2026-2027 Catalog

LACS 10200. Latin America in/at Chicago. 100 Units.

This course explores the city of Chicago's Latin American and Caribbean roots by considering hemispheric connections, both in the city at large and at the University of Chicago. Students will analyze 1) the ways Latin(e/x) American actors have participated in and shaped Chicago's political economy, 2) how Latin(e/x)s on both sides of the US-Mexico border have impacted and been impacted by social thought at the University of Chicago, 3) the collection and display of Latin American material culture in several of the city's museums, and 4) Latin(e/x) American civil and human rights activism in the city. The course will move through the city chronologically as well as geographically over the long twentieth century.

Instructor(s): Schwartz-Francisco, Diana     Terms Offered: Spring. Offered irregularly in Spring as part of Chicago Studies CIV sequence "Latin America/Latinx Chicago"
Note(s): This class is part of the Chicago Studies Civilizations Core sequence "Latin America/Latinx Chicago." Classes in this sequence include weekly experiential learning activities in the city, usually on Fridays.
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 17910, CHST 10200, RDIN 10200, CEGU 10200, ANTH 10200

LACS 10201. Immigrant Chicago. 100 Units.

Since the early 1900's, thousands of Latin Americans have made Chicago their home. Today, approximately one-third of Chicagoans trace their roots to Latin America. These significant demographic flows raise critical questions: Why have Latin Americans moved to Chicago? How have they adapted to the city? How have they influenced it? This course will expose students to the latest social science research on contemporary immigration with a strong focus on Latinos in Chicago. We will explore its origins, adaptation patterns, and long-term effects on our city. To explore the Latino experience in Chicago, the course will focus on three communities: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Venezuelans. These three groups migrated to Chicago during distinct periods, with Mexicans arriving in the early 1900s, Puerto Ricans in the 1940s, and Venezuelans in 2023. This temporal variation will enable us to investigate how the evolving social, economic, and political conditions in Chicago have influenced immigrants' experiences.

Instructor(s): Flores, René     Terms Offered: Spring. Offered irregularly in Spring as part of Chicago Studies CIV sequence "Latin America/Latinx Chicago"
Note(s): This class is part of the Chicago Studies Civilizations Core sequence "Latin America/Latinx Chicago." Classes in this sequence include weekly experiential learning activities in the city, usually on Fridays.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 10201, CEGU 10201, RDIN 10201, CHST 10201

LACS 10202. Latinx Arts in Chicago. 100 Units.

This course is an overview of the Latinx arts in Chicago. It explores artworks and artmaking as documents and critical fictions created in response to the social realities of urban Latinx populations in the U.S. and in Chicago in particular. It challenges students to think about (Latinx) art and the humanities under two modalities: as privileged arenas for understanding experience and exploring the values that guide a society, and as economic engines and instruments of political intervention. The course pursues these objectives though the study of the Latinx arts in Chicago, and through immersive engagements with local institutions where Latinx art operates (as historical object, as tool for social change, as fruit and seed of creative process, as instrument for economic development). Using the work of Latinx artists, curators, filmmakers, and other cultural brokers based in Chicago, the course studies artworks in the context of the social realities that gave rise to these works.

Instructor(s): Delgado Moya, Sergio     Terms Offered: Spring. Offered irregularly in Spring as part of Chicago Studies CIV sequence "Latin America/Latinx Chicago"
Note(s): This class is part of the Chicago Studies Civilizations Core sequence "Latin America/Latinx Chicago." Classes in this sequence include weekly experiential learning activities in the city, usually on Fridays.
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 10202, CEGU 10202, CHST 10202, ANTH 10202

LACS 10600. Power and Resistance in the Black Atlantic. 100 Units.

Beginning with the arrival of European explorers on the West African coast in the fifteenth century and culminating with the stunning success of radical abolitionist movements across the Americas in the nineteenth century, the formation of the Black Atlantic irrevocably reshaped the modern world. This class will examine large-scale historical processes, including the transatlantic slave trade, the development of plantation economies, and the birth of liberal democracy. Next, we will explore the lives of individual Africans and their American descendants, the communities they built, and the cultures they created. We will consider the diversity of the Black Atlantic by examining the lives of a broad array of individuals, including black intellectuals, statesmen, soldiers, religious leaders, healers, and rebels. We will examine African diasporic subjects as creative rather than reactive historical agents and their unique contributions to Atlantic cultures, societies, and ideas. Within this geographically and temporally expansive history students will explore a key set of animating questions: What is the Black Atlantic? How can we understand both the commonalities and diversity of the experiences of Africans in the Diaspora? What kinds of communities, affinities, and identities did Africans create after being uprooted by the slave trade? What methods do scholars use to understand this history? And finally, what is the historical and political legacy of the Black Atlantic?

Instructor(s): M. Hicks     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 10600, DEMS 10600, RDIN 10600

LACS 11008. Introduction to Latinx Literature. 100 Units.

From the activist literature of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement to contemporary fiction and poetry, this course explores the forms, aesthetics, and political engagements of U.S. Latinx literature in the 20th and 21st centuries. Theoretical readings are drawn from Chicanx Studies, Latinx Studies, American Studies, Latin American Studies, Hemispheric Studies, Indigenous Studies, and Postcolonial Studies, as we explore Latinx literature in the context of current debates about globalization, neoliberalism, and U.S. foreign policy; Latinx literature's response to technological and socio-political changes and its engagement with race, gender, sexuality, class, and labor; and its dialogues with indigenous, Latin American, North American, and European literatures. (Poetry, 1830-1940, Theory)

Instructor(s): Rachel Galvin     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): ENGL 11008, SPAN 21008, CMLT 11008

LACS 12200. Portuguese For Spanish Speakers. 100 Units.

This course is intended for speakers of Spanish to develop competence quickly in spoken and written Portuguese. In this intermediate-level course, students learn ways to apply their Spanish language skills to mastering Portuguese by concentrating on the similarities and differences between the two languages. Students with a placement of 20100 or higher in any of the other Romance Languages are eligible to take PORT 12200 for completion of the College Language Competency Requirement

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring
Prerequisite(s): SPAN 10300 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 12200

LACS 12201. Kreyòl for Speakers of Romance Languages I. 100 Units.

This course is intended for speakers of other Romance Languages to quickly develop competence in spoken and written Kreyol (Kreyòl Ayisyen). In this introductory course, students learn ways to apply their skills in another Romance language to master Kreyol by concentrating on the similarities and differences between the two languages. Although familiarity with a Romance language is strongly recommended, students with no prior knowledge of a Romance Languages, and heritage learners, are also welcome.

Instructor(s): Gerdine Ulysse     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): KREY 12201

LACS 12301. Kreyòl for Speakers of Romance Languages II. 100 Units.

This course is intended for speakers of other Romance Languages, to quickly develop competence in spoken and written Kreyol (Kreyòl Ayisyen). In this intermediate-level course, students learn ways to apply their skills in another Romance language to master Kreyol by concentrating on the similarities and differences between the two languages. This course offers a rapid review of the basic patterns of the language and expands on the material presented in KREY 12201. Although familiarity with a Romance language is strongly recommended, students with no prior knowledge of a Romance language, and heritage learners, are also welcome.

Instructor(s): Gerdine Ulysse      Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): KREY 12201 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): KREY 12301

LACS 14100. Portuguese for Speakers of Romance Languages. 100 Units.

This course helps students quickly gain skills in spoken and written Portuguese by building on their prior working knowledge of another Romance language (Spanish, French, Catalan or Italian). By relying on the many similarities with other Romance languages, students can focus on mastering the different aspects of Portuguese, allowing them to develop their abilities for further study. This class covers content from PORT 10100 and 10200.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): 20100 in another Romance language or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 14100

LACS 14500. Portuguese for the Professions: Intensive Business Portuguese. 100 Units.

This is an accelerated language course that covers vocabulary and grammar for students interested in working in a business environment where Portuguese is spoken. The focus of this highly interactive class is to develop basic communication skills and cultural awareness through formal classes, readings, discussions, and writings. PORT 14500 satisfies the Language Competency Requirement.

Instructor(s): Juliano Saccomani     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): PORT 10200, SPAN 20100, or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 14500

LACS 15011. Gender and Sexuality in World Civ III - Going Downtown: Feminist and Queer Life in the Caribbean. 100 Units.

What do intimacy, power, and community look like for women, queer and trans people in the Caribbean? We will study the history and present of Martinique's beaches, where sands can be a place of refuge for lovers. Listening to soca, the anthem of Carnival celebrations in Trinidad and beyond, we will understand how music and performance champion women's bodily autonomy and pleasure. Studying newly available archives, we will learn how newspapers like the Jamaica Gaily News (1977-1984) were the foundation of Jamaica's Gay Freedom Movement, creating community and sharing life-saving information. And, reading recent literature from across the Caribbean, we will see how women sharpen their voices against the threat of violence. We will also have the opportunity to learn from Caribbean scholars, artists, and writers working on gender and sexuality today in class visits. You will leave this course with insights into feminist and queer movements outside the U.S.; an understanding of how histories of indigenous dispossession, European colonialism, slavery, and Asian labor migration shaped the diversity of gender and sexual expressions in the Caribbean; and a new critical vocabulary for gender and sexuality. No prior familiarity with the Caribbean is required, and all readings will be in English or translated into English. All are welcome. This course is open to students who have not taken in GNSE Civ I and II.

