Latin American Studies
Latin American Studies (LAS) is a gateway to the region and its cultures, politics, and history. The major in LAS can be studied on its own, providing knowledge about a region valuable for employers across different fields and industries. Focusing on Latin America allows students to engage with one of the most fascinating historical trajectories in the world; to explore diverse cultures where the traditional and the modern are always negotiating; and to participate in vibrant business, intellectual, and political scenes. Latin America is a region at the forefront of policy reform, embedded in the complex networks of global economics, development, social engagement, and cultural expression. Because of the region's importance, the LAS major provides key skills for today's jobs.
A major or minor in LAS is also an excellent complement to any other major program. Latin America is the location of major U.S. trade partners, and Latin American immigrants constitute the largest segment of market growth in the United States, including in the major economic markets of Boston, California, New York, Chicago, Texas, and Florida, which makes the LAS major a great companion to a business degree. In this world, business majors and MBA graduates with an LAS background have a competitive advantage in the world market as large corporations seek executives with a better understanding of the region's complex social, cultural, and economic issues.
Pre-medical students and public health majors will find value in the fact that the growing Latino population and the diverse Latin American peoples are two major topics in the health care field. Majors in global studies, political science, economics, and other social sciences can complete their studies by becoming experts in one of the most economically and politically complex regions in the world; Latin America is a true policy laboratory. Scientists of all disciplines work in the region's spectacular biodiversity. LAS students can attend study abroad programs across the region, earn credit, and explore any field of study.
Latin America offers an increasing number of study abroad and fellowship opportunities. At Washington University, we have in-house programs in Chile, Mexico, and Ecuador, with other countries forthcoming. Some of our students apply to other programs and fellowships with environmental, political, and social organizations in the region. NGOs and institutions such as Fullbright, Comexus, the Ford Foundation, Human Rights Watch, and Greenpeace have a strong presence in Latin America, and students with a Latin American background have a wide array of fellowship and internship opportunities available to them.
Given these reasons and more, Washington University students are more encouraged to look into LAS with each passing day. In the job market, in the academic field, and in the world at large, Latin America is the way to go! LAS alumni have gone on to work in the coffee industry, at the Center for International Policy, and at other nonprofit think tanks. They have also pursued graduate degrees in such fields as international relations and public policy.
Contact Info
Contact: | Professor Ignacio Sánchez Prado |
Phone: | 314-935-5175 |
Email: | isanchez@wustl.edu |
Website: | http://lasprogram.wustl.edu |
Core Faculty
Mabel Moraña
William H. Gass Professor in Arts & Sciences
PhD, University of Minnesota
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Ignacio Sánchez Prado
Jarvis Thurston and Mona Van Duyn Professor in the Humanities
PhD, University of Pittsburgh
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Eliza Williamson
Lecturer
PhD, Rice University
(Latin American Studies; Romance Languages and Literatures)
Faculty with Courtesy Appointments
Bret Gustafson
Professor
PhD, Harvard University
(Anthropology)
Ila Sheren
Associate Professor
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(Art History and Archaeology)
Miguel Valerio
Assistant Professor
PhD, Ohio State University
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Faculty Specialized in Latin America
William Acree
Professor
PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Sarah Baitzel
Assistant Professor
PhD, University of California, San Diego
(Anthropology)
J. Andrew Brown
Professor
PhD, University of Virginia
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Rebecca Clouser
Lecturer
PhD, Indiana University
(International and Area Studies)
Brian Crisp
Professor
PhD, University of Michigan
(Political Science)
Javier García-Liendo
Associate Professor
PhD, Princeton University
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Steven Hirsch
Professor of Practice
PhD, George Washington University
(International and Area Studies)
Stephanie Kirk
Professor
PhD, New York University
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Tabea Linhard
Professor
PhD, Duke University
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Diana Montaño
Assistant Professor
PhD, University of Arizona
(History)
Christina Ramos
Assistant Professor
PhD, Harvard University
(History)
Guillermo Rosas
Professor
PhD, Duke University
(Political Science)
Elzbieta Sklodowska
Randolph Family Professor in Arts & Sciences
PhD, Washington University
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Professors Emeriti
David L. Browman
PhD, Harvard University
(Anthropology)
Pedro C. Cavalcanti
PhD, University of Warsaw
(Anthropology)
David Freidel
PhD, Harvard University
(Anthropology)
John F. Garganigo
PhD, University of Illinois
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Joseph Schraibman
PhD, University of Illinois
(Romance Languages and Literatures)
Richard J. Walter
PhD, Stanford University
(History)
Visit online course listings to view semester offerings for L45 LatAm.
L45 LatAm 165D Latin America: Nation, Ethnicity and Social Conflict
This class is an interdisciplinary introduction to the academic study of modern and contemporary Latin America. The course focuses on main issues in Latin American politics, history and culture, both in the continent at large and in the specific regions and sub-regions within it. The class will particularly explore topics such as nation creation, national identity, modes of citizenry, the role of race, ethnicity, gender and class in the region's historical development, as well as social and political conflicts, which have defined the region over the centuries. This course is suggested before taking any other upper-level courses on Latin America or going abroad to other countries, and required for all Latin American Studies majors and minors. Through the course, students gain basic bibliographic knowledge and experience with research tools for a comparative study of Latin American politics society and culture. Prereq. None.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 170 First-Year Seminar: Bodies in Brazil: Race, Representation and Nation
This course will examine the cultural expressions of the body in Brazil from an interdisciplinary perspective. We will examine how ideas about bodies -- both individual bodies and the "body of the nation" -- have mattered in Brazil's history and been expressed through art, literature, and film. We will also analyze how the body features in culturals forms, from Carnival to capoeira, from the "Globeleza" competition to the sensual politics of Anitta and Pabllo Vittar, and from indigenous body decoration to disability arts. Moving from the formation of national identity to contemporary culture, we will explore the multiple ways in which bodies are made to matter in Brazil. Rather than proceed in pure chronological order, this course will move dynamically between the past and the present, between different scales of time and space, and between cultural forms and everyday practices. Our materials span disciplines such as cultural studies, anthropology, sociology, and history, offering a broad array of angles from which to understand the significance of bodies in Brazil. We will address a wide range of topics, including slavery and national formation, modernist reimaginings of the social body, gender and sexuality, Brazilian Carnival, violence and incarceration, urban space, indigenous peoples, capoeira, hunger, religion, and the political significance of contemporary Brazilian pop stars.
