors and minors. (Same as: HIST 1046)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2019.

This First-Year Writing Seminar explores how personal stories of everyday people can help understand the past. These “microhistories” make a single individual the center of the story, placing them in their historical context. Microhistories are particularly well-suited to show how non-elite individuals understood their own place in society, how they contested existing power structures, and how their own identities were constructed in relation with those structures. During the semester students will read some of the classic microhistory accounts, learning how the lives of peasants, formerly enslaved women, meatpackers, peddlers, and other plebeians help reconstruct a social and cultural world that is often impossible to find in traditional histories. The course is focused on Latin America but does not require any prior knowledge of the region. Some of the works discussed in this course are: The Cheese and the Worms, Doña Maria’s Story, & assorted essays from The Human Tradition in Latin America. This course helps students to develop the skills necessary to succeed at college writing: weekly assignments will target particular skills (summarizing, analyzing, close readings, compare-contrast, etc); and—given than writing is rewriting—the papers familiarize students with the iterative process of revising and resubmitting, which is at the heart of academic writing. Students write two versions of an analytical paper and several versions of a research paper, receiving feedback from their peers as well as the instructor. Students develop a semester-long research project based on the documents left behind by a person from Latin America (plebian or elite), including journals, trail transcripts, confessions, images, and other published sources available in translation. (Same as: HIST 1047)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

Explores how the Black Caribbean scholars transformed race, nation, and class; expanded Blackness as a political stance and identity; and brought together Black radical traditions across the globe. The trans-Atlantic slave trade and capitalist expansion in the Caribbean radically altered notions of race, class, nation, and Blackness. Since then, Caribbean scholars have contributed new social theory through their critique and engagement with race and capitalism, exchange of ideas with Black scholars in the U.S., Europe, and Africa, and commentary on events across the world. Using the Caribbean as a starting point, the class seeks to define, interrogate, and expand what is meant by race, nation, and class through the lens of Blackness and introduces Caribbean scholarship as a site of global political, social, and cultural thought. (Same as: SOC 1018, AFRS 1048)

Introduces students to the processes and forces shaping the material realities and the ideas encompassed by the terms Latin America, the Caribbean and Latinidad, their geographical and symbolic boundaries, and the identities of those belonging (or not) to such spaces and concepts. Main units—race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, land and the environment, and border and migrations—guide students through key events and debates in the intellectual history of these regions. Through primary and secondary sources—from historical monographs to testimonial literature and fiction, film, music, and theory—students are exposed to main themes in regional scholarship and to the contributions that scholars in the fields of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx studies have made to other fields (i.e. postcolonial studies, Third World feminisms, and ethnic studies).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

Introduces students to major themes in the history of modern Latin America and the Caribbean, from the early nineteenth century to the present. Topics include the caudillo politics of the early republican era; the rise of liberalism and the formation of extractive, export-driven economies; the emergence of populism and popular revolutionary movements; the dictatorships and civil wars of Cold War era; and the “Pink Tide” of the early 2000s. Prominent themes include racialist discourses, imperialism, decolonization and neo-colonialism, class formation and struggle, and patriarchal structures and feminist movements. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. It also meets the non-Euro/US requirement. (Same as: HIST 1512)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

This course introduces students to connective concepts and issues in locations throughout the region, such as Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. The course engages a combination of historical and qualitative analysis to provide a deeper understanding of the Caribbean’s complex history, cultural vibrancy, and global connections. Topics may include Indigenous and African enslavement, degrees of freedom within slave systems, rebellion and revolution, anticolonial and social movements, contemporary migration, and social justice issues.

This course focuses on the creative collaboration that creates a full-length performance project for the public and mirrors a professional theater process. It is led by a professional director either on faculty or visiting as a guest artist. It is produced by department with a generous production budget and supported by a professional stage management mentor, professional designers, and department staff. Performances are open to the Bowdoin and broader Brunswick communities. Areas of concentration may include rehearsal and performance of roles, assistance to the director, dramaturgy, stage management, or assistance to the designers. Students gain admission to THTR 1700 through audition or interview. Areas of concentration are determined by the project’s director and assigned. Rehearsals may fall outside of traditional class hours. May be repeated for credit earning for a maximum of two credits. (Same as: THTR 1700, HISP 1700)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Spring 2020, Fall 2019.

This course is an opportunity to engage with the history, heritage, and culture of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latin American and Caribbean communities in the US through music. We will explore issues of race, identity, religion, and politics from a broad temporal span of around five hundred years—from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. We will cover a broad variety of regions, contexts, and musical genres from classical, folk, and popular traditions, such as salsa, Cuban son, hip-hop, Latin polyphony, rock, villancicos, protest song, chamber music, reggaeton, vallenato, and more. This course is not meant to be comprehensive but will reflect on the many ways in which music has been used in different cultural and historical contexts, offering a close examination of its characteristics, means, and meanings. (Same as: MUS 1271, AFRS 1271)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Fall 2019.

A chronological survey of the arts created by major cultures of ancient Mexico and Peru. Mesoamerican cultures studied include the Olmec, Teotihuacan, the Maya, and the Aztec up through the arrival of the Europeans. South American cultures such as Chavín, Nasca, and Inca are examined. Painting, sculpture, and architecture are considered in the context of religion and society. Readings in translation include Mayan myth and chronicles of the conquest. (Same as: ARTH 1300)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2019.

Explores the creation, representation, and marketing of US Latinx identities in American literature and popular culture from the 1960s. Focuses on the experience of authors of Caribbean origin (Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican), their negotiations with notions of race, class, gender, and sexuality in Latin America and the US, and their role in cultural translation, the struggle for migrants’ rights, and the definition of “American” citizenship. Course materials include literature, film, tv shows, and articles in the humanities and social sciences. In addition to the themes addressed by individual authors (ranging from border crossing to coming of age in dystopian worlds), discussions engage changing notions of “Latinidad” in the last half century; their historical context; the role of language and the media in their production and contestation; and how artists adapt to and resist the branding of ethnic and racial identities. Authors include Thomas, Stevans, Obejas, Rivera, and Engels. Taught in English. (Same as: HISP 2505)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2020.

The study of borderlands examines areas of contested sovereignty where no single social group has political, cultural, or economic control. This seminar explores interactions between native peoples, white settlers, and the representatives of the states in the Americas between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. The "long nineteenth century" was a pivotal period for independent indigenous groups across the western hemisphere as they faced dramatic encroachment on their territories, dispossession, cultural erasure, and genocide. This course draws examples from the Pacific Northwest to the Amazon, from Texas to Patagonia. It pays special attention to how structures of race, class, and gender were established, maintained, and negotiated at times of uncertain change and in the absence of hegemonic state practice. Note: This course is part of the following field of study: Latin America. It fulfills the non euro/US requirements for history majors and minors. (Same as: HIST 2900)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

Since the 1980’s, Latin American countries have experienced transitions to democracy after periods of extreme violence. To deal with legacies of human rights abuses and international crimes, governments have adopted a wide range of mechanisms such as the establishment of commissions of inquiry, judicial prosecutions, and reparations of victims. This course will explore the violence that preceded these transitions in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico, as well as the different measures endorsed by these countries to combat impunity and to allow its societies to move forward. It will also analyze the efficacy of these measures, as well as the difficulties faced in its implementation. Likewise, it will study the continual demands of the victims of past atrocities for truth, justice, and reparations from the 1980s to the present.