Instructor(s): Kaneesha Parsard     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Preference for students who have taken GNSE Civ I and II.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 15011, RDIN 15011

LACS 16100-16200-16300. Introduction to Latin American Civilization I-II-III.

This is a three-quarter course sequence that introduces students to the history and cultures of Latin America, an area of the world that includes Mesoamerica (Mexico and Central America), South America, and the Caribbean. Taking these courses in chronological sequence is not required. This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. This sequence is offered every year.

LACS 16404. Criminal, Police, and Citizen in Latin America. 100 Units.

Crime and policing are intensely debated today around the world, but perhaps nowhere are these debates felt more sharply than in Latin America, the site of both high rates of crime and violence and widespread distrust of the police and criminal justice institutions. This course delves into the history of these issues in the region. In the process, it sheds light on broader themes of Latin American history from the late colonial period to the present day. As the course shows through topics ranging from crimes against honor, to the policing of street vending, to the drug war, crime and policing in Latin America have been crucial spaces for the construction and contestation of social and legal hierarchies, the voicing of political protest and social critique, and the making and unmaking of citizenship. Through the use of diverse readings, including primary sources such as court records, satirical poems, and blockbuster films, students will trace how ideas of crime, and of the role of the state in attempting to define it and respond to it, changed over time with broader social, economic, and political developments. In doing so, they will examine how crime and policing have intersected with class, race, and gender, and how debates over crime and the practices of policing have shaped the boundaries of citizenship.

Instructor(s): K. Boyar     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 16404, GNSE 16404, HIST 16404

LACS 20100. The Inca And Aztec States. 100 Units.

This course is an intensive examination of the origins, structure, and meaning of two native states of the ancient Americas: the Inca and the Aztec. Lectures and discussions are framed around an examination of theories of state genesis, function, and transformation, with special reference to the economic, institutional, symbolic, and religious bases of indigenous state development. This course is broadly comparative in perspective and considers the structural significance of institutional features that are either common to or unique expressions of these two Native American states. Finally, we consider the causes and consequences of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, and the continuing impact of the European colonial order that was imposed on and to which the Native populations adapted with different degrees of success over the course of the 16th century.

Instructor(s): Alan Kolata
Note(s): This course qualifies as a Discovering Anthropology selection for Anthropology Majors
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 40100, LACS 40305, ANTH 20100

LACS 20046. Introduction to Caribbean Studies. 100 Units.

Why have critics, writers, and artists described the Caribbean as "ground zero" of Western modernity? Beginning with the period before European settlement, we will study slavery and emancipation, Asian indentureship, labor and social movements, decolonization, debt and tourism, and today's digital Caribbean. We will survey literary and visual cultures, primary source documents, and thought across the English, French, Spanish, and Dutch-speaking Caribbean. All readings will be available in translation. (Fiction, Theory)

Instructor(s): Kaneesha Parsard     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 22046, ENGL 20046

LACS 20206. The Maya of Yucatán: From Colonial Encounters to Contemporary Transformations. 100 Units.

This course explores historical and ethnographic studies of the lowland Maya region in southeastern Mexico. Through classic and contemporary accounts, students examine how colonial encounters, political change, and global forces have shaped Maya culture, language, and social life. Topics include colonial legacies, rebellion and resistance, tourism, cultural preservation, and the politics of Indigenous identity. The course offers a nuanced understanding of continuity and transformation in Maya worlds, past and present.

Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 20205

LACS 20310. Chicago Habla Español. 100 Units.

Chicago is known to have multiple, diverse Spanish-speaking communities. In this course, students will use these communities as their classroom to analyze and debate current issues confronting the LatinX experience in the United States and Midwest. In parallel, class instruction will reinforce and expand students' grammatical and lexical proficiency in a manner that will allow students to engage in real-life activities involving speaking, reading, listening and writing skills. This intermediate-high language course targets the development of writing skills and oral proficiency in Spanish and is designed as an alternative to SPAN 20300. Students will review problematic grammatical structures, write a number of essays, and participate in multiple class conversations using authentic readings and listening segments as linguistic models on which to base their own production. At the end of class, students are expected to produce an individual project.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): SPAN 20200 or 20102.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 20310, CHST 20310

LACS 20401. Ekspresyon ekri: Kreyòl lakay soti Ayiti rive nan dyaspora a. 100 Units.

This course will provide opportunities to promote deeper knowledge of the Haitian culture while emphasizing the development of writing skills in the Kreyòl language through the use of a variety of authentic texts and cultural experiences. Topics covered in the course will include the Haitian revolution, cuisine, and audio-visual and performing arts. Moreover, students will participate in different cultural exploration outings in the city of Chicago, which will provide additional opportunities to interpret cultural artifacts and reflect on the Haitian culture and its influence on the representation and daily lives of Haitians in the diaspora, particularly in Chicago. In this course, we will: 1) analyze different cultural artifacts in the Haitian cultures through primary and secondary texts, 2) examine the influences of these cultural phenomena on the representation of Haitians and the creation of Haitian identity in the diaspora, and 3) and reflect on the importance of cultural identity in a migration context. Those who will take the course for Kreyòl credits will also develop additional syntactic knowledge in the language through creation of diverse essays. This course will be conducted in two weekly sessions: a common lecture session in English and an additional weekly discussion session in English or Kreyòl.

Instructor(s): Gerdine Ulysse     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): For those seeking credit in Kreyòl, this course is open to students who have taken KREY 12300 (Kreyòl for Speakers of French II), KREY 12301 (Kreyòl for Speakers of Romance Languages II), or instructor consent. Heritage learners are also welcome.
Equivalent Course(s): KREY 20400, RDIN 20410, CHST 20400

LACS 20500. Culturas do Mundo Lusófono. 100 Units.

In this course students will explore the culture of the Lusophone world through the study of a wide variety of contemporary literary and journalistic texts from Brazil, Portugal, Angola and Mozambique, and unscripted recordings. This advanced language course targets the development of writing skills and oral proficiency in Portuguese. Students will review problematic grammatical structures, write a number of essays, and participate in multiple class debates, using authentic readings and listening segments as linguistic models on which to base their own production.

Instructor(s): Ana Lima     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PORT 20100 or consent of the instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 20500

LACS 20600. Composição e Conversação Avançada. 100 Units.

The objective of this course is to help students acquire advanced grammatical knowledge of the Portuguese language through exposure to cultural and literary content with a focus on Brazil. Students develop skills to continue perfecting their oral and written proficiency and comprehension of authentic literary texts and recordings, while also being exposed to relevant sociocultural and political contemporary topics. Students read, analyze, and discuss authentic texts by established writers from the lusophone world; they watch and discuss videos of interviews with writers and other prominent figures to help them acquire the linguistic skills required in academic discourse. Through exposure to written and spoken authentic materials, students learn the grammatical and lexical tools necessary to understand such materials as well as produce their own written analysis, response, and commentary. In addition, they acquire knowledge on major Brazilian authors and works.

Instructor(s): Ana Lima     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): PORT 20100 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 20600

LACS 20801. Cultura, lengua e identidad de Pilsen. 100 Units.

This advanced-language Spanish course explores the intersection of language, identity, and migration through the lens of Chicago's Latino-Mexican community, particularly in Pilsen. Students will strengthen their linguistic and cultural competence through authentic texts, multimedia, and engagement with local artists and writers. Topics include migration, bilingualism, cultural preservation, and artistic expression. The course emphasizes critical thinking, oral proficiency, and writing, with opportunities for students to contribute original work to Revista Væranda. Designed for students at the third-year level.

Instructor(s): María Cecilia (Nené) Lozada     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 20801, CHST 20801

LACS 21001. Human Rights: Contemporary Issues. 100 Units.

This course examines basic human rights norms and concepts and selected contemporary human rights problems from across the globe, including human rights implications of the COVID pandemic. Beginning with an overview of the present crises and significant actors on the world stage, we will then examine the political setting for the United Nations' approval of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948. The post-World War 2 period was a period of optimism and fertile ground for the establishment of a universal rights regime, given the defeat of fascism in Europe. International jurists wanted to establish a framework of rights that went beyond the nation-state, taking into consideration the partitions of India-Pakistan and Israel-Palestine - and the rising expectations of African-Americans in the U.S. and colonized peoples across Africa and Asia. But from the beginning, there were basic contradictions in a system of rights promulgated by representatives of nation-states that ruled colonial regimes, maintained de facto and de jure systems of racial discrimination, and imprisoned political dissidents and journalists. Cross-cutting themes of the course include the universalism of human rights, problems of impunity and accountability, notions of "exceptionalism," and the emerging issue of the "shamelessness" of authoritarian regimes. Students will research a human rights topic of their choosing, to be presented as either a final research paper or a group presentation.

Instructor(s): Susan Gzesh, Senior Lecturer, (The College)     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 21001, SOSC 21001, HIST 29304, DEMS 21001, CHST 21001, LLSO 21001

LACS 21090. Spectral Archives: Asian Diasporic Literature in the Americas. 100 Units.

