Latin American Studies

Indigenous peoples are present in the economic participation and cultural wealth of their nations.  A variety of languages can still be heard and seen, and uprisings, such as those of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, can be observed.  This second semester course analyzes the cultural knowledge and original philosophies of each of the most important groups in Mexico: Nahuatl, Zapotec, Mixtec, Purépecha, and Quechua and Aymara of Peru and Bolivia, including a few other Mexican and Latin American philosophers.  

This course aims to read, understand and interpret poetry and prose from the so-called "colonial" period in regions where a way of life and expression was imposed on native societies and communities by viceroyalties. In addition, the very notions of "conquest" and "colonization" are discussed from the perspective of Latin American studies, focusing on the political, social and cultural processes of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and their impact on the communities and peoples that experienced colonial violence and subordination. 

This course examines ideas, concepts, traditions, and authors that shaped critical thinking in Latin America during the twentieth century, in close relation to the socio-political and economic processes of the region.

This course provides a critical approach to the contemporary debate between three sub- disciplines dedicated to the study of the intellectual production of Latin America: the history of ideas, intellectual history, and decolonial studies. This course identifies, analyzes, and discusses the origins, theoretical-methodological foundations, discrepancies, and challenges of these three currents with a view to glimpsing possible routes for their own research projects.

This course studies the evolution of the population composition in Latin America and the Caribbean in recent decades, reflecting on the links between said demographic dynamics and some of the main economic, political, cultural and social transformations known in the region. This course takes a theoretical and methodological approach, considering the dependence between the size, structure and distribution of a population in interaction with socio-spatial transformations. It discusses demographic transition, aging, young people, the countryside-city relationship, urbanization, employment, territorial mobility, etc.

This course provides theoretical and methodological tools to approach, analyze, and question research from a gender perspective. It examines basic concepts of gender studies.

This course discusses violence, memory and exile in Latin America through the lens of literature and literary theory. It especially focuses on exile from Argentina and exiled writers living in Mexico. It aims to understand the relationship between literature, society and history. The class uses theoretical tools to analyze different literature from Latin America and aims to think about violence memory and exile in Latin America. The course includes texts and novels from Latin American writers, accompanied by Latin American movies as well as theoretical texts that serve to provide context for the class. Beyond the texts, the class aims to use cultural knowledge and understandings to clarify and elaborate the ideas and concepts of memory, exile and violence.