This course will study the history, politics, and culture of soccer in the Americas, from the twentieth century to the present. By selecting key moments and actors, from Pelé and Diego Maradona to Pablo Escobar and Rafael Videla, we will examine how the sport has been sometimes instrumentalized by countries, corporations and other stakeholders for political goals, military strategies, and economic profits. Indeed, because soccer cannot be extrapolated from its surrounding context, we will also analyze pivotal events in the history of the Americas, including dictatorships in Chile and Argentina, armed conflicts in El Salvador and Guatemala, and the war on drugs in Colombia, among other situations across the continent, that have shaped the way the game is played since its origins. Overall, this course will enable us not only to understand soccer as a sport, but also as a lens to learn and evaluate pressing cultural and political issues of our time.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

Seminar. This course is a study of race and ethnicity in Latin America, focusing on how Latin Americans themselves have understood and articulated these categories, as well as how scholars have interpreted their articulations. We will cover topics from African slavery to indigenous activism and mass immigration. Our focus will be on peoples of indigenous and African descent—the majority of Latin Americans—which will allow us to address questions of national identity, racial mixture, and cultural exchanges. We will trace themes familiar to students of the broader Atlantic world (themes such as race and nation, freedom and slavery, citizenship, and inequality) across the less-familiar setting of modern Brazil, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, and even Argentina. This course will tackle fundamental questions about the intersection of race, identity, and power in Latin America. Besides reading some of the classic analyses, we will look at some of the cutting-edge scholarship to assess how ideas of race and national belonging have changed through the centuries and across national contexts. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. It fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. (Same as: HIST 2910)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022.

Seminar. The course examines comparatively the numerous “truth commissions” instituted in Latin America to investigate, explain, and assign legal and moral responsibility for the mass atrocities of the Cold War era. Students also consider the methodological interplay between historiography, law, and anthropology in the work of these commissions, as well as epistemological tensions between those disciplines that have arisen in the context of investigations of human rights violations. Focusing on issues of decolonization, the course investigates the ways in which deeply rooted racism was refracted through the Cold War ethos of anti-Communism to produce state-sponsored violence and genocide. Students also consider the responses and resistance to repression of various marginalized groups in diverse national contexts. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. It also meets the non-Euro/US requirement. (Same as: HIST 2894)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

Examines the history of Latin American and Caribbean societies through the lens of drug economies and cultures. It begins with consideration of methodological concerns, including issues of the place of drugs in commodity studies and the social constructivist approach to drug meanings and effects. The course then examines three periods of Latin American drug history: the pre-Columbian era; the era of Iberian colonialism; and the twentieth century and beyond, which saw the rise of illicit drug markets and the U.S.-led “War on Drugs.” The course will trace, over time, major social, cultural, and political economic changes wrought by and upon Indigenous psychoactive substances, such as coca/cocaine, yerba mate, tobacco, cacao/chocolate, and psilocybin mushrooms. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. It also meets the non-Euro/US requirement. (Same as: HIST 2416)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

Traditionally written history has been dictated by the victors. This statement implies that written history has been authored by the white male elites that hold power in any given territory. On the contrary, oral history compiles the voices that are often left out of the predominant narratives. This course will present students different methods developed to address and document these realities. It will introduce students to the distinct aspects of the interview process, including general oral history theory and methodology, in-person and remote interviewing techniques, legal and ethical issues, transcription practices, and other relevant topics. It will also discuss the power of testimonies when attempting to understand the world through the perspectives of the marginalized and the underprivileged. Finally, it will allow students to juxtapose dominant ideas with marginalized views to rewrite Latin American history.

Seminar. Examines one of the most significant and yet neglected revolutions in history. Between the years 1791-1804, Haitian revolutionaries abolished slavery and ultimately established a free and independent nation. Explores the Revolution’s causes and trajectory and connects Haiti to the broader Atlantic world. Likewise, studies the revolution's aftermath and its impact on world history. This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America, Atlantic Worlds, and Colonial Worlds. It fulfills the premodern and the non-Euro/US requirements for history majors and minors. (Same as: HIST 2862, AFRS 2862)

Prerequisites: HIST 1000 - 2969 or LAS 1000 - 2969.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

This course introduces students to major themes in the history of pre-Colombian and colonial Latin America and the Caribbean, from the fifteenth century to the early nineteenth century. Topics include pre-Colombian civilizations, Iberian conquest and colonization of the Americas, colonial evangelization, colonial political economy, slavery, the emergence of hybrid cultures and ethnicities, anti-colonial resistance, and processes that factored into the emergence of independence movements. Prominent themes include the construction and contestation of castes and ethnic identities discourses, slavery, cultural hegemony, land tenure patterns, and the development of colonial political economies within an emerging early modern world system. The course will also consider divergent paths among various regions in Iberian America. It fulfills the non Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. (Same as: HIST 2298)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

This course examines the history, politics, and cultures of the Hispanic World, from the 20th century to the present. Key moments include the Mexican Revolution, the Spanish Civil War, the Cuban Revolution, dictatorships in Chile and Argentina, and Latinx movements in the US. Through the study of a wide variety of literary and cultural icons from La Malinche and Octavio Paz, Pedro Almodóvar and Carmen Laforet, to Nancy Morejón, Julio Cortazár and Luís Valdez, students will reflect on individual experiences and collective movements. The course provides students with advanced practice in grammar, reading, speaking, listening, writing and research in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 2305)

Prerequisites: HISP 2204 or Placement in HISP 2305.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019.

Examines oral and written traditions of areas where French is spoken in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and North America from the Middle Ages to 1848. Through interdisciplinary units, students examine key moments in the history of the francophone world, drawing on folktales, epics, poetry, plays, short stories, essays, and novels. Explores questions of identity, race, colonization, and language in historical and ideological context. Taught in French. (Same as: FRS 2409, AFRS 2409)

Prerequisites: FRS 2305 or higher or Placement in FRS 2400 level or Placement in FRS 2305/2400 level.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019.

This course will explore the ways that the translation of a text from one language to another inevitably alters the original—an alteration that can entail loss, but that also opens up new vistas of meaning, and new opportunities for creativity. Students will translate short texts (fiction and poetry) from English to Spanish, Spanish to English, and even within those languages (for instance, translating verse poems to prose). Students will also explore the process of translating the visual into text, adding subtitles to short films and will work with the library’s Department of Special Collections and/or the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Our work will be supplemented by class visits by accomplished translators, and by the reading of critical essays on the art of translation. This course is taught in English. Students at the 2000-level will engage in work appropriate for an intermediate level of Spanish language proficiency; students enrolling at the 3000-level will conduct work at an advanced level. (Same as: HISP 2517)

Prerequisites: HISP 2203 or HISP 2204 or HISP 2305 (same as LACL 2205).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022.