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS
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L45 LatAm 2118 First-Year Seminar: Angels, Prostitutes and Chicas Modernas: Women in Latin American History
Women have been active players in the construction of Latin American nations. In the last two decades, leading scholars in the field have taken up the challenge of documenting women's participation. This research explosion has produced fruitful results to allow for the development of specialized courses. This course looks at the nation building process through the lens of Latin American women. Students will examine the expectations, responsibilities and limitations women confronted in their varied roles from the Wars of Independence to the social revolutions and dictatorial regimes of the twentieth century. Besides looking at their political and economic lives, students will explore the changing gender roles and relations within marriage and the family, as well as the changing sexual and maternal mores.
Same as L22 History 2118
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 2119 First Year Seminar: Race and Ethnicity in Latin America: Myths, Realities and Identities
What does it mean to identify as mestizo, moreno, or mulato? How have Latin American nations dealt with their mixed racial populations and their rich African and indigenous heritages? What does it mean to be black in nations where the official discourse is one of racial hybridity or color blindness? This course examines the history of racial thinking and the experience of race in Latin America. While the focus of the course will be on the complexities of race in Latin America, a place of enormous ethnic and cultural diversity, we will also draw comparisons to the history of race in the U.S.
Same as L22 History 2119
Credit 3 units. A&S: FYS A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 301L Historical Methods: Latin American History
This is a small-group reading course in which students are introduced to the skills essential to the historian's craft. Emphasis will be on acquiring research skills, learning to read historical works critically, and learning to use primary and secondary sources to make a persuasive and original argument. See Course Listings for current topics. Required for history majors. Preference given to History majors; other interested students welcome.
Same as L22 History 301L
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 3021 Music of the African Diaspora
This course explores musical cross-fertilization between the African continent and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe. Beginning with traditional musics from selected regions of the African continent, the course examines the cultural and musical implications of transnational musical flows on peoples of the African diaspora and their multicultural audiences.
Same as L27 Music 3021
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 304 Survey of Brazilian Cultures: Race, Nation and Society
This course will introduce students to Brazilian culture from the colonial period to the present through literature, art, music, film and other cultural forms. The course gives a historical overview of Brazilian culture and society, exploring major sociohistorical and artistic moments from the colonial, imperial, and republican periods, and their "legacies" or influences on Brazilian society. Students will learn about the Amerindian, European, and African influences of Brazilian culture through the study of representative texts and cultural practices. The course also illustrates Brazil's place within Latin America and the world. The course will seek to deconstruct and expand preconceived notions of Brazil, such as Lusotropicalism and racial democracy. Classes will combine lectures by the instructor, student presentations, collective debates and cooperative learning, and will entail the use of required bibliography and audiovisual materials. Prereq. None.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 305 Survey of Mexican Cultures
This course provides an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of Mexico, with a particular focus on the 20th and the 21st century. The class will cover the main historical and cultural processes of Mexico in this period: The Mexican Revolution; the consolidation of a one-party political system; the construction of Mexican national identity and the arrival of neoliberalism. The course also focuses on the main aspects of Mexico's relationship to the United States: the Free Trade Agreement, the history of Mexican migration and the Drug War. From this framework, the course touches upon questions of race (particularly the politics of racial mixture), modernization, construction of social identities and the unique nature of governance in Mexico, due to the single-party regime. It also touches on Mexico's specificities and particularities due to the uniqueness of situation as the southern neighbor of the United States. PreReq. None.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 306 Survey of Southern Cone Cultures: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay
This course provides an introduction to the culture and society of the region known as the Southern Cone, encompassing Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. The course will follow a long-term chronological approach, from the nineteenth century to the present, and will cover a wide spectrum of cultural production: literature, newspapers, music, cinema, television, as well as other examples of popular culture such as soccer. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we will explore how race, class, and gender interact in different historical periods. The class will cover the main historical and cultural processes of these countries: the formation of the Nation-State and the construction of national identities, capitalist modernization, Afro-descendant and Indigenous activism, Populism -with special attention to the case of Peronism in Argentina-, military dictatorships, as well as the contemporary feminist movement. In doing so, the class engages with questions of media, identity, memory, and labor, as they allow us to understand the historical processes of the region.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 3092 Indigenous Peoples and Movements in Latin America
This course focuses on the contemporary lives and political struggles of Indigenous Peoples in Latin America, with specific focus on Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Through course lectures, ethnographic texts, and four in-depth case studies, we explore how the politics of Indigeneity articulate with political and economic processes including (neo)colonialism, global capitalism, state transformation and social movement struggle. Themes include: demands for territory and autonomy; environmentalism and natural resource exploitation; gender and economic inequality; race, racism and political violence; language and education; and the complexities of building multicultural or "plurinational" democracies.
Same as L48 Anthro 3092
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS
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L45 LatAm 3093 Anthropology of Modern Latin America
A survey of current issues in the anthropological study of culture, politics, and change across contemporary Latin American and the Caribbean. Topics include machismo and feminismo, the drug war, race and mestizaje, yuppies and revolutionaries, ethnic movements, pop culture, violence, multinational business, and the cultural politics of U.S.-Latin American relations. Attention will be given to the ways that anthropology is used to understand complex cultural and social processes in a region thoroughly shaped by globalization.
Same as L48 Anthro 3093
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L45 LatAm 3095 The Incas and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of the Ancient Andes
From the hyper-arid desert of the Pacific Coast to the high-mountain plateaus of the Andes more than 12,000 feet above sea level to the lush forested Amazonian lowlands, Western South America presents one of the most diverse natural and cultural environments in the world and one of the few places where social complexity first developed. Beginning with the earliest human occupations in the region more than 12,000 years ago, this course examines how domestication, urbanization, the rise of early states, and major technological inventions changed life in the Andes from small village societies to the largest territorial polity of the Americas - the Inca Empire. Students will become familiar with the major debates in the field of Andean archaeology. Together, we will examine archaeological evidence (architecture, art, ceramics, metals, textiles, plant and animal remains, etc.) from context of everyday life (households, food production, craft production) to the rituals and ceremonies (offerings, tombs) that took place in domestic and public spaces. We will also touch on the role of Andean archaeology in the context of national politics and heritage sustainability.
Same as L48 Anthro 3095
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L45 LatAm 310C Ancient Civilizations of the New World
An examination of the Inca empire in Peru, and the Maya and Aztec empires in Mexico through the inquiry into the roots, development, form, and evolutionary history of pre-Colombian civilization in each region from its earliest times to the rise of the classic kingdoms. Examples of respective artistic accomplishments will be presented and discussed.