Did Asian American literature exist before Asian America? How do we access the enslaved and indentured lives that archives have little to tell us about? Can we reimagine the unheard lives of Asian diasporas historically perceived as "diseased," inscrutable, and undesirable? What kind of interracial violence and intimacies did they form with Afro-diasporic and indigenous peoples under Spanish and British colonial occupations? To answer these questions, this course turns to the pre-twentieth-century history of Asian diasporas in the Americas, principally in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Peru. We will closely examine archival sources (inventory records, legal documents, lyrics, spiritual biography, etc.) on two historical trends of forced migration-the early modern transpacific trade of chino slaves and the nineteenth century coolie trafficking of Chinese and Indian laborers-and reflect on the constitutive limits of the archives. In addition, we will read anti-racist, feminist, and queer reimaginations of the Asian-diasporic past by contemporary authors and artists such as David Dabydeen, Michelle Mohabeer and Patricia Powell, etc. These primary sources will be supplemented by theoretical readings on Black feminism, queer of color critique, and Afro-Asian solidarity.

Instructor(s): Yunning Zhang      Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Students will engage with course materials through collaborative discussion and presentation, and the creation of a public-facing website that will include blog posts and a multimedia final project, where each student crafts a creative piece for an Asian diasporic subject of their own choosing.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 21090, HIST 26308, SPAN 22090, GLST 21090, EALC 21090, CMLT 31090, RDIN 21090, CMLT 21090, GNSE 21090, ENGL 21090

LACS 21100. Las regiones del español. 100 Units.

This sociolinguistic course expands understanding of the historical development of Spanish and awareness of the great sociocultural diversity within the Spanish-speaking world and its impact on the Spanish language. We emphasize the interrelationship between language and culture as well as ethno-historical transformations within the different regions of the Hispanic world. Special consideration is given to identifying lexical variations and regional expressions exemplifying diverse sociocultural aspects of the Spanish language, and to recognizing phonological differences between dialects. We also examine the impact of indigenous cultures on dialectical aspects. The course includes literary and nonliterary texts, audio-visual materials, and visits by native speakers of a variety of Spanish-speaking regions.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring
Prerequisite(s): SPAN 20300 or 20302.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 21100

LACS 21101. Lang, Sosyete ak Kilti Ayisyèn I. 100 Units.

This advanced-level course will focus on speaking and writing skills through the study of a wide variety of contemporary texts and audiovisual materials. It will provide students with a better understanding of contemporary Haitian society. Students will review problematic grammatical structures, write a number of essays, and participate in multiple class debates.

Instructor(s): Gerdine Ulysse     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): KREY 12300, 12301 or consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): KREY 21100

LACS 21150. El español en los Estados Unidos. 100 Units.

This sociolinguistic course expands understanding of both the historical and the contemporary development of Spanish in parts of the United States, and awareness of the great sociocultural diversity within the Spanish-speaking communities in the United States and its impact on the Spanish language. This course emphasizes the interrelationship between language and culture as well as ethno-historical transformations within the different regions of the United States. Special consideration is given to identifying lexical variations and regional expressions exemplifying diverse sociocultural aspects of the Spanish language, and to recognizing phonological differences between dialects. We also examine the impact of English on dialectical aspects. The course includes sociolinguistic texts, audio-visual materials, and visits by native speakers of a variety of Spanish-speaking regions in the United States.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): SPAN 20300 or 20302.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 21150

LACS 21200. Lang, Sosyete ak Kilti Ayisyèn II. 100 Units.

This advanced-level course will focus on speaking and writing skills through a wide variety of texts, audiovisual materials, and cultural experiences. We will study a wide range of Haitian cultural manifestations (e.g., visual arts, music, gastronomy). Students will also review advanced grammatical structures, write a number of essays, participate in multiple class debates, and take cultural trips to have a comprehensive learning experience with Haitian language and culture.

Instructor(s): Gerdine Ulysse     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): KREY 21100 or consent of instructor.
Equivalent Course(s): KREY 21200

LACS 21302. Mexican Modernisms. 100 Units.

This course surveys the landscape of Mexican art from the late nineteenth century into the 1940s, exploring the developments, debates, and problems of this particularly rich moment in the history of twentieth-century art. Within the context of post-revolutionary society and politics, we will study the production, circulation, and reception of prints, photographs, easel painting, film, and craft, along with the work of the famed muralists. Issues to be addressed include: the formation of new ideas of nation and citizenship, the relationship of artists to the state, the place of indigenous peoples and their art in a new social order, the influence of foreign artists and trends, the incorporation of both old and new media and technologies, and the intersection of gender, class, and national identities.

Instructor(s): M. Sullivan     Terms Offered: Winter
Prerequisite(s): This course fulfills the following requirements in the ARTH major and minor: Latin American
Equivalent Course(s): ARTH 31302, ARTH 21302, LACS 31302

LACS 21325. Deter, Detain, and Deport: U.S. Immigration Enforcement in Historical Perspective. 100 Units.

Often described as a "nation of immigrants," the U.S. has the highest rates of noncitizen detention and deportation at the global level. Confronting this conundrum, this class will analyze the historical development of U.S. immigration enforcement, from the mid-19th century to the present era. The class will begin at the development of federal-level plenary power to control immigration and thus shape the demographic character of the nation-state. Going beyond the letter of the law, we will discuss the role different governmental and nongovernmental actors - ranging from Border Patrol to local police and faith institutions - have played in enhancing and/or contesting immigration policy on the ground. Finally, the class will discuss the "externalization" of immigration enforcement beyond borders to keep migrants from reaching U.S. national territory.

Instructor(s): Ramon Garibaldo Valdez     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 21325, PLSC 31325, LACS 31325

LACS 21500. Lingua, Sociedade, e Cultura. 100 Units.

This course helps students develop their skills in understanding, summarizing, and producing written and spoken arguments in Portuguese through readings and debates on various issues of relevance in contemporary Luso-Brazilian societies. Special consideration is given to the major differences between continental and Brazilian Portuguese. In addition to reading, analyzing, and commenting on advanced texts (both literary and nonliterary), students practice and extend their writing skills in a series of compositions.

Instructor(s): Ana Lima     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): PORT 20200, PORT 20600 or consent of instructor
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 21500

LACS 21600. Francophone Caribbean Culture and Society: Art, Music, and Cinema. 100 Units.

This course provides an interdisciplinary survey of the contemporary Francophone Caribbean. Students will study a wide range of its cultural manifestations (performing arts like music and dance, literature, cinema, architecture and other visual arts, gastronomy). Attention is also paid to such sociolinguistic issues as the coexistence of French and Kreyòl, and the standardization of Kreyòl.

Instructor(s): Gerdine Ulysse     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 21601, KREY 21600, GLST 21600

LACS 21601. Exploring the Lusophone World: New Perspectives in Portuguese Language and Culture. 100 Units.

This course aims to enhance linguistic abilities and cultural awareness of students of Portuguese by providing opportunities for structured discussion, analysis, and exploration of issues relevant to language use in academic, professional, and social settings. Through a variety of literacy-oriented exercises, including all modes of communication and related to different topics and genres, students continue to develop their proficiencies, cross-cultural knowledge, and general language ability. Students will explore, analyze, and discuss a variety of global topics as can be observed through the unique lenses of the cultures of Lusophone countries and communities. To develop both their linguistic and intercultural competence, linguistic skills will be honed through a variety of cultural products that allow the students to reflect on the practices and perspectives of the target society, as well as their own. These products will range from readings, multimedia content (videos and films), and Virtual Reality videos and images specifically created for this course. This course fosters the development of writing skills and oral proficiency in Portuguese. Students will review problematic grammatical structures, write several essays, and participate in multiple class debates on topics related to literature, politics, history, and popular culture. It builds linguistic proficiency to address issues of increasingly theoretical complexity and engage in critical thinking.

Instructor(s): Juliano Saccomani     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): PORT 20600, PORT 21500 or instructor consent
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 21600

LACS 21650. Histories from the Margins. 100 Units.

Scholars have long been interested in the question of how to reconstruct the lived historical experiences of "ordinary," marginalized, or otherwise "unknown" people. Doing "history from below" marked an important turn in social history that generated new questions about and approaches to reconstructing the lives, histories, and cultures of people who were consigned to the peripheries of (or absent altogether from) historical records. While radical, this approach over-emphasized binary relations of power. Thinking about "histories from the margins," however, opens up new questions about how power, oppression, and marginalization cut across intersecting categories-such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and colonialism. This course will adopt a thematic and broadly comparative approach from scholarship on the Americas (including Latin American and the Caribbean) and western Europe to explore how scholars have conceptualized the social worlds of everyday people-including microhistory, capitalism, slavery, colonialism, race, class, gender and sexuality, and inequality.

Instructor(s): Deirdre Lyons     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 29920, RDIN 31650, HIST 39920, GNSE 21523, RDIN 21650, LACS 31650, MAPS 31650, GNSE 31523, MAPS 21650

LACS 21816. A History of Youth in Latin America. 100 Units.

This course will examine the history of youth-as a social category, and as an experience-in Latin America. We will consider histories of childhood, student activism, and youth culture across the region to consider how young people experience everyday life, and how they effect change. Course materials will combine primary sources including film, music, and other visual and performance artworks with scholarship on childhood and youth.

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz-Francisco     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): GLST 21816, HIST 26302, CHDV 21816

LACS 21905. Brazilian Theater and Film. 100 Units.

