Latin American Studies

This course covers the topic of food to explore the history of Mexico and its diaspora from the time of the Conquest, with a particular focus on food as national and cultural identity as reflected in cinema and literature. It will also explore how food provides a multifaceted lens through which to examine issues such as food and poverty, food as a transnational site of both community and exclusion, and ecological issues, such as control of natural resources essential to food production and security. Students examine the topic of food as both a political issue and a source of creative inspiration through our analysis of texts, art, films and television series.

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

This course examines the idea of the communication revolution from two perspectives. First, how have changes in communications technology altered the speed and nature of communication between individuals and societies? The course explores how inventions such as the printing press, the camera and the radio helped connect Latin Americans to national and international networks and gave rise to new political and cultural identities. Second, how have individuals and groups used mass communication to both push for and resist revolutionary change? Examples include the role of print culture in the Atlantic Revolutions, printmaking in the Mexican Revolution and the pioneering use of radio education in the Andean countryside during the 1960s. 

This course offers a study of basic linguistic and communicative skills in the indigenous language, Purepecha, for listening, speaking, reading, and writing comprehension.

This course characterizes indigenous American societies from a multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary perspective. It offers a study of the main events and processes that occurred on the continent prior to the 16th century as well as the challenges of recovering the history of pre-Columbian America. 

This course examines some fundamental events in Latin American history during the 19th and 20th centuries. It analyzes cases that include the main milestones in the relations between Latin America and the United States between the years 1823 and 1989, the existence of nationalist and populist trends such as the Peronist movement in Argentina, and the emergence and development of guerrilla movements such as Sendero Luminoso in Peru. 

This course offers a study of the political and historical transition from ‘indigenismo’ to ‘indianismo’ in Latin America since the 1960s and the emergence of contemporary indigenous movements. 

This course examines the culture and history of the Hispanic people from the early 19th Century to the present. It covers the constitution of the ideological and political structures of the Spanish Empire in both Europe and America until the Wars of Independence. 

This course offers a study of the different pre-Hispanic indigenous peoples, from a multidimensional perspective, establishing dialogues with the processes that these peoples currently experience. 

This survey course is an introduction to the history of Latin America in the 20th century. Students examine processes common to the region, the experiences of specific countries, and Latin America’s relations with the rest of the world. Beyond this, like Hobsbawm, the course considers how Latin America can help us think about the history of wider world.