Intermediate seminar. Africana religions are often described as lived traditions because experience is such a central part of their practice, nature, and structure. As an imaginative window into another lived experience, literature provides a unique opportunity to understand and experience the worldviews of Africana religions and peoples from more of an inside perspective than most academic material can provide. In this course literature written by and about people who come from these traditions will be studied in conjunction with academic sources on Africana religions and religion and literature to provide students with a deeper understanding of Africana worldviews and how they affect every facet of practitioners’ lives. The works studied come from an array of different times, places, linguistic backgrounds, and traditions including the Yoruba religion, Islam, Christianity, Haitian Vodou, Brazilian Candomblé and more in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. (Same as: AFRS 2300, REL 2330)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

This seminar examines representations of queer Latinx identities and experiences through intersectional and interdisciplinary lenses, focusing on texts crafted by US-based Latinx authors. Students develop an understanding of the aesthetic and ideological elements that inform the narrativization of queer Latinx experience and the tensions that arise through the intersection of sexuality, gender, race, and ethnicity in a variety of texts and genres. In addition to highlighting the value of reading literature written by authors who belong to the marginalized groups that they write about, this course is meant to disrupt monolithic and homogenizing understandings of what it means to be queer and Latinx. Potential topics include futurism, la familia, borderlands, machismo and patriarchy, the coming-out narrative, and memory. This course satisfies the African American, Asian American, Indigenous, Latinx, Multiethnic American, or global literature requirement for English majors. (Same as: GSWS 2704, ENGL 2904)

Prerequisites: GSWS 1000 - 2969 or GSWS 3000 or higher or ENGL 1000 - 2969 or ENGL 3000 (same as GSWS 3000) or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022.

Designed for heritage speakers (who grew up speaking Spanish in the home), bilinguals, and other Spanish-speaking students. The class will examine nonfictional accounts of current events and issues in the Hispanic world written by leading Spanish and Latin American authors and journalists. Throughout the semester, students will conduct research on a given topic or a particular environment of their choosing, writing their own nonfictional accounts of their research. Students will gain valuable real world experience researching, reporting, and working with speakers of Spanish in Brunswick or the surrounding communities. Through work specifically tailored to individual needs, students will hone their writing skills and build confidence in the language. (Same as: HISP 2306)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022.

Latin American philosophy is a philosophy born of struggle, a body of thought whose metaphysical, epistemological, ethical, and political identity is tied up with the problems of colonization, decolonization, and liberation in a Latin American context. This course will philosophically assess classical and contemporary thought in Latin American Philosophy, and will discuss issues such as immigration, xenophobia/racism, liberation, racial and ethnic identity, assimilation/acculturation, the black/white binary, Latinx feminisms, and the Spanish language. Our primary textbook will be Robert Eli Sanchez’s edited anthology and topical introduction, Latin American and Latinx Philosophy: A Collaborative Introduction (2020). Though the course is arranged topically, we will begin by establishing the historical context of Latin American thought. We will read excerpts from Bartolome de las Casas and Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent. Classical philosophers we may read include Simon Bolivar, Leopoldo Zea, Jose Marti and Jose Vasconcelos. Contemporary scholars may include Enrique Dussel, Gloria Anzaldua, Jose Antonio-Orosco, Jorge J. E. Gracia, and Richard Delgado. (Same as: PHIL 1352)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

To master and think critically about classic and contemporary work in critical race theory, especially the work of Derrick Bell, Richard Delgado, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Tommy Curry, we will critically examine such topics as intersectionality, gender and black male studies, social dominance theory, the racial wealth gap, reparations, hate speech, the black/white binary, and revisionist history, among other topics. We will take a distinctively philosophical outlook on these topics: identify value assumption and analyze and evaluate arguments. Finally, we will ponder the relationship of critical race theory (a domain of critical legal studies) to contemporary philosophy of race (a domain of moral and political philosophy). Students will come away with a better understanding of both the conceptual and political issues involved in discussing contemporary issues of race. (Same as: PHIL 2326, AFRS 2326)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2020.

This seminar explores diverse song traditions in Colonial Latin America. Attention will be given to manifestations of musical globalization and will incorporate the study of sources that reveal the circulation and transmission of Iberian and African musicoliterary genres in the vast transatlantic Spanish empire, including Portugal, Italy, the New World, and Asia. We will pay special attention to complex representations of ethnic and religious others (indigenous people of the Americas, African slaves, Muslims, Jews) in relation to literary conventions and early modern ideas about religious devotion and racial, gender, and class difference. We will approach these topics through a close engagement with materials in special collections and archives. This course is part of the following fields of study: Colonial Latin America, transatlantic studies, Spanish Golden Age Poetry, and early music. (Same as: MUS 2296)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022.

This course examines how hierarchies of race, class, gender, and sexuality structure everyday life in Latin America's largest nation, Brazil. Twentieth century elites described Brazil as a racial democracy and a sexual paradise, but this vision is increasingly contested in the twenty-first century by Black, feminist, and LGBT social movements. Reading ethnographic accounts and watching film portrayals of daily life in Brazil across a number of case studies, we will examine how Brazilians encounter social inequality in a variety of intimate settings. Potential topics include: domestic labor, sex work, queer activism, plastic surgery and reproductive rights. Students will complete short response papers during the semester and complete a final research project on a self-selected topic that includes primary or secondary sources on Brazil. (Same as: GSWS 2345, ANTH 2345)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2020.

What motivates political battles over sexuality and gender? Often described as disputes over culture, morality, family, or lifestyle, these struggles more often have to do with concerns over national belonging, distributions of care labor, and enforcement of race, class, and gender norms. In this course, we first learn about feminist and queer frameworks for studying gender and sexuality politics: culture wars, backlashes, and moral panics. We draw on case studies that outline the histories of anti-reproductive and anti-LGBT movements in Brazil and in the United States. And we will consider the social dynamics of recent “anti-gender” movements in Latin America. Over the semester, students will research a particular case study of a culture war, backlash, or moral panic, where they use journalist and NGO reporting, and write a term paper that applies the frameworks learned in class. (Same as: GSWS 2715)

Prerequisites: GSWS 1101 or ANTH 1101 or SOC 1101.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

This course will survey the history of modern Central America, from the Nicaraguan revolution and the Salvadoran and Guatemalan armed conflicts, through film. In addition, this class will examine broader region-wide experiences such as the ownership of the Panama Canal and the assassination of key figures in Central America including Berta Cáceres in Honduras. Mainly through a variety of film genres, including historical drama, adaptations, and documentaries, this course will analyze the role of the United States in Central America, including the long history of military occupation in Nicaragua, the CIA-backed coup in Guatemala in 1954, and the financial aid provided to El Salvador and Guatemala during their civil wars. Finally, this course will explore the legacy of the violence from the twentieth century in the present. As a result, this class will address key topics such as transitional justice, migration, gangs, drug trafficking and organized crime, gender relationships, and neopopulism. (Same as: CINE 2117)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

What are feminisms? Is there more than one feminism? What is the relationship between feminisms and constructions of race, gender and ethnicity in Latin America? How has feminist discourse shaped human rights discourses in the region? This course explores the complex network of feminisms in 20th-21st century Latin America. It covers feminist movements, theories, and scholars/artists from a variety of Latin American countries and regions, including Guatemala, Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil. Students will learn how intersections between constructions of race and ethnicity, as well as gender, impact feminisms in the region. Students will also explore how early and more recent contributions of indigenous and women of color, continue impacting ideas, discussions, and recent debates concerning feminisms and women's social mobilizations in Latin America. Note: This course fulfills the GSWS requirement for either Queer Theory or Feminist Theory. (Same as: GSWS 2206)

Prerequisites: GSWS 1000 - 2969 or GSWS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021.