This course offers an overview of theater and cinema in Brazil, from the late nineteenth century to the present. Through an array of films and plays, students will become familiar with cultural, aesthetic, political, social, and environmental aspects of Brazil. The course will also discuss performance, adaptation, and intersections between theater and film. Play writers and filmmakers may include Qorpo Santo, Oswald de Andrade, Nelson Rodrigues, Ariano Suassuna, Plínio Marcos, Denise Stoklos, Mário Peixoto, Glauber Rocha, Susana Amaral, Guel Arraes, Lucia Murat, Eduardo Coutinho, and Kleber Mendoça Filho, among others.

Instructor(s): Victoria Saramago     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 21903

LACS 22005. Latin American Literatures and Cultures: 20th and 21st Centuries. 100 Units.

This course will survey some of the main literary and cultural tendencies in Latin America from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. We will pay special attention to their aesthetic dimensions, as well as the socio-historical and political conditions that made them possible, and in which they simultaneously intervened. Questions to be studied might include the innovations of the Modernist and avant-garde movements, fantastic literature, the novel of the so-called "Boom," cultural production associated with revolutionary movements, military dictatorships, and the Cold War, as well as new currents in literary and theatrical practices. Likewise, the course will foreground some of the following concepts relevant to the study of this production: modernity and modernization; development and neoliberalism; neo-colonialism and empire; cultural autonomy and ideas of poetic and cultural renewal; the epic vs. the novel; realism and non-verisimilitude; and performativity, among others. In addition to enhancing your knowledge of Latin American cultural history and improving your close reading and critical thinking skills, this course is designed to continue building on your linguistic competence in Spanish.

Instructor(s): Victoria Saramago (winter), Andrea Reed-Leal (spring)     Terms Offered: Spring Winter
Prerequisite(s): SPAN 20300 or consent of instructor. Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 22005, RDIN 22205

LACS 22424. Between History and Fiction: Race, Modernity, and Revolution in the Hispanic Caribbean. 100 Units.

This course will introduce students to twentieth-century historical fiction from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Reflecting on the ambiguous contours between history and fiction, we will use literature and film to illuminate cultural debates of Hispanic Caribbean modernity. How do literary and filmic representations of a historical past reflect on the present moment? What is fiction's relationship to archives and history? What can these fictional emplotments teach us about the crafting of national narratives? Particular attention will be given to questions of race and revolution - understood for our purposes as the constitutive vectors of Caribbean modernity - in the texts studied. Authors and filmmakers to be discussed will include Alejo Carpentier, Tomás Gutierrez Alea, Humberto Solás, Rosario Ferré, José Luis González, and Julia Álvarez, among others.

Instructor(s): Cristina Esteves-Wolff     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 22424, SPAN 22424

LACS 22500. International Migration in the Americas. 100 Units.

All the countries in the Americas have a long history as highly mobile. TheUS has been, by far and for several decades, the main magnet for international moves worldwide with more than 50 million migrants living today in the country. Canada has one of the largest proportions of foreign-born population, above 20%. Mexico is the country with the second largest stock of nationals living in another country, close to 12 million. In the cases of Jamaica and El Salvador, one of every four nationals live abroad. Central and South America have also experienced a variety of international movements related to political, environmental and economic events. The region as a whole combines documented and undocumented moves, an important flow of return migration, adult- only and family migrations, temporary-labor programs and the settlement of large communities of migrants, especially in cities. In addition, in the history of the continent one can trace rapid shifts in countries traditionally of destination to countries of origin. The case of Venezuela, where more than 7 million (20% of its population) have migrated in the last decade, illustrates well how the population in the Americas uses migration as a rapid response to economic or political shocks (Giorguli, García-Guerrero and Masferrer, 2022). This course seeks to look at the international mobility of the continent in a comprehensive way and to discuss about the management of migration and scenarios for the future.

Instructor(s): Giorguli Saucedo, Silvia Elena     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26105, HIST 36105, LACS 32500

LACS 22550. Speech Play and Verbal Art. 100 Units.

Course Description TBA

Instructor(s): Tulio Bermúdez     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 32550, LING 22550, LING 32550

LACS 22600. How Dictatorship Shaped Democracies in Latin America. 100 Units.

Tinker Visiting Professor course

Instructor(s): Alejandro Bonvecchi     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): PLSC 22610, PLSC 32610, LACS 32600

LACS 22677. Latinxs, Labor, and the Law in the U.S. 100 Units.

Latinidad" is an ethno-racial signifier meant to encompass people of Latin American descent living in the United States. Terms like "Latina," "Hispanic," and most recently, "Latinx/e" are meant to evoke a commonality that crosses nationalities to create political power & social recognition in the United States. Like every other identity term, "Latinidad" is an ever-contested construction with uncertain contours. The history of Latinidad in the U.S. has its origins in a myriad social efforts and forces: political campaigns, immigration policies, community organizing, migrant labor programs, union campaigns, marketing strategies, artistic expressions, & many more. Rather than simplify or ignore these tensions, the purpose of this class is to confront the agonistic aspects of Latinidad head-on. In this course, students will read widely across the social sciences & humanities, delving deep into the making and remaking of "Latinidad" in the U.S. We will be playing foremost attention to the roles that U.S. economic relations & government policies have had in shaping collective understandings of Latinidad, from the making of a "brown collar" labor sector sustaining the American economy to the development of census categories to describe Latinxs. Furthermore, we will look at U.S. Latinxs not merely as objects of policy, but also as subjects of politics, delving into the past and present of U.S. Latinx political life.

Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 21677, PLSC 22677

LACS 22701. Poesía, nación y ciudadanía en el siglo XIX hispanoamericano. 100 Units.

In this course we will explore the relationships between poetry and the constitution of the modern nation-state in nineteenth-century Spanish America. How did poetry partake in the early figuration of national historical imaginaries and in the foundation of their heroic pantheons? Through what languages and aesthetic procedures did it help foster patriotic sentiments and identifications? Was poetry a disciplinary tool for the formation of notions of citizenship and of civic values? Through a series of close textual readings, we will investigate the nature of the entanglement between the poetical and the demands of the political and inquire if there were moments when this relationship proved to be traversed by frictions, if not impossibilities. Authors we may read are José Joaquín Olmedo, Andrés Bello, Esteban Echeverría, José María Heredia, Plácido, Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, José Hernández, José Gautier Benítez, Juana Borrero, Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, and Lola Rodríguez de Tió, among others.

Instructor(s): Agnes Lugo-Ortiz     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 22701, LACS 32701, SPAN 32701

LACS 23025. Vidas Infames: Sujetos heterodoxos en el mundo hispánico (1500-1800) 100 Units.

En este curso leeremos y discutiremos las vidas de varias mujeres y hombres comunes perseguidos por la Inquisición hispánica entre 1500 y 1800, aproximadamente, tanto en Europa y el Mediterráneo como en las Américas. La mayoría de estas vidas fueron dichas por los mismos acusados frente a un tribunal eclesiástico. Estas autobiografías orales, producidas en condiciones de máxima dureza y precariedad, revelan la forma en que la vida cotidiana es moldeada e interrumpida por el poder. Leeremos las historias de hombres transgénero, mujeres criptojudías, campesinos moriscos, renegados, profetas y monjas acusadas de sodomía, entre otras; y discutiremos temas como la relación entre poder y subjetividad, heterodoxia y cultura popular, las formas narrativas del yo o la articulación biográfica de la clase, la raza y el género en la primera modernidad. Estas 'vidas ínfimas', a pesar de su concreta individualidad, permiten ofrecer un amplio panorama de la historia cultural y social de España y América en la era de la Inquisición.

Instructor(s): Miguel Martínez     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 33025, GNSE 33025, SPAN 23025, GNSE 23025, LACS 33025

LACS 23380. Latinx/Northern Mexico Life Writing. 100 Units.

Life writing (a generic term to describe a vast range of texts: from biography and autobiography to memoirs, letters, journals, diaries, etc.) has been richly practiced by Latin American/Latinx authors in Northern Mexico and the US. This course examines select works by these authors. We analyze key terms to discuss this literature (life, writing, self, identity, fiction, storytelling, history) as well as the approaches taken by different authors. Readings by Javier Zamora, Justin Torres, Cristina Rivera Garza, Valeria Luiselli, Gloria Anzaldúa, and more.

Instructor(s): Sergio Delgado Moya     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Reading proficiency in Spanish required.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 23380

LACS 23424. Building a Nation: Brazilian Culture from Modernism to the Present. 100 Units.

In this course we will go over the last one hundred years in the cultural history of Brazil, a Latin American country which has dealt with multiple labels throughout the years, ranging from post-racial paradise to the country of the future. We will focus on Brazilian literature, from the 1920s to the present day, but we will also consider cinema and other types of art and how they have shaped artists' perception of their nation as a project. How have writers and filmmakers in the last century dealt with the legacy of colonialism and slavery? How have artists depicted and envisioned such a heterogenous continental country? What are the latest trends in Brazilian literature and arts and how do they engage with or depart from tradition? In this course, which will be taught in English, we will close read and discuss texts and films not only by canonical artists such as Clarice Lispector, Guimarães Rosa and Glauber Rocha but also by other artists who have been shaping the new directions of Brazilian art today.

Instructor(s): Eduardo Leão     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 23424

LACS 24001. Colonizations I: Colonialism, Enslavement and Resistance in the Atlantic World. 100 Units.

