LATIN AMERICA: AN INTRODUCTION

HISTORY/INTLST/LACIS 242

A broad overview of Latin American history in the modern period, since independence but with a primary focus on the twentieth century. Particular emphasis will be placed on the socioeconomic, cultural, and political structures and processes that shaped and continue to influence life in Latin America. Key issues such as colonialism, nationalism, democracy, and revolution will be examined critically in light of broad comparative themes in Latin American and world history. Among the topics to be explored in detail will be the Mexican and Cuban revolutions, populism and dictatorship, socialism and neoliberalism, and drugs and migration.

SPANISH 479

Explores the literary culture that emerged in Latin American countries after the military dictatorships in the seventies and eighties. Engage with cultural responses to human rights abuses in order to determine what kind of memory was invoked through available cultural venues and what kind of memory market has been created as a response to neo-liberal economic project. Looks into the means by which literary and cultural responses are produced, circulated and consumed, what seems to be remembered and forgotten as well as who takes ownership of memories and how the state produced official story compares with individual as well as community generated accounts.

LACIS/SPANISH 285

Examine how the experiences of marginalized groups in the U.S. are profoundly intertwined with hemispheric historical processes. Review the categories that emerged to conceptualize human difference as European colonizers dispossessed indigenous peoples of their lands and inaugurated the forced migration and enslavement of peoples from Africa. Focus on how race was transformed after the revolutions of independence, exploring key concepts such as the one drop rule, mestizaje, racial democracy, and color-blindness. Explore how race intersects with gender, class, and migration, as well as with slavery, anti-colonial struggles, and US expansionism. Examine common assumptions in comparisons of race relations -e.g., the idea of a more more "fluid" understanding of race in Latin American countries, versus the binary models of the U.S.

AAE/ANTHRO/C&ESOC/GEOG/HISTORY/LACIS/POLISCI/PORTUG/SOC/SPANISH 982

Interdisciplinary inquiry in Latin American society and culture.

SPANISH 480

Latin American culture and politics through the study of selected aspects of performance and/or visual culture. Topics vary.