Same as L48 Anthro 310C
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: SSC BU: HUM
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L45 LatAm 313 Hello, Hello Brazil! Popular Culture, Media, and the Making of a Nation
Our image of Brazil has been deeply shaped by its cultural production, from Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes' ever-popular "Girl from Ipanema" to the spectacular mega-production of Carnival in Rio and from the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira to the international stardom of pop artists like Anitta. This course is an introduction to popular culture in contemporary Brazil. Students will approach the theme through theoretical works that seek to define popular culture, understanding it as a hybrid form of expression that troubles the line between the "traditional" and the mass-produced. This course will examine how the circulation of sounds and images manifests and shapes Brazilian culture historically and in the present. We will also interrogate the different ways in which culture is produced and received, how it circulates in symbolic markets, and how it comes to be both consumed by diverse audiences and utilized in often unexpected ways. The course will cover topics such as the Tropicalia movement, Afro-centric Carnival blocos, street art such as graffiti, baile funk, forro, favela protest theater, telenovelas (soap operas), the popularization of samba, soccer and the World Cup, and Carnival. Students will use an interdisciplinary lens to approach popular culture in Brazil through music lyrics, TV and film, cultural performances, and graphic novels. These materials will form the basis of our class discussions and written assignments. The course will be taught in English. Prerequisite: L45 165D, L45 304, or another course on Latin America suggested.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 318 Gender, Sexuality and Power in Brazil
This course examines the nexus of gender, sexuality, and power in Brazil through an interdisciplinary lens. We will aim to understand how varying understandings of gender and sexuality have impacted the development of Brazilian society in history and continue to shape contemporary society and politics. We will pay special attention to the ways in which the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class, ethnicity, and so on impact people's lived experiences and how heteronormativity and homophobia shape current politics. We will take an intersectional feminist approach to analyze topics such as slavery in colonial Brazil, national aspirations to modernity, authoritarian repression and "moral panics," domestic labor, motherhood, sex tourism, Brazilian feminisms, and LGBTQ+ activism. Scholarly work from various fields of study -- with an emphasis on gender studies, history, and anthropology -- will be supplemented by documentaries, film, podcasts, and other media. This is a Writing Intensive and a Social Contrasts class in the IQ curriculum. Prerequisite: L45 165D, or two courses on Latin American or Women and Gender Studies, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, IS
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L45 LatAm 319 The Body in Brazil: Race, Representation, Ontologies
This course is an introduction to various ways of understanding, representing, and performing the body in Brazil. Course materials will draw on insights from anthropology, the medical humanities, and science and technology studies in order to approach the body not just as biological material but also in its social, cultural, and spiritual dimensions. We will cover topics such as the importance of race and ethnicity since the time of colonization, sexualized media representations of gendered bodies, how some bodies are cast as disposable or "out of place" in contexts of social inequality, indigenous ways of viewing the body in relation to the natural and spiritual world, the politics of disability and access, and constructions of the "body politic" in the formation of national identity through ideas such as "antropofagia" (cultural cannabalism). Throughout, we will pay particular attention to how race, gender, sexuality, and disability shape the lived experiences of Brazilians. Topics will include the impact of slavery in the construction of the body in Brazil, the role played by race in the construction of discourses of corporality, and the development of beauty stereotypes and practices such as the medical industry of plastic surgery, among others. Students will analyze visual materials, ethnographies, historical texts, and internet sources in dialogue with critical theories from the social sciences and humanities, assessing how the body "matters" in a variety of ways that reflect Brazil's cultural diversity while also starkly highlighting its persistent racialized and gendered social inequities. These materials will form the basis of our class discussions and written assignments. The course will be taught in English. Prerequisite: L45 165D, L45 304, or another course on Latin America suggested.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 321C Introduction to Colonial Latin America Until 1825
This course surveys the history of Latin America from the pre-Columbian civilizations through the Iberian exploration and conquest of the Americas until the Wars of Independence (roughly 1400-1815). Stressing the experiences and cultural contributions of Americans, Europeans, and Africans, we consider the following topics through primary written documents, first-hand accounts, and excellent secondary scholarship, as well as through art, music, and architecture: Aztec, Maya, Inca, and Iberian civilizations; models of conquest in comparative perspective (Spanish, Portuguese, and Amerindian); environmental histories; consolidation of colonialism in labor, tributary, and judicial systems; race, ethnicity, slavery, caste, and class; religion and the Catholic Church and Inquisition; sugar and mining industries, trade, and global economies; urban and rural life; the roles of women, gender, and sexuality in the colonies. Geographically, we will cover Mexico, the Andes, and to a lesser extent, Brazil, the Southwest, Cuba, and the Southern Cone. Pre-modern, Latin America.
Same as L22 History 321C
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 3220 Modern Mexico
This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the political, social, economic and cultural history of Mexico from the era of Independence (roughly 1810) to the present. Lectures will outline basic theoretical models for analyzing historical trends and then present a basic chronological historical narrative.
Same as L22 History 3220
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 322C Modern Latin America
This course aims to present a survey of Latin American history from Independence to the present. Topics to be covered include the Wars of Independence; caudillismo; nationalism; liberalism; slavery and indigenous peoples; urbanization, industrialization and populism; ideas of race & ethnicity; the Mexican and Cuban Revolutions; US intervention; modernity, modernism and modernization; motherhood and citizenship; the Cold War; terror and violence under military dictatorships and popular resistance movements. While the course aims to provide students with an understanding of the region, it will focus primarily on the experiences of Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Argentina and Central America.
Same as L22 History 322C
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 325 Cultures of Health in Latin America
This course is a survey of the cultural and political-economic aspects of health, illness, and embodied difference in Latin America. We will approach these themes from an interdisciplinary perspective with an emphasis on anthropology and history, exploring how local, national, regional, and global factors affect health and healthcare and how people experience and respond to them. Topics will include interactions between traditional healing practices and biomedicine; the lasting impacts of eugenic sciences on contemporary ideas about race and disability; the unequal impacts of epidemic disease; Indigenous cosmologies and healing systems; the politics of access to healthcare; the cultural and political specificities of reproductive health; and the intersections of race, gender, ethnicity, class, and bodily capacities in the pursuit of well-being. This course is designed for students of all levels interested in health and/or Latin American cultures. It will be taught in English.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, ETH, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 326B Latin American Politics
This course is an introduction to the politics in Latin America, focusing on the trend toward the establishment of democracy. We examine the impact of political culture, economic development, and the legacy of authoritarian regimes on contemporary politics. The course also reviews many of the most pressing challenges confronting governments Latin American governments: the role of the military in politics, the reform of political institutions, threats from radical guerrillas and drug traffickers, debt and economic restructuring, and relations with the United States. Country studies focus on Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Mexico, and Nicaragua. Prerequisites: 100-level introductory course in Political Science or its equivalent in History or IAS.