This quarter examines the making of the Atlantic world in the aftermath of European colonial expansion. Focusing on the Caribbean, North and South America, and western Africa, we cover the dynamics of invasion, representation of otherness, enslavement, colonial economies and societies, as well as resistance and revolution.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Winter
Note(s): This sequence meets the general education requirement in civilization studies. This course is offered every year. These courses can be taken in any sequence.
Equivalent Course(s): SOSC 24001, ANTH 24001, RDIN 24001, HIST 18301

LACS 24110. Ecocritical Perspectives in Latin American Literature and Film. 100 Units.

This course provides a survey of of ecocritical studies in Latin America. Through novels, poems, and films, we will examine a range of trends and problems posed by Latin American artists concerning environmental issues, from mid-nineteenth century to contemporary literature and film. Readings also include works of ecocritical criticism and theory that have been shaping the field in the past decades.

Instructor(s): Victoria Saramago     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 24110, PORT 34110, LACS 34110, SPAN 34110, PORT 24110

LACS 24170. El arte de sobrevivir: la tradición picaresca. 100 Units.

La picaresca es un género de ficción en prosa con una tradición multisecular en las literaturas en español y con gran influencia en la historia de la novela moderna. La pobreza y la marginalidad convierte a los pícaros y las pícaras que protagonizan estas historias en astutos maestros en el arte de sobrevivir, en héroes plebeyos que luchan contra las determinaciones de la fortuna en una sociedad dinámica, pero sólidamente jerarquizada. Leeremos, por una parte, el "Lazarillo de Tormes," algunas "Novelas ejemplares" de Cervantes, fragmentos de "La pícara Justina" y del "Guzmán." Por otra, exploraremos los usos del género en algunas novelas modernas escritas en España y Latinoamérica, terminando con ejemplos de ficción televisiva contemporánea. Las estéticas del realismo y la novela moderna, la literatura y la economía, el humor y el lenguaje, el género y la sexualidad, la voz autobiográfica, las subjetividades de la marginalidad, o la relación entre el género picaresco y la historia nacional son algunos de los temas que guiarán nuestras lecturas y discusiones.

Instructor(s): Miguel Martínez     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 34170, SPAN 24170, SPAN 34170

LACS 24400. Afro-Brazilian Literature. 100 Units.

During most of Brazil's colonial period and decades after its independence from Portugal, the country's labor force was primarily composed of enslaved people from Africa and of African descent. The African diaspora is a crucial component to understand Brazil's history, society, economy and culture. From the abolitionist prose of Maria Firmina dos Reis and Machado de Assis's subtle reflections on race to the exponential growth of Afro-Brazilian authors in the mainstream of contemporary literature, such as Conceição Evaristo and Itamar Vieira Jr., Brazilian literature has been shaped by the rich diversity of African diasporic cultures as well as by the numerous challenges faced by Afro-Brazilians in a society that is still today deeply unequal. In this course, we will delve into Afro-Brazilian history and culture through literature. We will cover a century and a half of Afro-Brazilian literary production and understand how its main themes, potentialities and challenges have evolved over the course of the decades. Besides the authors mentioned above, we will read works by Abdias do Nascimento, Carolina Maria de Jesus, Djamila Ribeiro and Ricardo Aleixo, among others.

Instructor(s): Victoria Saramago     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Taught in English, with readings in English (readings in Portuguese will be available to Portuguese speakers when applicable), and optional discussion section in Portuguese.
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 24400, RDIN 34401, PORT 34400, RDIN 24401, LACS 34500

LACS 24420. Unsettling Encounters: Colonial Latin America in Film. 100 Units.

This course explores a selection of foundational texts of Latin American literature in conversation with films about colonial Latin America by American and European directors. We will engage questions of how, when, and why images remember historical moments, and will consider the possibilities and limitations of using film to represent history. Students will learn and practice techniques of textual analysis and film criticism while discussing themes such as visual literacy, cultural imperialism, and economic colonialism.

Instructor(s): Larissa Brewer-García     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 24420

LACS 24550. Blackness in Latin America: Popular Culture, Performance and Visual Art, and Discourses of Mestizaje. 100 Units.

The course examines how blackness has been both constructed and reimagined across Latin America and the Caribbean through an exploration of the performance and cultural practices of Afro-Latin communities. We treat popular and performance traditions as a crucial terrain for discerning how Black people across the region navigate discourses of racial democracy, mestizaje, multiculturalism, and racial fraternity even as they faced the realities of racism in individual nations. The course examines imaginations of blackness in hip hop, reggaetón, rumba, folklore, carnivals, and visual art in varied sites such as Cuba, Puerto Rico, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. Grounded in Black and Diaspora Studies, the writings of Frantz Fanon, W.E.B. Dubois, Paul Gilroy and others will serve as theoretical touchstones for placing these forms and lived realities in diasporic context. We will also engage the work of noted and upcoming Black artists from the region.

Instructor(s): Danielle Roper     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Undergraduates must be in their third or fourth year.
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 25805, SPAN 34550, SPAN 24550, RDIN 24550, TAPS 35805, LACS 34550, RDIN 34550

LACS 24709. Amazonian Encounters. 100 Units.

Have you ever wondered about the real lives and perspectives behind sensationalized accounts of the Amazon? This course explores Amazonian encounters from an anthropological perspective, equipping you to critically analyze and contextualize representations of radical otherness in the Amazon (and beyond). Drawing on ethnographic, fictional, historical, literary, and multimedia materials, we will examine Amazonian encounters - across cultures and between humans and non-humans. Our approach will be to focus on specific objects, events, or stories, considering them from different perspectives, For example, we will centers on the real-life story behind Werner Herzog's film Fitzcarraldo, examining viewpoints of the filmmaker and Indigenous Peruvians (Awajún and Ashéninka). As we compare these perspectives, we will explore the cultural and historical contexts that shape them, tracing histories of both the Amazon and anthropological theory. We will look at the foundations of anthropological methods and theory, particularly structuralism and perspectivism - two important frameworks emerging from or shaped by Amazonian fieldwork. We will also address the moral responsibilities of researchers working with Indigenous communities, and challenge our assumptions about cultural and human/nonhuman boundaries. Ultimately, this course invites reflection on how popular and academic representations shape encounters with difference and the transformative potential of those encounters.

Instructor(s): L. Hadlock     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): CHDV distribution: 2
Equivalent Course(s): CHDV 34709, ANTH 24709, CHDV 24709

LACS 24770. Sex, Crime and Horror in Argentine Literature. 100 Units.

This course examines the historical evolution of Argentine literature, cinema, and the visual arts through the study of three thematic currents that significantly influenced Argentina's cultural and socio-political experience with nation-building, modernization, and democracy: sex, crime, and horror. The primary objective of the course is to foster a critical exploration of how foundational works of Romanticism and Realism in the Río de la Plata, the Noir genre, and the Gothic tradition accounted for decisive changes in the social fabric of the country. Students will assess the role of sexuality, crime, and horror stories in the representation of momentous events in Argentine history, spanning from the revolutionary era in the nineteenth century to the contemporary period. Topics include the Wars of Independence, gaucho literature, indigenous resistance, the great migratory flows, the rise of the middle classes, Peronismo, Youth culture, military dictatorships, human rights violations, LGBT movements, and economic precarity in neoliberal times. Works by Esteban Echeverría, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Juana Manuela Gorriti, José Hernández, Lucio V. and Eduarda Mansilla, Eugenio Cambaceres, Leopoldo Lugones, Roberto Arlt, Jorge Luis Borges, Juan José Saer, Antonio Di Benedetto, Olga Orozco, Alejandra Pizarnik, Juan Gelman, Andrés Rivera, Silvina Ocampo, Horacio Quiroga, Rodolfo Walsh, Manuel Puig, Ricardo Piglia, Mariana Enríquez, Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, María Luisa Bemberg,

Instructor(s): Carlos Halaburda      Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Reading proficiency in Spanish required.
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 24770, SPAN 34770, SPAN 24770, LACS 34770, RDIN 34770, GNSE 24770, GNSE 34771

LACS 24901. Trade, Development and Poverty in Mexico. 100 Units.

With a focus on the past two decades, this interdisciplinary course explores the impact of economic integration, urbanization, and migration on Mexico and, to a lesser extent, on the United States-in particular, working class communities of the Midwestern Rust Belt. The course will examine work and life in the borderland production centers; agriculture, poverty, and indigenous populations in rural Mexico; evolving trade and transnational ties (especially in people, food products and labor, and drugs) between the U.S. and Mexico; and trade, trade adjustment, and immigration policy.

Instructor(s): C. Broughton     Terms Offered: Autumn
Note(s): Students can take this course with a windows option. Offered in 2024-25.
Equivalent Course(s): PBPL 24901, SOCI 20251

LACS 24930. Latin American Politics and the Novel: Between Crisis and Renewal. 100 Units.

Who are we? How many are we? Who can speak for us? How should they speak for us? In the history of democracy in Latin America these questions have been central to the challenges and advances made across the region in the creation of civil states. They are also questions central to the development of fiction in the region. This course explores key themes of the study of Latin American politics in interdisciplinary dialogue with critically acclaimed works of fiction. We will consider, in the context of contemporary Latin America, how storytelling serves political ends and how politics has served as material for impactful stories.

