Latin American Studies

This course provides a historical-conceptual understanding of campesino movements in Latin America and the contexts of the geographies in which they arise. The course is guided by three key units including land, territory, and life, each of which provides a sophisticated understanding through reading theory, lecture, group work,
presentations, as well as through hands-on learning in the field with campesinos in Mexico City. 

This course engages with practical and theoretical questions of theater and performance as social practices. By focusing on various theatrical outputs and their reception, paying particular attention to history, politics, national identity, justice and collective memory, this course showcases the importance played by theater practitioners, performers and playwrights in Latin America in terms of validating stories from subaltern groups, including indigenous communities, in relation to power.

2 years of university-level Spanish (or B1 level) is required in order to take this course.

This course covers the history of colonial Brazil to the history of Portuguese colonization in America using historiographical trends and perspectives. Topics include: the Portuguese maritime empire and colonizing experiences, from the coast to the interior and the construction of colonial regions; the colonial city, and power structures and sociocultural dynamics; colonial slave society: ethnic-racial relations; differences and inequalities; pluralities and antagonisms; Portuguese America and the South Atlantic since the Restoration; the construction of Rio de Janeiro as the capital and its articulation with colonial regions; the formation of colonial identities, and history and culture of Africans and Indigenous peoples in the colonial world.

This course offers a historical and panoramic overview of the relationship between music and social and political processes of Latin America from the colonial period until the 19th century, reflecting upon the importance of these musical expressions in considering the possibiitlies of a Latin American identity. 

This course studies the historical processes, trends, and key figures in Latin American education during the 20th and 21st centuries.

This course revolves around artistic expression among indigenous communities. The class material involves analysis of ancient American art, but is more based in understanding and questioning the general understanding of art as a concept, and how it relates to indigenous expression as well as hierarchies of sensibility. Ideas such as esthetics, intention, and technique are discussed in order to open students' minds to understanding the root of certain divisive labels, such as artisanal or primitive art.

This course recognizes and valorizes the contributions of animals throughout history in the sum of responding to the epistemological question.  Can animals be individuals who enact their own intention and will who, through its own actions, create history with themselves as the protagonists? This course dives into socio-philosophical explorations of the parallel evolution of animal labor along with neoliberalism and capitalism while later linking its ties into the Latin American context.

The course provides students with an introduction to the history of Latin America from the late 19th century to the present day. Its focus is predominantly on Latin Americans and what happened within the region. However, the course also explores Latin Americans’ interaction with the wider world, including their pivotal and expanding relationship with the United States during the 20th century. Major themes covered on the course include identity, citizenship and nationalism; neo-colonialism and anti-imperialism; state-building and concepts of “development”; revolution and resistance; dictatorship and violence; democratization; and the struggle for social justice. In addressing these themes, students are paying particular attention to histories of race, class, and gender with students encouraged to consider how different Latin Americans experienced and influenced the course of history in the region.

This course explores the impact that the complex relationship between humans and nature has on climate and biodiversity. It discusses the historical evolution of humanity's approach to nature and those representations in Latin American literature. It focuses on the cultural/environmental implications of extractivism, histories of land use, the social impact of economy on bodies and the biosphere, the political use of nature, non-human/human relations, the emergence of Latin American environmental thinking, ecocriticism, modern Latin American literature, and some of the most important political and cultural debates of the continent in recent history.