Same as L32 Pol Sci 326B
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L45 LatAm 327 Humans and Others in Latin America: Natures, Cultures, Environments
What does it mean to inhabit the world with other beings? How are we to cultivate life -- both human and nonhuman -- in toxic environments? What does it mean to be human, and what would it mean to decenter humanity? This course addresses these questions through an exploration of "more-than-human" worlds in Latin America. Students will examine a variety of Latin American thought and practices through the interdisciplinary lens of environmental humanities and social sciences, unsettling presumed boundaries between human and nonhuman, real and imaginary, native and culture. We will engage primarily with ethnographic and other scholarly texts, which will be supplemented by short works of fiction, documentary film, podcasts, and works of art. In the first part of this course, students will be challenged to think about what defines the limits of the human and engage with the concept of "more-than-human" worlds. We will then examine the dark side of such worlds, namely, the ways in which extractive capitalism and environmental destruction demonstrate the permeability of bodies and comprise a kind of "slow violence" against the most vulnerable communities. In the next unit, students will consider Black and Indigenous ecological knowledge and these communities' struggles to care for their lifeways and the environments that sustain them. In our final section, we will explore multispecies entanglements through Indigenous cosmologies and the nexus of science, history, and art. Students will complete several assignments throughout the semester that have been designed to make them think imaginatively and critically about the course themes, including weekly reading responses and in-class discussion facilitation. The final assignment for this course is a creative independent research project where students will synthesize what they learned over the course of the semester and extend it through independent research. Prerequisite: L45 165D or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, ETH, IS
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L45 LatAm 331 Hispanic Art/Arte Hispano
This course focuses on the most important movements, artistic expressions and its representatives of the art history of Latin America and Spain. From the Pre-Columbian art of the Mayas, Aztecs and Incas, to the syncretism of Post-colonial Latin American art, the Mexican Muralism and the self-reconstruction portraits of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo to the Chicano Art in the U.S.A. From the Medieval paintings of religious Spain, to the criticism of the Spanish nobility by Diego Velazquez, the Spanish Civil War of "Guernica" by Pablo Picasso, to the Surrealism of Salvador Dalí and Antonio Gaudi. The students will visit the St. Louis and the Kemper Art Museums. Prereq: Span 303 or 308E. In Spanish.
Same as L38 Span 331
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 3351 The Ancient Maya: Archaeology and History
This course focuses on the ancient Maya civilization because there are many exciting new breakthroughs in the study of the Maya. The Olmec civilization and the civilization of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico will be considered as they related to the rise and development of the Maya civilization. The ancient Maya were the only Pre-Columbian civilization to leave us a written record that we can use to understand their politics, religion, and history. This course is about Maya ancient history and Maya glyphic texts, combined with the images of Maya life from their many forms of art. The combination of glyphic texts, art, and archaeology now can provide a uniquely detailed reconstruction of ancient history in a New World civilization.
Same as L48 Anthro 3351
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L45 LatAm 3354 Ancient Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica encompasses the Pre-Columbian complex societies of Mexico and upper Central America, including Guatemala, Belize, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. It was an agrarian world of great and enduring cities, far-flung trade networks, transcendent religions, kingdoms and empires. This survey lecture course begins with the pioneering hunters and gatherers, reviews the establishment of farming communities and the first Olmec Formative states, the flowering of highland Mexican Classic Period Teotihuacan and other great cities like Tajin in Veracruz, the dynasties of the lowland Maya and summarizes with the Aztec Empire and the period of the Spanish Conquest. The course touches on the many and diverse other cultures that contributed to this vibrant world.
Same as L48 Anthro 3354
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L45 LatAm 343 Latin American Literatures and Cultures
How did Latin America become Latin America? This course explores the different inventions and reinventions of the region through its literatures and cultures. Beginning with the encounter of Europeans with America, students will engage themes like colonization and colonialism, urban and rural cultures, nation formation, modernization, media and popular culture, as well as gender and race relations. Authors studied may include Colón, Sor Juana, Sarmiento, Neruda, Borges, García Márquez, or Morejón. Prereq: Spanish 308E or concurrent enrollment in 303. Taught in Spanish.
Same as L38 Span 343
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, LS, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 3549 Art of Mexico
This survey course draws from selected examples of art and architecture to tell the changing story of Mexico. Beginning with the Aztec and ending with contemporary works, this course chronologically traces artistic manifestations of beliefs, politics, and placemaking. Through movements, revolutionary moments, individuals, and trends, the course creates a portrait of Mexico that is multicultural, dynamic, and creative. Course themes include international relationships, diversity, identity, and politics. Prerequisites: L01 113, Intro to Western Art; L01 215, Intro to Modern Art; L45 165; or permission of instructor.
Same as L01 Art-Arch 3549
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Art: AH, GFAH BU: IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 356 Andean History: Culture and Politics
Since pre-Columbian times, the central Andean mountain system, combining highlands, coastal and jungle areas, has been the locus of multiethnic polities. Within this highly variegated geographical and cultural-historical space, emerged the Inca Empire, the Viceroyalty of Peru - Spain's core South American colony, and the central Andean republics of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Taking a chronological and thematic approach, this course will examine pre-Columbian Andean societies, Inca rule, Andean transformations under Spanish colonialism, post-independence nation-state formation, state-Indian relations, reform and revolutionary movements, and neoliberal policies and the rise of new social movements and ethnic politics. This course focuses primarily on the development of popular and elite political cultures, and the nature and complexity of local, regional, and national power relations.
Same as L97 GS 356
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: IS EN: S
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L45 LatAm 364 Anarchism: History, Theory, and Praxis
This course analyzes the genesis, historical evolution, and current iterations of global anarchism. It examines anarchist beliefs, ethics, aims, countercultural expressions, organizations, emancipatory practices, and intersectional modes of struggle in different temporal, geographic, and cultural contexts. Special attention will be given to anarchism in the global south, cross-fertilization and relations between anarchists and the Marxist Left, anarcho-feminism, green anarchism, and anarcho-pacifism.