Instructor(s): Susan Stokes, Larissa Brewer-García     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SIGN 24930, SPAN 24980, PLSC 24930

LACS 25005. The Amazon: Literature, Culture, Environment. 100 Units.

From colonial travelers to contemporary popular culture, the Amazonian forest has been a source of endless fascination, greed and ecological concern. The numerous actors that have been shaping the region, including artists, writers, scientists, anthropologists, Indigenous peoples, and the extractive industry, among others, bring a multifaceted view of this region that has been described as the paradise on earth as much as a green hell. This course offers an overview of Amazonian history, cultures, and environmental issues that spans from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. What are the major topics, works, and polemics surrounding the ways the Amazon has been depicted and imagined? How can the region's history help us understand the state of environmental policies and Indigenous rights today? What can we learn about the Amazon from literature and film? What is the future of the Amazon in the context of Brazil's current political climate? From an interdisciplinary perspective, we will cover topics such as indigenous cultures and epistemologies, deforestation, travel writing, modern and contemporary literature, music, photography, and film, among others. Authors may include Claudia Andujar, Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Euclides da Cunha, Susanna Hecht, Davi Kopenawa, the project Video in the Villages, among others.

Instructor(s): Victoria Saramago     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Taught in English, with readings available in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Conversation session in Spanish and Portuguese may be created depending on student demand.
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 25000, PORT 35000, LACS 35005, SPAN 35555, SIGN 26059, SPAN 25555, CEGU 25000

LACS 25025. Mexican Cinema. 100 Units.

This course is intended as an overview of Mexican cinema, from its famed "Golden Age" in the 1940s and 1950s, up to contemporary productions. The aim is to reflect simultaneously on Mexican culture, history, and society, and on the language of film and its interpretation. Our goal is to expand what we know about Mexico through the way its cinema has tackled questions of difference (class, gender, regional, and race-based), modernization, political unrest, inequality, violence, and love. Crucial to our academic setting, we will ask what films offer as objects of knowledge in their own right, and not merely as illustrations. What does it mean to analyze a film? What are the tools we use to read and write about them as cultural products? We will consider classic fiction features along short, experimental, and documentary films. Works discussed include Él (Luis Buñuel, 1953), Macario (Roberto Gavaldón, 1960), Canoa (Felipe Cazals, 1975), Perfume de violetas (Marisa Sistach, 2001), Tempestad (Tatiana Huezo, 2016), among others.

Instructor(s): Luis Madrigal     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): CMST 25025, SPAN 25025

LACS 25135. The Economic History of Latin America. 100 Units.

The course explores Latin America's historical evolution, analyzing the factors that have promoted or limited its economic development from the 16th century to the present. It seeks to familiarize students with the main debates on the economic history of the region, including the most recent literature. Despite its diversity, Latin American countries share several common traits, linked to its past, that have resulted in lower levels of income and greater poverty than the Global North, and very high inequality by international standards. This course aims to acquaint students with Latin America's diversity and, at the same time, identify its common characteristics. The course will delve into the following traits, that although unevenly distributed through the region, have shaped Latin America's economic development: indigenous legacies, colonial extraction, slavery, European migration, political fragmentation and instability, integration into the global economy through commodities' exports, low educational levels, poor innovation and financial development, limited industrialization, and frequent macroeconomic crises.

Instructor(s): Aurora Gómez Galvarriato     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26309, HIST 36309, LACS 35135

LACS 25136. The Era of Democratic Pessimism. 100 Units.

According to the end of history thesis and the nineties optimism that fueled it, the world would converge in a combination of liberal democracy and market economy. However, in recent years, a specter of political pessimism haunts the globe. Although democracies do not die as dramatically as they used to, new kinds of authoritarianisms have emerged. Some say that populism is to blame, others point to economic crises, identity politics and even the rise of social media, not to mention the elephant in the room: whether democracy can handle the climate crisis. Is democracy really receding? Are these its causes? Can survive its most pressing challenges?

Instructor(s): Cristobal Bellolio     Terms Offered: Autumn
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 35136, PBPL 25136, PLSC 25136, PLSC 35136

LACS 25138. Introduction to Demographic Methods: an application to Latin America. 100 Units.

The objective of the course is to introduce key demographic concepts and measures to analyze population size, composition, and distribution, as well as the three demographic components: fertility, mortality, and migration. The course discusses the main demographic techniques for period and longitudinal data, most frequently used in demographic analyses. The course aims at developing basic skills for population analysis, such as understanding and applying the Lexis diagram; identifying period, cohort, and age measures; calculating and interpreting main demographic indicators, to build and critically analyze life tables, and properly using standardization and decomposition methods to compare populations. The course has a strong focus on the application of demographic techniques to census data from different Latin American countries at different points in time, which enhances comprehension over the course of the demographic transition in place in the region, and the applicability of these measures to understand recent demographic trends. Applications with be conducted using software Excel and R.

Instructor(s): Luciana Soares Luz do Amaral, Jenny Trinitapoli     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 20612, SOCI 30612, LACS 35138

LACS 25322. A History of Public Spaces in Mexico, 1520-2020. 100 Units.

Streets and plazas have been sites in which much of Mexican history has been fought, forged, and even performed. This course examines the history of public spaces in Mexico since the Spanish Conquest. By gauging the degree to which these sites were truly open to the public, it addresses questions of social exclusion, resistance, and adaptability. The course traces more than the role and evolution of built sites. It also considers the individuals and groups that helped to define these places. This allows us to read street vendors, prostitutes, students, rioters, and the "prole" as central historical actors. Through case studies and primary sources, we will examine palpable examples of how European colonization, various forms of state building, and more recent neoliberal reforms have transformed ordinary Mexicans and their public spaces.

Instructor(s): C. Rocha     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26322, ARCH 26322

LACS 25560. Race, Religion, and the Formation of the Latinx Identity. 100 Units.

In this class, we will focus on the conditions of possibility, development, and problems surrounding the formation of the Latinx identity. We will pay special attention to how such an identity is expressed through and informed by religious experience, and to how religious experience is theoretically articulated in Latinx theology and religious thought. To pursue this task, we will devote the first part of the class to the examination of the conditions of possibility of latinidad by focusing on the formation of the Latinx self. What makes Latines, Latines? Is this a forcefully assigned identity or one that can be claimed and embraced with pride? Is there such a thing as a unified Latinx self or shall we favor approaches that stress hybridity or multiplicity? In the second part of the class, we will shift from self-formation to community-formation by examining the experience of mestizaje (racial mixing) and its theoretical articulation in Latinx theology. Is this concept useful to describe the Latinx experience or does it romanticize the violence of European colonialism? Lastly, we will return to the formation of Latinx identity considering the ambiguities of religious ethnic identity through the examples of tensions between Catholic and Evangelical Latinos, and those emerging from the experiences of Latinos converting to non-Christian religions. No prerequisites.

Instructor(s): Raul Zegarra     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): RLST 25560, KNOW 25560, GNSE 25560

LACS 25570. Radical Readings: Latin American/Latinx. 100 Units.

Since the 1970s, writers, artists, activists, and cultural critics based in Latin America and in the United States have produced radical writings to respond to concrete social and political circumstances. These writings ring especially relevant today, in our current, turbulent times. The course studies the rich, transformative tradition of radical, contemporary Latin American and Latinx thought. It studies earlier interventions by the likes of Paulo Freire and traces and resonance of these earlier writings in contemporary interventions by critics like Suely Rolnik. We read writings by Freire, Rolnik, Roberto Jacoby, Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga, Ailton Krenak, Verónica Gago, and others, with an emphasis on 1) the context of production of each writing, 2) the form and shape each author gives to their written thought and, 3) the impact and resonance of these writings in our present moment. The course is also an experiment that seeks to confront the powers of engagement and understanding unleashed in long, uninterrupted stretches of reading.

Instructor(s): Sergio Delgado Moya     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): Reading proficiency in Spanish required.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 35770, SPAN 25770, LACS 35570

LACS 25640. Language as Resistance. 100 Units.

Course Description TBA

Instructor(s): Tulio Bermudez     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): LING 25640, LACS 35640, LING 35640

LACS 25660. US Imperialism and Cultural Practice in Latin America. 100 Units.

This course examines the ways histories of US intervention in Latin America have been engaged in cultural practice. We assess the history of US intervention by reading primary documents alongside cultural artifacts including film, performance and visual art, song, music, and poetry. The course begins with the Cuban revolution and ends with the ongoing crisis in Puerto Rico.

Instructor(s): Danielle Roper     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 38373, SPAN 35660, LACS 35660, TAPS 28473, SPAN 25660

LACS 25731. Gender Before Gender: Constructing Bodies in Ancient American Art. 100 Units.

In this course, we will seek to test the possibilities and limits of understanding gender and sex in premodernity through an inquiry into the artistic traditions of the ancient Americas. Works of art constitute a primary means by which we can access ideas about what we call gender and sex. Based on what we can reconstruct from visual, textual, and archaeological sources, these cultures conceptualized and represented gender in ways that might seem unfamiliar, in the process putting into question our own preconceptions. Indeed, pre-modern works of art might not have served to simply record conventions of gender but also helped construct the very idea of a sexed body within a given cultural context. As we discover commonalities and divergences between these Indigenous American traditions, we will learn to think across cultural contexts and disciplinary divides, putting into question some of our own assumptions. We will see that gender is not an immutable construct but something actively brought into being in different ways in different times and places.