What is the relationship between activism and human rights in Latin America? How have the battling constructions of race, gender, and ethnicity sparked social justice movements in the region? This course offers a general introduction to the development of contemporary discourses and activism on human rights in Latin America. It covers activist and justice movements in a variety of Latin American countries and regions including Brazil, Guatemala, the Southern Cone, and Mexico. Students will analyze how cultural production, in the form of film, literature, testimony, and art, by Afro-Latinx and indigenous subjects, women, and members of the LQBTQI+ community led to the “making,” of human rights in the region. As an IRBW course, students in this course will also develop and practice their critical writing and research skills throughout the semester with plenty of research development writing workshops, one-on-one writing mentoring, and feedback. (IRBW) (Same as: GSWS 2705)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

Religion has been central not only in the lives of members of the Black Atlantic World and also in terms of the formation of this world. This class provides a survey of some of the most prominent Afro-Atlantic diasporic religions such as Haïtian Vodou, Brazilian Candomblé, Trinidadian Shango, and Cuban Santería/Regla de Ocha and also explores the particular dynamics of the Religion has been central not only in the lives of members of the Black Atlantic World but also in terms of the formation of this world. This class provides a survey of some of the most prominent Afro-Atlantic diasporic religions, such as Haïtian Vodou, Brazilian Candomblé, Trinidadian Shango, and Cuban Santería/Regla de Ocha, and also explores the particular dynamics of the African religious diaspora. Complicating common assumptions about relations between diaspora and homeland as well as what constitutes a religion, it addresses issues of authenticity and authority, ancestrality, race, gender, transnationalism, and even problematic (mis)representations in Western society and pop culture. We will also pay close attention to the important and complicated role that the transatlantic slave trade played in the formation of these Atlantic societies and aspects of these religious traditions, such as conceptions of God and divinities, syncretism, divination, and spirit possession. (Same as: AFRS 2384, REL 2484)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021, Fall 2019.

Conducted in English and with all the readings and discussions in English, this course is nonetheless a comparative and multilingual study (English, Spanish, French, Lingala, and Kikongo) of African, African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latin American literatures and their intersections with religion. Building on the Gambian historian of religions Lamin Sanneh’s work (Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture) showing that Christianity is a “translated” religion, the course explores, through the theory of critical translation and the radical imagination of Africana indigeneity, how African, African American, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latin American writers (Mudimbe, Oyono, Ndongo-Bidyogo, Vera, Adichie, Condé, Laferrière, Montero, Zapata Olivella, and Walker) use the polyglossial space of the novel to “conjure” up individual, social, and ecological healing, and thus push the boundaries of the conventional understanding of “religion” and of “Christianity." (Same as: AFRS 2387, FRS 2387)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2022.

African and Afro-diasporic religions have historically been linked with stereotypes of evil superstition or “black magic,” causing a great deal of prejudice and misinformation. These traditions, however, have their own much more complex, fascinating, and powerful traditions of esoteric arts that differ greatly from Western conceptions of “witchcraft.” In this course students will learn about African concepts often translated as “magic,” “witchcraft,” “sorcery,” or “juju,” why they are frequently misunderstood by outsiders, and how they have important implications for issues like gender, politics, resistance to oppression, and ethics. By speaking to real practitioners of these arts and reading accounts of people engaged in them, the course will demonstrate how African-derived esoteric arts have gained salience in the modern era and how they engage with issues that include the emergence of “Blitchcraft” (Black witchcraft) online and African “witchcraft” as an analytical lens for the modern world. (Same as: AFRS 2388, REL 2388)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

Dance—an art form whose medium is the body—and ethnography—the study of people and their cultures—are great tools for addressing some of the ways different dancing bodies have been historically policed for “dancing sex(y).” Other tools, such as critical dance and black theories, in addition to queer and feminist approaches, will also be utilized to comprehend the uneven ways these bodies are further racialized, sexualized, and gendered within the Americas. In particular, students will learn about various dances (such as the Brazilian samba to the Cuban rumba, Jamaican Dancehall, and the Trinidadian wine) through readings, lectures, and actual in-studio dancing. Ultimately, the intention here is to understand dancing as both a meaning-making activity and a way of understanding the world. In turn, it is an important lens for critically thinking, talking, researching, and writing about politics of identity (especially regarding nationality, gender, race, and sexuality). (Same as: DANC 2505, AFRS 2292, GSWS 2505)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021.

A continuation of modern dance principles introduced in Dance 1211 with the addition of African-derived dance movement. The two dance aesthetics are combined to create a new form. Technique classes include center floor exercises, movement combinations across the floor, and movement phrases. Students also attend dance performances in the community. (Same as: DANC 2241, AFRS 2236)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021, Fall 2019.

This course introduces students to the history of Latin America from the pre-Conquest period until the consolidation of a colonial system administered by a European elite at the beginning of the eighteenth century. The course follows three interrelated stories: the establishment of colonial rule (including institutions like the church, patriarchy, and racial castes), the development of extractive economies dependent on unfree labor, and the emergence of a hybrid culture bringing together Indigenous, European, and African traditions. Introduces use of primary documents, archeological artifacts, contemporary films, and scholarly essays to learn about the period. Student begin to place themselves in historical debates, learning how historians reconstruct and interpret the past. Topics include: fall of Aztec empire, disease, Inquisition, piracy, slavery, & more. This course is part of the following field of study: Latin America. It meets the pre-modern and the non-Euro/US requirement. (Same as: HIST 2401)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

This course surveys the "long nineteenth century" in Latin America. This is a period characterized by conflict, racist policies, and indigenous dispossession, but it is also a period of radical political imaginings, of economic development, and profound social change. Topics covered include the efforts by Spain and Portugal to reform their colonies in the Americas; the independence movements of the 1810s-1820s & the ensuing "post-colonial Blues"; the end of slavery & campaigns against independent indigenous peoples; the development of export-led economic models; the implementation of social policies to "whiten" the population; the US invasion of Mexico, the destruction of Paraguay by its neighbors, and a war between Peru and Chile over guano; the triumph of liberalism and the Mexican Revolution of 1910. This is the second in a series of three surveys of Latin American history, but no prior knowledge or prerequisites necessary. This course is part of the following field of study: Latin America. It fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement for history majors and minors. (Same as: HIST 2402)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

Examines revolutionary change in Latin America from a historical perspective, concentrating on four successful social revolutions-- Haiti, Mexico, Cuba, and Bolivia-- as well as several revolutionary movements that did not result in social change-- including Argentina, Guatemala, Chile, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Popular images and orthodox interpretations are challenged and new propositions about these processes are tested. External and internal dimensions of each of these social movements are analyzed and each revolution is discussed in the full context of the country’s historical development. This course fulfills the non-Euro/US requirement This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. (Same as: HIST 2403)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2019.

An introduction to the cultures of various French-speaking regions outside of France. Examines the history, politics, customs, cinema, and the arts of the Francophone world, principally Africa and the Caribbean. Increases cultural understanding prior to study abroad in French-speaking regions. (Same as: FRS 2407, AFRS 2407)

Prerequisites: FRS 2305 or higher or Placement in FRS 2400 level or Placement in FRS 2305/2400 level.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2022, Spring 2021, Spring 2020.