Same as L97 GS 364
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L45 LatAm 381 Mexican Visual Culture
This course will explore the ways in which different aspects of visual culture were used to construct national, regional, political, social and cultural identities in Mexico. The omnipresence of the visual in the everyday life of Mexicans -including state-sponsored muralism, cinema, photography, graphic press, wide-circulating comic books and nationalist architecture- allows for the study of different ways in which citizens become embedded both in official national projects and in projects of political dissidence. The class will thus use the Mexico in the 20th and 21st centuries to introduce students to the study of the visual as a social practice, through theoretical discussions that will run parallel to the study of different visual manifestations. The course will discuss the changing social and political role of art, the influence that Mexican visual culture exerts in other parts of the world and the way in which visual culture allows Mexicans to think about their identity.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM, VC EN: H
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L45 LatAm 382 Latin American DissemiNations: Migrations and Identities in the 20th and 21st Centuries
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SD EN: H
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L45 LatAm 3824 Film and Revolution in Latin America
This class is a Writing Intensive course focused on the study of the way in which four landmark Latin American revolutions (The Independence Wars, The Mexican Revolution, The Cuban Revolution and The Bolivarian Revolution) are represented in cinema. Each one of these revolutions will constitute a unit of study, and students will be expected to work with historical texts, films and works of film theory and criticism for each one of them. The course will engage in subjects such as the difference between fiction and nonfiction films when representing history; the politics that underlie specific representations; the way in which cinema questions and revises ideas developed by historians; and the uses of film in creating popular views of history in Latin America. Students will develop a research project comparing two revolutionary processes over the semester. Prereq. L45 165D (Latin America: Nation, Ethnicity and Social Conflict) for LAS majors. Otherwise none.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 3826 Contemporary Latin American Cinema: Market Economy, Social Injustice, New Technologies
This class studies the relationship between cinema and society in Latin America between 1988 and the present. Latin American cinema in this period has gone to a period of deep crisis to the consolidation of industries and production with significant global recognition and impact. In this, cinema has strong correlations with neoliberalism, the political doctrine tied to free-market reform, democratization and privatization, among other ideas. The class will be based on the study and discussion of key films of the period to develop two themes. First, we will study the way in which cinema has become a cultural practice central to the discussion of the effects of neoliberalism in the region, as well as the opposition to neoliberalism. Topics in this regard will include: the social impact of free market reforms, growing economic and social inequality, the emergence of working class, Black and indigenous communities, the rise and fall of the New Left, the creation of new elites and other related themes. Second, we will study the way in which films are made and distributed and the changes on film production over the past decades. Topics will include the privatization of production and exhibition, the role of home video and streaming, the importance of film festivals and the move from national to translational scenes of production. Prereq: L45 165D or L53 220 or other coursework in Latin American Studies, or Film and Media Studies, desirable but not required. Students without this background are encouraged to contact the instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 410 Major Seminar
An undergraduate seminar. Topics vary. Prereq: Span 307D and Span 308E and at least two 300-level literature/culture surveys taught in Spanish.
Same as L38 Span 410
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4107 Latin America and the Rise of the Global South
The rise of the global south - and the reordering of global geopolitics, economics and cultural imaginaries - is characterized by progressive change and intense conflict. Economic growth coincides with the impacts of global warming, the assault on natural resources, the rise of new consumers and the entrenchment of deep inequalities. We also see the emergence of cultural and political formations that range from the horrific to the inspiring. Latin America is a central node of the new global south. Here history takes unpredictable turns in the face of declining U.S. hegemony, the economic growth of Brazil, legacies of militarism and political violence, a feverish attack on nature, resurgent economic nationalism, and defiant "anti-globalization" movements. Through close reading of contemporary ethnographies of Latin America we explore emergent cultural and political-economic processes in the region, we consider south-south articulations (theoretical, cultural, political-economic) between Latin America, China, Africa, and India, and we reflect on the changing role, meaning, and relationships of the United States in the region.
Same as L48 Anthro 4102
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L45 LatAm 4110 The Black South Atlantic
Since the transatlantic slave trade and the establishment of European colonial empires, Latin America and the African continent have remained culturally and geopolitically enmeshed. This course will therefore serve as an interdisciplinary expansion southward of the 'Black Atlantic,' a term made popular by black studies scholar Paul Gilroy. Our focus on the South Atlantic will be to reorient the debate toward black intellectual, cultural, and activist exchange between Africa and Latin America across history, politics, and cultural production.
Same as L90 AFAS 4110
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, WI Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4201 International Relations of Latin America
This course examines Latin American foreign relations in the world from the 1820s to the present with a primary emphasis on the period since 1945. Focusing on inter-state and transnational relations, it seeks to historically contextualize and analyze long term patterns and trends between Latin American states and between Latin America and the United States, Europe, and the global South. Given Latin America's shared experience with imperialism and more recently with neo-imperialism, special attention will be paid to the ways Latin America has sought to manage and/or resist foreign domination, especially U.S. hegemonic pretensions. To this end it will analyze patterns of inter-American conflict and cooperation. When, why, and under what conditions Latin America articulated an independent foreign policy, forged anti-imperialist blocs, embraced U.S. sponsored diplomatic efforts and military alliances, and pursued Latin American unity and solidarity will be closely examined. To better understand the continuities, discontinuities, contradictions, and complexities of Latin American foreign policy, this course will also assess the influence of changing regional and national political cultures from both a theoretical and a historical perspective. In doing so, it explores how elite culture, the balance of domestic social forces, ideological and economic development, and shared cultural identities and meanings informed national political cultures and how these in turn shaped Latin American foreign policies.
Same as L97 GS 4201
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L45 LatAm 4204 International Relations of Latin America (WI)
How should we understand Latin American international relations since the early republican era? Standard Western-centric IR studies emphasize Latin America's marginal position in the world system and its historical subordination to either European and/or U.S. hegemony. This course challenges this one-sided approach and reductionist characterization. Adopting a global historical perspective, one that privileges a Latin American-centric view, this course will examine the ways Latin America generated its own ideas, articulated its own concerns, and acted in its own interests in international affairs. Special attention will be paid to how Latin America sought to resist foreign domination and/or hegemony and maintain its relative autonomy. It will also analyze when, why, and under what conditions Latin America forged anti-imperialist blocs, pursued regional integration, and engaged in transnational solidarity. To provide a more nuanced understanding of Latin American international relations, this course will historically contextualize and analyze the influence of changes in the international state system, national and sub-national political cultures, the balance of domestic forces, and non-state actors.
Same as L97 GS 4204
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, WI Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L45 LatAm 4231 Contemporary Issues in Latin America
How do the institutional designs of contemporary democratic governments help us understand the nature and quality of representation? We will concentrate on variations in the powers granted presidents by constitutions as well as the institutional determinants of whether executives are likely to find support for their policies in the legislature. In addition, we will explore how incentives established by electoral laws influence the priorities of members of congress. Given all these variations in democratic institutional design, can voters go to the polls with the confidence that politicians will implement the economic policies for which their parties have long stood or which they promised in their campaigns?