Instructor(s): C. Brittenham     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Consent of instructor required; email Professor Brittenham a paragraph-long description about what you bring and what you hope to get out of this seminar.
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 35731, ARTH 25731, GNSE 30138, GNSE 20138, ARTH 35731

LACS 26106. Tropical Commodities in Latin America. 100 Units.

This colloquium explores selected aspects of the social, economic, environmental, and cultural history of tropical export commodities from Latin America-- e.g., coffee, bananas, sugar, tobacco, henequen, rubber, vanilla, and cocaine. Topics include land, labor, capital, markets, transport, geopolitics, power, taste, and consumption.

Instructor(s): E. Kourí     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26106, LACS 36106, CEGU 26106, HIST 36106, CEGU 36106

LACS 26212. Witches, Sinners, and Saints. 100 Units.

This course examines representations of women's bodies and sexualities in early modern Iberian and colonial Latin American writings. We will study the body through a variety of lenses: the anatomical body as a site of construction of sexual difference, the witch's body as a site of sexual excess, the mystic's body as a double of the possessed body, the tortured body as a site of knowledge production, and the racialized bodies of women as sites to govern sexuality, spirituality, labor, and property in the reaches of the Spanish Empire.

Instructor(s): Larissa Brewer-García     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): For undergrads, SPAN 20300 or consent of instructor. Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): GNSE 26210, GNSE 36210, SPAN 26210, SPAN 36210, LACS 36212

LACS 26330. Making the Maya World. 100 Units.

What do we know about the ancient Maya? Pyramids, palaces, and temples are found from Mexico to Honduras, texts in hieroglyphic script record the histories of kings and queens who ruled those cities, and painted murals, carved stone stelae, and ceramic vessels provide a glimpse of complex geopolitical dynamics and social hierarchies. Decades of archaeological research have expanded that view beyond the rulers and elites to explore the daily lives of the Maya people, networks of trade and market exchange, and agricultural and ritual practices. Present-day Maya communities attest to the dynamism and vitality of languages and traditions, often entangled in the politics of archaeological heritage and tourism. This course is a wide-ranging exploration of ancient Maya civilization and of the various ways archaeologists, anthropologists, linguists, historians, and indigenous communities have examined and manipulated the Maya past. From tropes of long-hidden mysteries rescued from the jungle to New Age appropriations of pre-Columbian rituals, from the thrill of decipherment to painstaking and technical artifact studies, we will examine how models drawn from astrology, ethnography, classical archaeology and philology, political science, and popular culture have shaped current understandings of the ancient Maya world, and also how the Maya world has, at times, resisted easy appropriation and defied expectations.

Instructor(s): Sarah Newman     Terms Offered: TBD
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 36330, LACS 36330, HIST 26330, ANTH 36330, CEGU 26330, ANTH 26330

LACS 26380. Indigenous Politics in Latin America. 100 Units.

This course examines the history of Indigenous policies and politics in Latin America from the first encounters with European empires through the 21st Century. Course readings and discussions will consider several key historical moments across the region: European encounters/colonization; the rise of liberalism and capitalist expansion in the 19th century; 20th-century integration policies; and pan-Indigenous and transnational social movements in recent decades. Students will engage with primary and secondary texts that offer interpretations and perspectives both within and across imperial and national boundaries.

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz Francisco     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 24-25
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 23077, LACS 36380, HIPS 26380, HIST 26318, RDIN 36380, GLST 26380, RDIN 26380

LACS 26381. Water in Latin America. 100 Units.

The course will explore how water shapes-and is shaped by-humans in Latin America. Drawing from case studies from the pre-Columbian era to the present, the course will consider struggles over aquatic resources, dam building, and hydraulic development, as well as the social life of water in the region. Some background in Latin American history or politics is helpful but not required.

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz-Francisco     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 24-25
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 26381, HIST 26306

LACS 26382. Development and Environment in Latin America. 100 Units.

Description: This course will consider the relationship between development and the environment in Latin America and the Caribbean. We will consider the social, political, and economic effects of natural resource extraction, the quest to improve places and peoples, and attendant ecological transformations, from the onset of European colonialism in the fifteenth century, to state- and private-led improvement policies in the twentieth. Some questions we will consider are: How have policies affected the sustainability of land use in the last five centuries? In what ways has the modern impetus for development, beginning in the nineteenth century and reaching its current intensity in the mid-twentieth, shifted ideas and practices of sustainability in both environmental and social terms? And, more broadly, to what extent does the notion of development help us explain the historical relationship between humans and the environment?

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz Francisco     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 24-25
Equivalent Course(s): HIPS 26382, GLST 26382, CEGU 26382, HIST 26317, ANTH 23094, LACS 36382, HIST 36317, GEOG 26382

LACS 26384. Art and the Archive in Greater Latin America. 100 Units.

How and why do artists engage records of the past in their work? What are the politics of both creating archives and culling from them to visually render or represent the past? Focusing on artists, art-making, and archives in Greater Latin America (including the United States), this course will consider the process of collecting and creating in artistic production from the perspectives of both theory and practice. Students in the course will work directly with archival materials in Chicago and collaborate on contemporary artistic projects that consider issues of relevance to people and places of the Western Hemisphere.

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz-Francisco     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 24-25
Equivalent Course(s): CHST 26384, HIST 26319, RDIN 26384, ARTH 26384, ARTV 20017

LACS 26386. Greater Latin America. 100 Units.

What is "Latin America," who are "Latin Americans" and what is the relationship among and between places and people of the region we call Latin America, on the one hand, and the greater Latinx diaspora in the US on the other? This course explores the history of Latin America as an idea, and the cultural, social, political and economic connections among peoples on both sides of the southern and eastern borders of the United States. Students will engage multiple disciplinary perspectives in course readings and assignments and will explore Chicago as a crucial node in the geography of Greater Latin America. Some topics we will consider are: the origin of the concept of "Latin" America, Inter-Americanism and Pan-Americanism, transnational social movements and intellectual exchanges, migration, and racial and ethnic politics.

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz Francisco     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 24-25
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 23003, RDIN 26386, RDIN 36386, SPAN 36386, LACS 36386, SPAN 26386, HIST 26321

LACS 26388. Food Justice and Biodiversity in Latin America. 100 Units.

This course asks how the relationships between food production and consumption, economic justice, and biodiversity have changed over the last century in Latin America and the Caribbean. As a region known both for its ecological diversity and as a producer of tropical foods regularly consumed in the United States, plantation-style agriculture has often undermined its celebrated biodiversity. In centering the role of workers and consumers, this course considers the layered relationships- ecological, social, political, economic and cultural-between the production and consumption of food from Latin America and the Caribbean. In Autumn 2022, the course will also engage questions of food justice and biodiversity in the Chicagoland area and in particular among Latine/x com

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz Francisco     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 24-25
Note(s): Preferred: some background in Latin American history, geography and/or contemporary issues
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26323, GLST 26388

LACS 26390. Science and Society in Latin America. 100 Units.

How have ideas about and practices of science shaped life and society in Latin America? This course explores the interconnected social and political realities of scientific theory and practice in modern Latin America. Taking a historical approach, it will focus on the scientific management of social and political life, including the construction of categories such as sex and race; the production, consumption, and policing of drugs; and public health. In this discussion-based course, students will develop their own research project that historicizes a contemporary question related to scientific knowledge and/or practice in the region.

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz Francisco     Terms Offered: Course not offered in 24-25
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26390, HIPS 26390

LACS 26409. Revolution, Dictatorship, & Violence in Modern Latin America. 100 Units.

This course will examine the role played by Marxist revolutions, revolutionary movements, and the right-wing dictatorships that have opposed them in shaping Latin American societies and political cultures since the end of World War II. Themes examined will include the relationship among Marxism, revolution, and nation building; the importance of charismatic leaders and icons; the popular authenticity and social content of Latin American revolutions; the role of foreign influences and interventions; the links between revolution and dictatorship; and the lasting legacies of political violence and military rule. Countries examined will include Guatemala, Cuba, Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Mexico. Assignments: Weekly reading, a midterm exam or paper, a final paper, participation in discussion, and weekly responses or quizzes.

Instructor(s): B. Fischer     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Some background in Latin American studies or Cold War history useful.
Equivalent Course(s): HMRT 26409, DEMS 26409, LACS 36409, HIST 36409, HIST 26409

LACS 26500. History of Mexico, 1876 to Present. 100 Units.

From the Porfiriato and the Revolution to the present, this course is a survey of Mexican society and politics, with emphasis on the connections between economic developments, social justice, and political organization. Topics include fin de siècle modernization and the agrarian problem; causes and consequences of the Revolution of 1910; the making of the modern Mexican state; relations with the United States; industrialism and land reform; urbanization and migration; ethnicity, culture, and nationalism; economic crises, neoliberalism, and social inequality; political reforms and electoral democracy; violence and narco-trafficking; the end of PRI rule; and AMLO's new government.

Instructor(s): E. Kourí     Terms Offered: Winter
Note(s): Assignments: two essays
Equivalent Course(s): DEMS 26500, LACS 36500, HIST 36500, HIST 26500

LACS 26509. Law and Citizenship in Latin America. 100 Units.