Examines theatre and poetry in Spain and Latin America from the 11th-century verses of Jewish and Muslim authors to the 20th-century works of Nobel Prize winners. Through class discussions and critical analysis, students will discover how the structure, form, content, and performance of poetry and theater relate to a work’s aesthetic movement, historical context, and contemporary adaptations. Some of the topics for discussion include: religious conflicts and their influence in literary forms; the cultural and political implications of the colonization of the Americas, its legacy, and the resistance to it; the Baroque, its innovative aesthetic techniques, and its transatlantic influence; the mechanisms used by writers to subvert discourses of patriarchy; the importance of indigenous cultures in the development of Latin American nations and cultural traditions; and the political and artistic relationships with the US and other European avant-garde movements. Conducted in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 2409, THTR 2409)

Prerequisites: HISP 2305 (same as LACL 2205) or Placement in HISP 2409 or 2410.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019.

Examines narrative forms and essays in Spain and Latin America from pre-Conquest times until the 20th-century works of Nobel Prize winners. Through class discussions and critical analysis, students will discover how the structure, form, and content of narratives and essays relate to a work’s aesthetic movement, historical context, and contemporary trends in Hispanic cultures. Topics include religious conflicts and their influence in literary forms; the cultural and political implications of the colonization of the Americas, its legacy, and the resistance to it; the aesthetic and social renovation of Early Modern Spain, including the first modern novel, Don Quixote; the mechanisms used by writers to subvert discourses of patriarchy; the importance of indigenous cultures in the development of Latin American nations and cultural traditions; and the political and artistic relationships with the US and other European avant-garde movements. Conducted in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 2410)

Prerequisites: HISP 2305 (same as LACL 2205) or Placement in HISP 2409 or 2410.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2022, Spring 2022, Fall 2021, Spring 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2019.

An introduction to Latin American history between 1400 and the present, using the lens of gender to reinterpret the region's history. Some key events include the arrival of Europeans, mestizaje, honor and race, independence, civil wars, liberalism, populism, dictatorship, and issues of memory and redemocratization. This course works on two registers. The first is that of “women’s history.” Here, we will survey the experiences and impact of women in Latin America from the pre-conquest period to the present, through the lenses of cultural, social, and political history. In other words, we will tell the stories of Latin American women and investigate how changes small and large affected their everyday lives. The second register is “gender history.” In other words, we will not just discuss women’s experiences, but also the ways that gender ideologies have influenced Latin American history. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. It fulfills the non euro/us requirement for history majors and minors. (Same as: HIST 2430, GSWS 2430)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2020.

This course explores the range of issues inspiring Latinx activism and its diverse expressions across the United States from the turn of the 20th century to the present. It introduces students to the intellectual traditions and analytical approaches that inform both Latinx and Afro-Latinx activism in the US During the course of the semester students will ‘travel’ to U.S. cities (and regions) such as San Antonio and the Texas Borderlands, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Chicago, and the Central Valley in California. As we ‘travel’ to these locations, we will explore diverse expressions of Latinx activism, including labor activism, cultural activism, political activism surrounding citizenship rights, and the struggles for gender and sexuality rights. Students will also learn about the many similarities and differences among Latinx communities in the United States, including Afo-Latinx communities, specifically Afro-Cuban in Miami, and Afro-Puerto Ricans and Afro-Domincans in New York. We will explore how these communities have used and continue to use activist practices ranging from labor strikes to literary texts, to gain visibility and negotiate their rights within the country. This course will also draw connections between Latinx and Afro-Latinx and other activist movements in the US, from civil rights to labor rights and the formation of worker’s unions. Drawing from various disciplines including history, law, literature, sociology, and cultural studies, students will explore how Latinx activism has shaped understandings of race and inclusion, gender, sexuality, and citizenship in the United States. (Same as: AFRS 2721, GSWS 2720)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022.

Afro-Latinx are one of the fastest growing demographic groups in the United States—among the sixty million Latinos in the US, almost one quarter embrace their Blackness and identify as Afro-Latino. The course examines Afro-Latinx communities—African-descended peoples from primarily Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Latin America and the Caribbean who reside in the United States. The class begins with an overview of Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx studies, explores historical perspectives on African enslavement in Latin America, and examines the development of racial ideologies in post-emancipation societies. Next, the class looks at the historical relationship between the US and Latin America and how this has shaped migration. We also examine the spectrum of Black identity through the contemporary experiences of Afro-Latinxs in the US by analyzing the intersections of race, ethnicity, gender, politics, and representation through historical, textual, oral, and visual sources. (Same as: AFRS 2722)

Explores the nexus of food, environment, and development in global environmental politics. Examines the interconnected challenges of governing across trans-boundary socio-ecological systems amidst competing demands on scarce natural resources—to sustain a global food system, foster economic development, and promote equity and justice. Prepares students to engage with interdisciplinary scholarship from political science, international development, public policy, and food studies. Draws on comparative cases from local to global scales, with an emphasis on Maine, the U.S., and Latin America. (Same as: ENVS 2313, GOV 2492)

Prerequisites: ENVS 1101 or ENVS 2330 (same as GOV 2910).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021, Spring 2020.

This course explores the contemporary politics of dissent in Latin America. To do so it goes beyond conventional institutional and electoral settings, since dissent is not simply a moment of protest or resistance, nor the collective plea for rights. Instead it can be the moment when a given way of living or social order is unexpectedly modified and challenged with the introduction of a new agenda for action. Topics covered may include: Latin American intellectuals and decolonial theory, the challenges to development discourse by indigenous peoples, the role of music and the arts in resistance against political violence, the importance of social media in contemporary movements for political change, and the contestation of established notions of identity and citizenship (e.g., by queer minorities.) We will draw from cases in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Mexico, as well as including Latinx peoples and cultures in the United States. (Same as: GOV 2465)

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Fall 2021, Fall 2020.

In light of the ecological crisis exacerbated by climate change, scholars in the humanities and social sciences have become increasingly preoccupied with the relationship between humans and nature, in a field of study loosely termed “political ecology.” Central to this field are critiques of the separation between humans and nature in modernity and how we should understand this relationship. This course expands the current debates in this field beyond the intellectual circles of Europe and North America—which have focused on science and technology studies and new materialisms—to consider contributions that have remained marginal (for example, indigenous political thought and decolonial theory). The course will include authors from various disciplines ranging from indigenous intellectuals and activists to academics, with a focus on the Global South, including the work of Chilean filmmaker Patricio Guzmán, Maori scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Indian activist Vandana Shiva, and Martinican writer Édouard Glissant. (Same as: GOV 2470, ENVS 2340)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Spring 2021.