Same as L32 Pol Sci 4231
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC Art: SSC BU: IS
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L45 LatAm 4235 Blackness in Brazil
Brazil is the country with the largest population of people of African descent outside of the African continent. However, with its history of race mixture under colonialism and slavery, many have imagined Brazil as a racial paradise such that race minimally influences one's social, political, or economic quality of life. The main focus of this course will be to understand from an interdisciplinary approach, first, the historical and sociocultural conditions of the African diaspora in Brazil. Second, we will focus on how national ideologies of racial mixture employ a rhetoric of inclusion that incorporates selective aspects of black culture into Brazilian national identity while excluding black people from the protections and pleasures of full citizenship. Beginning with the experiences of enslaved Africans, we will engage how Afro-Brazilians have developed ideas and spaces of freedom and belonging through social movements, religion, the arts, and resistance well into the black consciousness movements of the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In the course, we will collaboratively read, view, and listen to a variety of primary and secondary sources in order to analyze and write about blackness and the lives of black people in Brazil across history, intersecting, most predominantly, with the social structures of gender, sexuality, class, and religion.
Same as L90 AFAS 4235
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 425 Latin American Studies Research
For LAS students who are completing a research project.
Credit 3 units.
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L45 LatAm 4515 Migration and Health
This course explores the complex relationship between migration and health, with a focus on immigrant health in the United States. Topics include the immigrant health paradox, the impact of immigration enforcement on health and health behavior, access to health care, the health effects of migration on those left behind, and refugee health. Throughout the course, students will pay particular attention to the diverse mechanisms through which immigration and immigration status affect health. In addition to sociology, students will draw on scholarship from the fields of anthropology, demography, medicine, public health, and public policy. Prerequisite: successful completion of an introductory Sociology course or consent of instructor. Graduate students should enroll in the 500-level offering.
Same as L40 SOC 4515
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: SSC, SC Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: BA EN: S
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L45 LatAm 4517 Anthropology and Development
What is 'development'? Economic progress for all? A slow and gradual 'improvement' in the human condition? Helping people with 'projects'? Westernization? Modernization? The sorting out of bodies that are useful and can be put to work from those less useful bodies that must be contained, imprisoned, or killed? The militarized accumulation of capital? The commodification of labor? The exhaustion of nature? In this advanced seminar we will consider how anthropologists - as writers, analysts, and theorists - have engaged the theories, meanings, practices, and consequences of (sometimes externally directed) economic and political change. We focus on issues of the contemporary moment: oil; urban poverty and inequality (sex work, migration, water, debt, and cash transfer programs); and cultures of militarism. The course is designed to provide a graduate-level introduction to theory and ethnography based on intensive reading, discussion, critique, and writing, with revision. It is open to advanced undergraduates and fulfills writing-intensive (WI) requirements, as well as capstone requirements for some majors.
Same as L48 Anthro 4517
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD, WI Arch: SSC Art: SSC BU: ETH EN: S
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L45 LatAm 457 Gender and Modernity in Latin America
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the particular forms modernity assumes in Latin American countries and to the ways in which national cultures, identity politics, and gender issues interweave during the 20th-century. The course will discuss three particular articulation of this topic: 1) Gender and the national question in Argentina: Eva Peron; 2) Gender and Visual Arts: Frida Kahlo; and 3) Gender and Ethnicity: Rigoberta Menchu. Through these iconic figures students will be introduced to the specific features that characterized three very different but representative cultural scenarios in Latin America. In each case, the context for the emergence of these highly influential public figures will be studied from historical, social and cultural perspectives. In order to explore the cultural and political significance of Eva Peron, Frida Kahlo and Rigoberta Menchu, the course will utilize literary texts (speeches, letters, diaries, etc.), visual materials (photography, films, and paintings) and critical bibliography.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 460 Postmodern Narratives in Latin America
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 461 Latin-American Cultural Studies: Critical and Theoretical Approaches
The goal of the course is to provide students with critical and theoretical tools that could be used for the analysis of Latin American cultural history from a transdisciplinary perspective, from colonial times to the present. Some of the concepts to be discussed in class are: colonialism and coloniality, national culture, dependency theory, cultural antropofagia, lettered city, miscegenation, heterogeneity, hybridity, transculturation, peripheral modernity, media and mediation, postmodernity, postcoloniality, and collective memory.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4611 Latin American Populism and Neo-Populism
Over the past 100 years populism, in its diverse forms, has dominated Latin American politics. This course examines case studies of classical populism (Aprismo, Cardenismo, Peronismo, Varguismo, etc.) and neopopulism (Fujimorismo, Chavismo, Moralesismo, neo-Peronismo). In doing so, it explores new theories of populism and analyzes populist discourses, leadership styles, gender and racial politics, mobilizational tactics, transnational networks, and foreign policies.
Same as L97 GS 4611
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 462 Latin America and the West
From the perspective of postcolonial theory, the course will cover different aspects related to Latin America's cultural history, from the Discovery to the present. Some of the issues to be discussed in class are: the colonial encounter; Baroque culture and the emergence of Creole societies in the "New World," the connections between Enlightenment and nationalism, as well as the interweaving of "coloniality" and modernity. Prerequisite: Survey of Latin American Culture or an advanced level course on Latin America.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4622 Labor and Labor Movements in Global History
This course examines the connections between work, types of workers, workers' movements, labor ideologies, and labor politics from a global historical perspective. It analyzes working-class formation, state-labor relations, patterns of racialized and gendered work, and transnational and transcontinental labor activism in the context of global capitalism. Special attention will be given to experiments in workers' control, workers' responses to precarity, and the emergence of platform and digital workers as part of the global working class.
Same as L97 GS 4622
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L45 LatAm 463 Seminar on Urban Cultures in Latin America
The course will focus on the key role urban development and urban cultures have had in Latin America with particular emphasis on contemporary times. The goal of the course is to discuss the connections between the formation and expansion of cities, the definitions of citizenship, and the role of modernity in the development of "high" and "popular" cultures within different historical and geo-cultural contexts. Particular attention will be paid to the issues of race, class and gender. Te course, which will utilize an interdisciplinary and comparative approach, will also focus on the phenomena of marginality, cultural resistance, nationalism and consumerism as well as on the role played by the media in contemporary Latin American societies. Some of the cultural expressions to be analyzed in the course are music (rock, pop, rap), sports, film and video. Prerequisite: L97 165C Survey of Latin American Culture
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4630 Modernity, Culture and the State in Mexico
This course is an advanced seminar on the process of the cultural, ideological and institutional modernization of Mexico. Drawing on readings from fields such as history, cultural anthropology, political sociology and cultural theory, the course discusses the shaping of various forms of social subjectivity and cultural ideology that sustained the formation and development of the state. The course also engages with the identities and processes that led both to the formation of structures of citizenship and to the contestation of state power. This course is structured chronologically, following the development of three interrelated processes unfolding between 1810 and the present: (1) the creation of state institutions and ideology and their evolution in relationship to events such as the liberal Reforma of the 1850s and the Mexican Revolution; (2) the cultural and social implication of processes of capitalist development, modernization and globalization; and (3) the ways in which Mexico's histories of sociocultural difference led to political and cultural insurgencies and rebellions. This course fufills the seminar requirement for Latin American Studies majors. Prerequisite: L45 165D, L45 305, any other 300-level course with significant focus on Mexico, or permission of instructor.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD BU: ETH, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4631 The Binational Condition. The Mexico-US Relationship in Mexican History and Culture.