What brings people of Hispanic/Latin American heritage together? What do half a billion people have in common socially and politically, and how does the political context shape how individuals place themselves in position to other groups in society? As the course title suggests, terminology can be a focal point: why do we use terms like “Hispanic,” “Latin-American,” or the more recent “Latinx” and how does that relate to the characteristics of this diverse category? This course focuses on the political experience of people who call themselves Hispanics or Latinos. We take an agnostic yet inclusive approach to the definition of this population, and explore the construction of this group as the only census-recognized ethnicity in the United States. Our course explores socio-demographic factors that lead to collective action as well as political attitudes and behaviors among this diverse group. We focus mostly on Latinos within the United States of America but also look at politics in Latin America in an effort to better understand this heterogeneous population. (Same as: GOV 2054)

Introduction to the sociological study of race and ethnicity in the contemporary United States. Examines prominent theories pertaining to the social and cultural meanings of race and ethnicity, causes and consequences of structural racism, relationships between race and class, how immigration and assimilation shape and are shaped by social constructions of race and ethnicity, dynamic representations of race and ethnicity in the media, formation and shifts of intra-group and inter-group boundaries, and more. (Same as: SOC 2208, AFRS 2208)

Prerequisites: SOC 1101 or AFRS 1101.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

Religious beliefs and practices intersect with processes of social change at various historical moments, illuminating the power dynamics of (trans)cultural encounters. Using cases from the Andean and Amazonian regions of South America, explores local indigenous cosmologies, rituals, and concepts of the sacred in relation to expansive regional and global religions, including Catholicism and Protestantism. Focuses on twentieth– and twenty-first-century social issues. Includes examples from pre-Columbian, Inca, and Spanish colonial periods to highlight the continuities and transformations in local and global institutions. Forefronts religion, as a facet of identity and inequality, intersecting with gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality. Scholarly and popular texts introduce topics like religious syncretism; sacred landscapes; human-supernatural relations; religious violence and ritual protest; global capitalism and citizenship; everyday moralities, embodiment, and faith-based humanitarianism. (Same as: ANTH 2723)

Prerequisites: ANTH 1000 - 2969 or ANTH 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021.

Considers the Inca figure in contemporary imaginations, from mummies to archaeological sites like Machu Picchu. This course examines 12,000 years of cultural change in the Andean region of South America. Situates the Inca, perhaps the most well-known of the early civilizations that predated the European invasion, in relation to other cultures, including the Chavin, Paracas, Moche, Nasca, Wari, Tiwanaku, and Chimu. Topics include the peopling of South America; early religious traditions; cultural adaptations to mountainous and desert environments; origins and development of agriculture; domestication of llamas and alpacas; rise and fall of states; imperial expansion; artistic expression; architectural traditions; treatment of the dead and ancestor veneration; and Spanish colonization. Considers both archaeological and ethnohistorical research from the region that includes Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Includes opportunities to work with artifacts from the region. (Same as: ANTH 2830)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2020.

Focuses on family, gender, and sexuality as windows onto political, economic, social, and cultural issues in Latin America. Topics include indigenous and natural gender ideologies, marriage, race, and class; machismo and masculinity; state and domestic violence; religion and reproductive control; compulsory heterosexuality; AIDS; and cross-cultural conceptions of homosexuality. Takes a comparative perspective and draws on a wide array of sources including ethnography, film, fiction, and historical narrative. (Same as: ANTH 2737, GSWS 2237)

Prerequisites: ANTH 1100 or ANTH 1101 or SOC 1101.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2019.

Looks at comparative lessons in global immigration to understand the political, economic, and social causes of migration--the politics of immigrant inclusion/exclusion--and the making of diaspora communities. Specific topics will include: the politics of citizenship and the condition of illegality; the global migrant workforce; and how class, gender, race, and sexuality influence the migrant experience. (Same as: SOC 2370)

Prerequisites: SOC 1101.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021.

Explores the legacies of colonialism in modern Latin America and archaeologists’ current efforts to decolonize Eurocentric interpretations and discourses of the colonial past. Focuses on indigenous and community archaeology as a means of reframing our understanding of the past and present. Discussions address the impact of colonialism in Latin America and the Caribbean, including how contemporary relationships in the region are structured by colonial history. Students work with case studies grounded in archaeological, ethnographic, and historical sources to learn how archaeology can help contest and subvert dominant narratives derived from colonialism. Indigenous resistance and resilience will be addressed along with cultural continuities and change. Topics may include identity and the construction of ethnicity, gender, and race; religion; slavery and diaspora; and art, architecture, and technology. (Same as: ANTH 2278)

Prerequisites: ANTH 1000 - 2969 or ANTH 3000 or higher or LACL 1000 - 2969 or LACL 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

Explores the emergence of social complexity and state-level societies through a focus on ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica (Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador). Among the diverse peoples and cultures that populated this region prior to the Spanish invasion, the Maya and the Aztec are among the most famous. This course challenges popular misconceptions about these and other societies who occupied this region over the course of 3500 years. Asks how cities rivaling in size those of the old world rose, collapsed, and sometimes disappeared. Considers the political structure and economic systems of these societies, their technologies, and their relationships with the environment. Explores ancient worldviews, belief systems, and political and religious power. Incorporates various types of evidence, including the archaeological material record, art, monumental architecture, and ethnohistorical sources, and the ways archaeologists analyze and interpret that evidence. (Same as: ANTH 2258)

Prerequisites: ANTH 1000 - 2969 or ANTH 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2021.

Knowledge of the history of the slave trade to the Americas has grown immensely. This course pivots from viewing the Atlantic World through the lens of the trade in slaves to how a diverse Atlantic World developed through Afro-Portuguese encounters from the age of Henry the Navigator to the formal abolition of slavery in Brazil and the extension of colonization in Portuguese-ruled Africa. How and why did early modern Africans and Portuguese participate in the Atlantic trade? What other forms of commerce, such as ivory and rubber, proliferated? What cultural systems, cosmologies, religions, and identities emerged through these Atlantic World exchanges, including the formation of Afro-Portuguese identities? What are the legacies of the early modern Afro-Portuguese Atlantic world? In exploring these and other questions, this course introduces students to the histories of Portugal, Angola, Mozambique, and Brazil. It fulfills the non-Euro/US and premodern requirements for history majors and minors. (Same as: HIST 2824, AFRS 2824)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

This advanced seminar explores the emergence and expansion of institutions of social control in Latin America, from colonial times, through independence, and into the tumultuous twentieth century. Students will learn about the role of the Church in disciplining and disarticulating indigenous societies and practices; the expansion of the military as an institution of social control, but also of social mobility; the emergence of hygienist-eugenic discourses and practices designed to reify and naturalize social difference; and the proliferation of penitentiaries and hospitals as tools to define and criminalize deviancy. Note: This course is part of the following field(s) of study: Latin America. It fulfills the non euro/us requirement for history majors and minors. (Same as: HIST 3404)

Previous terms offered: Spring 2020.

History has retained the names of great male Caribbean heroes and freedom fighters during slavery such as the Haitians, Mackandal or Toussaint Louverture, the Jamaican, Cudjoe or the Cuban Coba. Enslaved Africans who rebelled against oppression and fled from the plantation system are called maroons and their act, marronage. Except for Queen Nanny of the Jamaican Blue Mountains, only male names have been consecrated as maroons. Yet, enslaved women did fight against slavery and practice marronage. Caribbean writers have made a point of bringing to memory forgotten acts of marronage by women during slavery or shortly thereafter. Proposes to examine the fictional treatment French-speaking Caribbean authors grant to African or Afro-descent women who historically rebelled against slavery and colonization. Literary works studied against the backdrop of douboutism, a conceptual framework derived from the common perception about women in the French Caribbeanwhich means strong woman. Authors studied may include Suzanne Dracius (Martinique), Fabienne Kanor (Martinique), André Schwart-Bart (Guadeloupe), Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe), Evelyn Trouillot (Haiti). Conducted in French. (Same as: FRS 3211, AFRS 3211, GSWS 3211)

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

Aesthetics -- the critical reflection on art, taste, and culture; as much as beauty, the set of properties of an object that arouses pleasure--are central to all aspects of society-building and human life and relationships. Examines the notions of aesthetics and beauty, from pre-Colonial to contemporary times in cultures of the African and Western civilizations as expressed in various humanities and social sciences texts, as well as the arts, iconography, and the media. Considers the ways Africans and afro-descendants in the New World responded to the Western notions of aesthetics and beauty. Authors studied may include Anténor Firmin, Jean Price Mars, Senghor, Damas, Césaire, Cheick Anta Diop, Fanon, Glissant, Chamoiseau, Gyekye Kwame, Socrates, Plato, Jean-Baptiste du Bos,Diderot, Le père André, Baumgarten, Kant, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Hugo. (Same as: FRS 3213, AFRS 3213)

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2019.