From the 19th century onwards, the relationship between Mexico and the United States has been defined by intense tensions and contradictions. Closely intertwined by geopolitical engagement and integrations, mutual migration flows, and rich cultural exchange, both countries belong to a binational system with few equivalents around the world, which defines the lives of people living across North America. And yet, few people in the United States have access to a clear and rigorous understanding of the Southern neighbor, often leading to conflict at the political and social levels. This class explores this historically, from the early frictions caused by territory and slavery to the binational conditions of the present. The class emphasizes the Mexican perspective of the relationship, often erased in discussions from the U.S. From this perspective, the course will engage critical moments in the history of the relationships, such as the underground railroad to the South, the Mexican American War, the Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty, and the Cold War. The class will also discuss the ways in which Mexico has influenced the United States culturally, from the impact of Mexican post-Revolutionary art in the New Deal to the rise of film directors like Alfonso Cuarón and Gullermo del Toro. Finally, the class will lay out the ways in which Mexicans and scholars of Mexican studies think about questions such as regional development, the border, immigration, and the Drug War. Prereq. L45 165D or prior coursework on Global Studies, Latin American Studies or American Studies. The course covers the seminar requirement for majors and minors in Latin American Studies.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: ETH, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4633 Twentieth Century Latin American Revolutions
Latin America has been described as one of the most "revolutionary" regions of the world in the twentieth century. It experienced four major social revolutions and gave rise to many consequential guerrilla movements. This course uses theories of revolution and a social science historical approach to elucidate the causes, processes, outcomes, and implications of revolutions in Mexico (1910), Bolivia (1952), Cuba (1959), and Nicaragua (1979). It also analyzes late 20th century revolutionary guerrilla movements in El Salvador and Peru. Why peasants, university students, and women formed key social bases of support for revolutionary movements and how revolutions were institutionalized and consolidated will receive special attention.
Same as L97 GS 4633
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: LCD, SSC, SC, SD Arch: SSC Art: SSC EN: S
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L45 LatAm 464 Nation and Desire in Latin America
The purpose of this course is to analyze the process of nation formation in Latin America, since the imaginaries of the "Creole nation" to the first half of the 20th century. Class discussion will encompass the study of theories on nation formation and nationalism as well as textual representations of national projects, such as Simon Bolivar' letters and discourses, selections from Facundo, Civilization and Barbarism by Domingo F. Sarmiento, selected texts by Andres Bello, Alfonso Reyes, et al, Ariel, by J. E. Rodo, Pedro Henriquez Urena's Seis ensayos en busca de nuestra expresion, Jose Vasconcelos' La raza cosmica, Jose Carlos Mariategui, Siete ensayos de interpretacion de la realidad peruana, Jose Marti's Nuestra America and other essays. Some of the main topics to be discussed are the leading role of Creole elites in the consolidation of national cultures, the marginalization of women as well as indigenous and Afro-Hispanic populations, and the role of nationalism in the shaping of modern societies. Colonialism, Occidentalism, liberalism, positivism, nationalism and modernity are some of the concepts that will be explored both theoretically and in their particular discursive usages. Finally, the concept of nation(alism) will be studied as a political/rhetorical device and as the resulting expression of agency, interest, and desire, in peripheral societies.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 465 Cities, Race and Development in Latin America
This course offers a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the Latin American city: its history, development and inherent economic, social, cultural, ethnic, and political tensions. Lectures, readings, and class debates will explore interactions between the materiality and structure of Latin American modern cities and the social and cultural phenomena related to urban life in multicultural societies. Particular attention will be devoted to the effects of internal/external migration, and to the development of public spaces and sites of memory. Patterns of social segregation, marginalization, inequality, and the like, will be analyzed in order to elaborate on the contemporary challenges of the city in a globalized yet traditional world. In addition to the analysis of living, institutional, and commercial spaces, the course will cover social dynamics that break the discipline of the city through different forms of transgression, including crime, informal housing, and underground movements. The goal of the course is to expose students to historical and social developments as exemplified in a variety of urban environments, and to encourage reflection on issues of social justice related to the living conditions of rural, disadvantaged, and indigenous populations. The course will be conducted in English. Mandatory readings will be in English. Additional readings in Spanish will be required for those students fluent in the language. Prereq. None.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4650 Latin American Subcultures
This course has been planned as an introduction to the interconnections between "high" culture, popular culture, and mass culture, with particular emphasis on the formation of urban subcultures in contemporary Latin America. The topic of subculture and counterculture will be analyzed, taking into consideration the influence of factors of class, race, and gender in the construction of alternative cultural identities. Some of the connections to be studied are between political power and cultural resistance, affect, violence, symbolic value, hegemony and marginality. Distinctions will be made between culture, subcultures, traditions, and lifestyles as well as between multiculturalism and interculturality. While the first part of the course will introduce critical concepts, theories, and methodologies, the second half will focus on specific articulations between cultural practices and the domains of belief, sexuality, violence, and social media, including uses of music, video, and films. Students will prepare a final paper on a Latin American subculture of their choice and analyze it using the critical and theoretical tools discussed in class. Prerequisite: L45 165D. This course fulfills the seminar requirement for Latin American Studies majors and minors.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SC Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 466 Popular Culture and the Representation of Youth in Latin America
The objective of this course is to introduce students to different aspects related to the representation of youth in Latin America, particularly through the depiction this sector receives in the realm of popular culture. The course will focus on the relationship between youth and social/political conflict and on the literary and cinematic representation of juvenile sectors in cultural production in different Latin American countries. The roles of music, melodrama and the media will be studied in connection to the construction of subjectivity and collective identity. The course will also analyze the involvement of juvenile sectors in narco-culture, gangs, maras, and the like, as well as the impact of violence, fear, and social inequality in early life. The analysis of films, literary texts, critical studies and cultural practices will be approached through a combination of biopolitical analysis and the analysis of representational strategies utilized in the elaboration of symbolic materials. This course fulfills the seminar requirement for Latin American Studies majors and minors. Prerequisite: LatAm 165D or another Latin American Studies course.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 467 Constructing the (Racial) Other: From the Colonial Caste System to U.S. Latinos