Through the exploration of art, literature, architecture and the unique worldview of the ancestral Andean societies, this course will take a look at the different ways in which the three main countries in the Andes—Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia—have dealt with processes of social, political, and cultural modernization since the late nineteenth century until the present day. Readings will include works by Peruvian, Bolivian, and Ecuadorian writers to examine modernist, avant-garde and postmodernist aesthetics. Students will analyze how internal migration to the cities of Lima, Quito and La Paz has reconfigured them, changed their urban dynamics, and impacted the economy and the natural environment. One example students will engage with includes architecture from iconic Bolivian architect Freddy Mamani ,who invented the construction of the Cholets in the city of El Alto, Bolivia. Cholets offer a unique way of connecting urban space to Aymaran identity (an identity that is very connected to the land in Boliva). Students will also address the issue of migration and the reconfigurations of Andean identities in the United States, through the works of Bolivian author Edmundo Paz Soldán and the Ecuadorian-American writer Ernesto Quiñónez and his experience living in Harlem. Taught in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 3211, URBS 3211)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

Examines how cinema portrays urban spaces in Latin America, Spain and USA from an aesthetic point of view that facilitates discourses on Hispanic history and identity. It looks at the city (Barcelona, Bogotá, Buenos Aires, Habana, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico DF and New York) as a cinematic setting for narratives on crime, immigration, political activity and romance, and how it conveys utopic or distopic views of physical and social urban development. Also considers how cities lend themselves as transnational subjects for directors who cross national boundaries, such as Luis Buñuel, Woody Allen, Pedro Almodóvar and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Conducted in English. Writing assignments in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 3117)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

Studies the main topics, techniques, and contributions of Colombian Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez as presented in “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Explores the actual locations and the social, cultural, and literary trends that inspired the creation of Macondo, the so-called village of the world where the novel takes place, and the universal themes to which this imaginary town relates. Contemporary authors include Fuenmayor, Rojas Herazo, and Cepeda Samudio . (Same as: HISP 3218)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022, Spring 2021, Fall 2019.

Explores the concept of madness and the varying ways in which mental illness has been represented in twentieth-century Latin American fiction. Readings include short stories and novels dealing with the issues of schizophrenia, paranoia, and psychotic behavior by authors such as Jorge Luis Borges, Carlos Fuentes, Cristina Rivera Garza, and Horacio Quiroga. . Also studies the ways in which certain authors draw from the language and symptoms of schizophrenia and paranoia in order to construct the narrative structure of their works and in order to enhance their representation of social, political, and historical conjunctures. Authors include César Aira, Roberto Bolaño, Diamela Eltit, and Ricardo Piglia, . (Same as: HISP 3219)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

This course explores a range of literary and cultural texts related to the theory, practice and experience of medicine, health and healing in the early modern Hispanic world. Students will analyze how early Spanish literature impacts our understanding of contemporary health practices and examine how health histories provide insight into racial and ethnic health disparities and general inequities in health care systems. Topics include drug trials, herbalists and apothecaries; health and spiritual practices; gardens and gardeners; diet and food; healer and patients; and race, ethnicity, gender and medicine. The course provides an introduction to the topics of narrative medicine and the health humanities. Course is taught in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 3220)

Prerequisites: Two of: HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) and HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410).

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021.

Discusses the historical, social, and political consequences of the clash between tradition and modernity in Latin America during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as seen through novels, short stories, and film. Particular attention will be given to the ways in which the processes of modernization have caused the coexistence of divergent worlds within Latin American countries. Analyzes different social and political reactions to these conflictive realities, focusing on four cases: the Mexican Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, and Andean insurgencies in Perú. Authors to be read may include Reinaldo Arenas, Roberto Bolaño, Simón Bolívar, Jorge Luis Borges, Cromwell Jara, Mario Vargas Llosa, Gabriel García Márquez, José Martí, Elena Poniatowska, and Juan Rulfo, among others. (Same as: HISP 3223)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2019.

Who speaks in a text? What relationship exists between literature and identity? How can we portray ourselves in specific political contexts? Addresses these and other questions by studying contemporary Southern Cone literary texts that deal with problems of subjectivity and self- representation in poetry and novels. Concentrates on texts that display a literary “persona” in contexts of violence and resistance (the dictatorships of the 1970s) and in more contemporary Latin American ones. Some authors include Borges, Gelman, and Peri-Rossi. Films and contextual historical readings used. Taught in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 3225)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409 and THTR 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409 and THTR 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2021.

What kind of stories do bodies tell or conceal? How does living in a gendered and racialized body effects the stories told by women? How do bodies and their stories converge with History or complicate historical “truths”? These are some of the questions addressed in this study of contemporary writing by women from the Hispanic Caribbean and the United States Latinx/Chicana communities. Feminists of color frame the analysis of literature, popular culture and film to guide an examination of the relation of bodies and sexuality to social power, and the role of this relation in the shaping of both personal and national identities. Theorists include Alexander, Barriteau, Curiel, Mendez and Segato. Novelists include Álvarez, Buitrago, García, Indiana Hernández, and Santos-Febres. Taught in Spanish with readings in Spanish and English. (Same as: HISP 3226, AFRS 3226, GSWS 3226)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

Questions what is meant by "avant-garde": how it was manifested in the Hispanic world in the first half of the twentieth century; how contemporaneous politics shaped or became shaped by it; how this relates to the world today. Focuses on poets such as Aleixandre, Garcia Lorca, Borges, Neruda, Huidobro, Storni, Lange, Novo, and Vallejo, while also considering a wide array of manifestos, literary journals, films, and other art forms from Spain, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Brazil. Taught in Spanish with some theoretical and historical readings in English. (Same as: HISP 3227)

Prerequisites: Two of: HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) and HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2020.

Did feminism exist in the early modern period? Examines key women authors from the early Hispanic World, considering the representation of gender, sexuality, race, and identity in distinct political and social contexts. Focuses on Mexican author Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695) and Spanish author María de Zayas (1590-1661), alongside other prominent women writers from the period. Students read short stories, essays, poems, and personal letters. Conducted in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 3231, GSWS 3231)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409 and THTR 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2022.

Why does Mexican literature have so many ghosts as characters? What distinguishes the representation of ghosts in Mexican literature from their representation in American gothic literature? In this seminar we will read contemporary Mexican literature through the figure of the ghost. I argue that the ghost in Mexican literature allows us to think and analyze a variety of topics such as immigration (US-Mexico), exile, politics, trauma, race and environment. Readings may include works by Rulfo, Fuentes, Tario, Nettel, Luiselli, Mendoza, Herrera, and Bicecci. The course is conducted in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 3234)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409 and THTR 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

An investigation of the short story as a literary genre, beginning in the nineteenth century, involving discussion of its aesthetics, as well as its political, social, and cultural ramifications in the Spanish-speaking world. Authors include Pardo Bazán, Borges, Cortázar, Echevarría, Ferré, García Márquez, and others. (Same as: HISP 3237)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2019.

An examination of the Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges’s work, focusing not only on his short stories, poems, essays, film scripts, interviews, and cinematic adaptations, but also on the writers who had a particular influence on his work. Also studies Latin American, European, and United States writers who were later influenced by the Argentinian master. An organizing concept is Borges’s idea that a writer creates his own precursors. (Same as: HISP 3239)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022, Spring 2020.

How do artists distinguish their contemporary moment from the past? What challenges does it pose to literature and film? Building on ideas by Agamben, Benjamin, and Didi-Huberman, explores these questions in the context of contemporary Argentinean, Chilean, and Uruguayan poetry, short stories, novels, and films. Topics include post-dictatorship societies, text/image dynamics, new forms of subjectivity, human/post-human interactions, and economic and bio-political violence, as seen in works by Sergio Chejfec, Cristina Peri Rossi, Nadia Prado, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, Pedro Lemebel, Fernanda Trías, and others. Taught in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 3249)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

Is poetic form political? How is subjectivity displayed in literary works that do not include narrations or “coherent” autobiographical plots? What connection does a museum of natural history have with poetry? How can language resist violence? This course explores these and other questions by studying different ways in which the relationship among subjectivity, language and politics has been rethought in contemporary Latin American poetry. We will address questions regarding self-figuration and the construction of a poetic persona through topics such as: biopolitical crisis; intersections of different genres and mediums (i.e., text/image relationships); post-human subjectivities; family genealogies; and writings about disease and death. Although we will read mainly poetry, the course will also include some fiction and films, as well as several theoretical readings. Some of the authors that we will read include Kamenszain, Gelman, Berenguer, Montalbetti, Watanabe, Lihn, and Prado. Taught in Spanish. (Same as: HISP 3254)

Prerequisites: Two of: either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher and either HISP 2409 (same as LAS 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LAS 2410) or HISP 3200 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2020.

An introduction to the main contemporary intellectual production emanating from the French Caribbean such as Haitian indigénisme and Martinican Négritude, Antillanité, and Créolité. Examines theoretical and literary texts by Jean Price-Mars, Jacques Roumain, Frantz Fanon, René Maran, Aimé Césaire, Rene Mesnil, Joseph Zobel, Edouard Glissant, or Patrick Chamoiseau. Addresses questions of collective identity, ethnicity, and cultural autonomy. (Same as: FRS 3219, AFRS 3219)

Prerequisites: Two of: either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher and either FRS 2409 (same as AFRS 2409 and LAS 2209) or FRS 2410 (same as AFRS 2412 and LAS 2210) or FRS 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023, Fall 2020.

The course is designed as a cultural history of Spanish language and cultures through its dictionaries, across time periods (early modern to more contemporary) examining questions of power and authority, collection practices, and how dictionaries change over time. The class will approach asymmetrical relationships between Spain and Latin America, Spanish and Spanglish in the US, and the political, social, and commercial value of language in these contexts. Bringing in the vocabularies of indigenous, enslaved Africans and immigrant languages, students will engage in an in-depth exploration of lexicographers including Antonio de Nebrija, Sebastián de Covarrubias, Andres Bello, and Maria Moliner. Key works include: Tesoro de la Lengua Española o Castellana, the Diccionario de Autoridades, the Diccionario de la Lengua Española, the Moliner, Larousse, and Clave. Course is taught in Spanish and will feature opportunities for collaboration with Ilan Stavans (Amherst) and his students on this topic. (Same as: HISP 3007)

Prerequisites: HISP 2409 (same as LACL 2409) or HISP 2410 (same as LACL 2410).

Previous terms offered: Fall 2021.

This course fuses Afro-Diasporan aesthetics and cultural concepts with critical dance studies and US modern/post-modern/contemporary concert dance traditions. Students will engage with various Afro-based dance practitioners (such as Jawole Willa Jo Zollar), cultural praxes (such as Sankofa), and improvisational structures (such as Jamaican Dancehall and Haitian Yanvalou) to deepen their ability to create, rehearse, and perform original choreography, specifically for the purposes of advocating for social change and cross-cultural understanding. Using virtual, archival, digital, embodied, and scholarly research, students will learn about and generate performance material that is deeply connected to the histories, spaces, and places that we remember, take-up, and occupy. Students will also be expected to execute collaborations with each other and those within their communities as they create and perform movement for their final dance projects. (Same as: DANC 3242, AFRS 3242)

Prerequisites: DANC 1213 (same as AFRS 1213) or DANC 2241 (same as AFRS 2236) or DANC 1000 - 2969 or DANC 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2022, Fall 2020.

The course addresses connective topics in Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx Studies, fields that center the historical and contemporary experiences of the African diaspora in Latin America, the Caribbean, and their transnational communities in the U.S. Students will examine issues, dialogues, and solidarities among Afro-Latin American and Afro-Latinx communities across the hemisphere, such as invisibility, representation, civil rights, social and/or environmental justice; intersectionality, and digital spaces.

What is empathy? How does it relate to activism and protest in North and South America? What is the connection between empathy and the body? How did the concept of empathy begin and why? This seminar investigates how constructions of empathy are developed within literature, visual arts, film, and social media in the Americas from the nineteenth century to the present. Students will explore the interactions and relationships between empathy and the body, as well as the deep connections between empathy and human rights discourse in North and South America. In addition, students will examine how writers, journalists, artists, and activists use various modes of narrative empathy (fiction and nonfiction) and visual empathy (protest, art, photography, and film) to protest systems of political, social, and economic exclusion in the Americas.

Prerequisites: LACL 1000 - 2969 or LACL 3000 or higher.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2023.

Examines how immigrants view and transform the world around them in the United States. While normative approaches to the study of immigration construct migrants as objects of inquiry, this course instead will draw primarily on migrant perspectives and experiences in the diaspora that originate from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. (Same as: SOC 3410)

Prerequisites: Two of: SOC 1101 and SOC 2000 - 2969.

Previous terms offered: Fall 2019.

Explores research on youth as a window into broader questions related to agency, identity, and social, political, and economic inequality in the contemporary world. Youth move between families, communities, and nations; claim belonging to divergent communities; create distinct identities; and navigate hierarchies. Incorporates attention to culturally specific notions of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood while highlighting youth and children as social actors. Draws on theoretical approaches to agency, subjectivity, and resistance in late-twentieth and early twenty-first-century anthropology. Considers methodological and ethical implications of research with children and youth. Topics may include adoption, citizenship, migration, labor, reproductive politics, human trafficking, tourism, and activism in Latin America, as well as Asia, Oceania, and/or Africa. Hierarchies of gender, ethnicity, race, sexuality, class, and age are considered throughout. (Same as: ANTH 3320)

Prerequisites: ANTH 1100 or ANTH 1101 or SOC 1101.

Previous terms offered: Spring 2020.