The goal of this course is to introduce students to categories and concepts related to the questions of race and ethnicity in Latin America, from colonial times to the present. The course also covers U.S. Latinos as a population of Latin American descent that presents particular characteristics connected to the issues of migration, identity politics, reterritorialization, and cultural hybridity. Based on the theoretical and critical study of problems related to colonialism, social classification, miscegenation, whiteness, discrimination, and the like, representative literary and visual materials will be discussed to illustrate the connections between race, social roles, domestic/public spaces, work, democracy and modernization. The issue of race will be analyzed in its multiple articulations to the themes of nationalism, interculturalism, migration, and symbolic representation. This course covers the seminar requirement for Latin American Studies majors. Prerequisite: L45 165D, one other class in Latin American studies, or one class on race studies.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, SC, SD EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4691 Citizenship in the Hot Seat. Migration and Borders in Latin America
This course is an introduction to concepts, interpretations, and debates related to different forms of human mobilization across borders, particularly in contemporary Latin America. However, class discussions will expand to other scenarios in order to contextualize the experience and characteristics of migration today. Some of the notions to be analyzed in connection to this topic are freedom of movement, citizenship, inequality, the labor market, borders, territoriality, and national security. Borders will be studied as material constructions (i.e., walls, wire fences, technological surveillance, funnel systems, and strategies of deterrence) and as conceptual/symbolic representations. In addition to migratory movements, other phenomena such as diaspora, exile, and forced displacements will also be introduced as they have developed in Latin America. Cultural and psychological aspects related to migratory experiences -- such as the role of memory and affect, individual and collective trauma, social effects of deportation, stereotyping, the role of race and gender, and so on -- will also be considered, as they constitute integral aspects of migratory studies. The course will be conducted in English as a combination of lectures, student presentations, and collective discussions of assigned readings. Fulfills the seminar requirement for Latin American Studies majors and minors. Prerequisite: L45 165D.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: BA, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 483 Bodily Injuries: Violence, Gender and Representation in Latin America
The course will focus on the definitions, uses and "languages" of violence in Latin America, particularly during the last decades of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Students will be introduced to philosophical, ethical and political issues related to the existence of "structural" violence and to the problems connected to the symbolic representation of this phenomenon in literature, fictional/ documentary films, and visual arts. One of the course's objectives will be to problematize the conceptualization of violence and to promote critical thinking about its emergence, significance and effects on local/global societies. Some of the topics to be analyzed are the body in its multiple manifestations (the body politic, the social body, the individual body, the treatment of the corpse, etc.), the narrativization of violence (violence as discourse, documentation and fictional elaborations, violence and the media, violence and ideology, etc.), violence and the city, citizenry and otherness, bio-politics, etc. Finally, violence will be presented in different contexts and associated to different activities (ordinary crime, narco-cultures, maras, political movements, domestic environments) and different situations (e.g. violence in rural areas, violence in the borderlands, violence and migration). In all cases the course will call for a reflection on the interrelations between private/public spheres, gender politics, ideological/aesthetic values, and individual/ institutional levels. The role of memory and emotions will be emphasized as a crucial element for the construction /mobilization of subjectivity and for the elaboration of agendas that challenge the State's monopoly of legitimate violence and propose alternative and often perverse forms of association and mobilization at the margins of institutional configurations.
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD EN: H
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L45 LatAm 485 Latin American Studies Thesis Preparation
This is the first course in the 2-semester thesis for Latin Studies thesis writers. Enrollment requires approval of LASP and the undergraduate director.
Credit 3 units.
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L45 LatAm 486 Latin American Studies Thesis
This is the second course in the sequence for Latin American Studies thesis writers. Enrollment requires completion of 485 and permission from LASP and the undergraduate director.
Credit 3 units.
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L45 LatAm 4876 Advanced Seminar: Mexican Agriculture: Land, Politics and Development
Access to and ownership of land has been a major issue in Mexican history. Land tenure in economic development has been a constant source of tension and debate since the 18th century. Paradoxically, land tenure has been put forth as both the obstacle and the solution to the country's modernization. Given its centrality in the construction of the modern period, this course examines liberalism, agrarian revolts, the revolution, the green revolution and neoliberalism through the lens of land issues. This course will also explore how these have shaped and have been shaped by indigenous peoples and peasants, from land disentailment to the fight against GMO maize. Students will evaluate agrarian reforms, agricultural modernization programs, concepts of and transformations of natural resources, food production/consumption and social policies.
Same as L22 History 4876
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD, SD Arch: HUM Art: HUM EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4885 Advanced Seminar: Medicine, Disease and Empire
This course examines the history of medicine in connection to the politics of colonialism and empire-building, spanning the sixteenth century through the twentieth century. Topics covered include: epidemic disease outbreaks (e.g. smallpox, cholera, malaria); the role of science and medicine in endorsing the "civilizing missions" of empires; tropical climates and tropical diseases as western constructs; tensions between western medicine and indigenous healing practices and beliefs; ideas of race and racism in science and medicine; modern advancements in sanitation and public health and their implementation overseas; and the historical roots of the modern global health movement.
Same as L22 History 4885
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM, LCD Arch: HUM Art: HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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L45 LatAm 4926 Contemporary Art of the U.S.-Mexico Border and Beyond
The question of the materiality of borders has attained new urgency with the resurgence of nationalist and anti-globalist movements. Calls for a "big, beautiful wall" on the U.S.-Mexico border are but one striking example of this phenomenon. A wall, a fence, a line, or a zone may focus attention on a narrow space, but it does so at the expense of broader narratives of structural inequality, the lingering violence of colonialism, and the rapid scale of climate change. The simplicity of a barrier is a particularly damaging fiction, one that avoids examinations of the larger forces that divide us. This upper-level and graduate seminar will delve into the history of "border art" as a category -- whether public art, sculpture, installation, new media, or performance -- using the U.S.-Mexico border as an extended in-depth case study. Analysis will not be limited to this region, as the course encourages a comparative approach that places disparate regions into dialogue with each other. In addition, we will also consider the issue of divides and borders locally, within the St. Louis area and its suburbs. Prerequisites: Intro to Western Art or Intro to Modern Art, plus one 300-level course in Art History.
Same as L01 Art-Arch 4926
Credit 3 units. A&S IQ: HUM Arch: HUM Art: AH, CPSC, GFAH, HUM BU: HUM, IS EN: H
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