This course will examine the history of law and citizenship in Latin America from the 19th to the 21st centuries. After a brief introduction to the so-called "Civil Law Tradition" that structures law across much of the world, we will explore the following themes: the development of Latin American constitutions, laws, and legal systems; the ways the operation of these systems has shaped citizenship and exclusion; the relationship between legal and other inequalities; the intersection of law and informality; and how legal history can shed light on broader questions of race, liberalism, family, gender, migration, urbanity, violence, policing, state terror, and the environment.

Instructor(s): B. Fischer     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): background in Latin American Studies, Latin American History, and/or legal history useful
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 36509, LLSO 26509, CEGU 26509, KNOW 36509, HIST 26509, HIST 36509, LACS 36509

LACS 26510. Cities from Scratch: The History of Urban Latin America. 100 Units.

Latin America is one of the world's most urbanized regions and its urban heritage long predates European conquest. Yet the region's urban experience has generally been understood through North Atlantic models, which often treat Latin American cities as disjunctive, distorted knockoffs of idealized US or European cities. This class interrogates and expands those North Atlantic visions by emphasizing the history of vital urban issues such as informality, inequality, intimacy, race, gender, violence, plural regulatory regimes, the urban environment, and rights to the city. Interdisciplinary course materials include anthropology, sociology, history, fiction, film, photography, and journalism produced from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries.

Instructor(s): B. Fischer     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): Some coursework in Latin American studies, urban studies, and/or history
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26511, ARCH 26511, CEGU 26511, LACS 36510, CEGU 36511, HIST 36511

LACS 26722. Literatura y escuela. 100 Units.

Today, institutions of education have become one of the most intense sites of the so-called "culture wars," both in Latin America and the United States. This situation, of course, is part of a longer history. In this course, we will explore the complex relations between literature and institutions of learning in twentieth-century Latin America in order to understand (or try to understand) the institutional, cultural and political present we now face. On the one hand, we will read essays on the subject by important Latin American pedagogues, who were most times in charge of developing their countries' educational systems. On the other, we will read works of fiction (short stories, novels, memoirs) that formulate concrete images of the 'school experience.' We'll pay attention to the ways in which the school distributed cultural capital (knowledges, skills, tastes) and produced cultural difference (nationality, gender, race, class) amongst subjects. In this sense, the objective of the class is to provide students with historical, linguistic and analytic tools they can use to understand and shape their institutional present.

Instructor(s): Enrique Macari
Note(s): Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 26722

LACS 26810. From Cannibalism to Tropicalism: Brazilian Avant-Gardes. 100 Units.

Avant-garde movements, tendencies, and artists have been present in Brazil throughout the twentieth century. From the paradigmatic Week of Modern Art in 1922 to the Tropicalism of the 1960s and 1970s, this course revisits works of fiction, poetry, essay, visual arts, film, and music that have shaped the Brazilian avant-gardes. We will focus on the Modernist Movement, Concretism, Neoconcretism, New Cinema, Tropicalism, and regional avant-garde movements produced across the country.

Instructor(s): Victoria Saramago     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 36810, PORT 26810, PORT 36810

LACS 26900. Travels to Backlands of Brazil and Portuguese-speaking Africa. 100 Units.

The "sertões" or backlands of Brazil are composed of a broad and varied number of areas. Since its early usage as all the space beyond the Portuguese gaze during colonial times to its more common identification with the Northeast of Brazil in the twentieth century, it has played an unstable and versatile role in Brazilian history, from rural banditry to the building of the country's capital. This course will study the variety of sociocultural facets with which the term "sertão" has been identified in Brazil, with a focus on the twentieth century. We will also examine how this trope of colonial discourse would take on a different connotation in Angola and Mozambique due to the attentive reading of Brazilian literature by Angolan and Mozambican writers. Authors may include Mia Couto, Ruy Duarte de Carvalho, Euclides da Cunha, Graciliano Ramos, Guimarães Rosa, João Cabral de Melo Neto, Nísia Trindade Lima, Janaína Amado, Alfredo de Taunay, José Luiz Passos, Glauber Rocha, Karim Aïnouz, Marcelo Gomes, Ana Rieper, and Sandra Kogut.

Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 36900, LACS 36900, PORT 26900

LACS 27200. Introduction to Brazilian Culture. 100 Units.

This course provides a survey of Brazilian culture through its literature, music, cinema, visual arts, and digital culture. Through these different media, we will discuss topics such as urban development, racial issues, gender issues, modernity, deforestation, and internal migrations, besides samba, bossa nova, Tropicália, funk, and visual arts movements, among others. Authors may include Machado de Assis, Oswald de Andrade, Clarice Lispector, Caetano Veloso, Angélica Freitas, Glauber Rocha, Conceição Evaristo, and Karim Aïnouz.

Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 27200

LACS 27401. Literaturas del Caribe Hispanico en el siglo XX. 100 Units.

En este curso se estudiarán algunos ejemplos salientes de las literaturas producidas en el Caribe hispánico insular (Cuba, Puerto Rico y Santo Domingo) durante el siglo XX y a principios del XXI. Entre los asuntos a discutir tendrán un lugar principal los modos en que esta producción se ha constituído como respuesta y elaboración estética de las historias de esclavitud, violencia racial y colonialismo, de militarización y desplazamientos territoriales migratorios, que han marcado a la región en su carácter de frontera imperial desde el siglo XVI. En el curso también se abordará la condición simbólica del Caribe como espacio de utopías y catástrofes, escenario previlegiado tanto de las aspiraciones revolucionarias propias de la modernidad (e.g. la Revolución Haitiana del 1791 y la Revolución Cubana del 1959) como de los terrores de la destrucción ecológica (con su experiencia cruel de huracanes y terremotos).

Instructor(s): Agnes Lugo-Ortiz     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Prerequisite(s): At least one of the following courses: SPAN 21500, 21703, 21803, 21903, or 22003.
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 27401, LACS 37401, SPAN 37401

LACS 27511. Literatura y música en el gran Caribe hispanohablante. 100 Units.

Uno de los aspectos más notables de las culturas del Caribe hispanohablante, tanto insular como continental, a todo lo largo del siglo XX, y hasta el presente, ha sido el diálogo sostenido entre la textualidad literaria y la música. En este curso nos interesa trazar las distintas maneras en que la literatura ha invocado la inefabilidad aural de lo musical y reflexionar sobre sus posibles sentidos. Desde la forma del son en la poesía afroantillana, pasando por la estructura de las variaciones y fugas barrocas en la obra de Alejo Carpentier, hasta la incesante invocación al bolero y a la salsa en la narrativa más reciente, la escritura literaria en el Caribe más que decir parecería querer sonar y cantar. ¿Qué da cuenta de ello? ¿Cómo entender su particularidad? ¿Qué efectos produce? En el curso haremos una introducción básica al repertorio de formas musicales activados por ese decir literario, en ambos sus dimensiones estéticas e históricas, y examinaremos los sentidos de su apropiación y transformación por el hecho textual. Entre las posibles obras a estudiar se encuentran "Elogio de la plena" de Tomás Blanco, "El acoso" y Concierto barroco de Alejo Carpentier, La guaracha del Macho Camacho de Luis Rafael Sánchez, ¡Qué viva la música! de Andrés Caicedo, Maldito amor de Rosa Ferré, El entierro de Cortijo de Edgardo Rodríguez Juliá, Sólo cenizas hallarás de Pedro Vergés y Sabor a mí de Pedro Juan Gutiérrez, entre otras.

Instructor(s): Agnes Lugo-Ortiz     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): SPAN 27510, SPAN 37510, LACS 37511

LACS 27660. Chilean Art and Literature During the Dictatorship. 100 Units.

On September 11, 1973, a US-backed military coup in Chile brought down the government of Salvador Allender, the first democratically elected Marxist president in Latin America. The military dictatorship that governed over the course of the following two decades brought about radical transformation to the macro- and micropolitical dynamics of Chile. This course is a survey of the art and literature produced during the years of dictatorship. We study the work of some of the most consequential literary and artistic figures active during the years of the dictatorship. The unprecedented level of experimentation in the arts and literature of this period will be studied vis-a-vis the radically shifted social and affective coordinates faced by those living in Chile during the dictatorship. Works by Catalina Parra, Diamela Eltit, Lotty Rosenfeld, Nelly Richard, Adriana Valdés, José Donoso, Raúl Zurita, and others.

Instructor(s): Sergio Delgado Moya     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): LACS 37660, SPAN 27660, SPAN 37660

LACS 27777. Disrupting Environmental Narratives: Colonialism, Race and Toxicity. 100 Units.

The environmental humanities have long been dominated by texts and theories from privileged sections of Europe and North America. How might this field be "disrupted" to make way for alternative understandings of our natural world that have always existed and yet remain on the margins of academic discourse? And if we are to focus on works from the "Global South," how do we account for its internal divisions and hierarchies, such as the oft-invisibilized archipelagoes of the Indian Ocean? In this course, we engage with works by contemporary writers and filmmakers from parts of the world usually grouped as the "Global South" (a label we will interrogate within the course), as a means of nourishing our creative and critical understandings of what it means to tell stories about the various ecologies we inhabit. What is the role of storytelling from the Global South in our perception of environmental change and in the current environmental crisis? How can novels, films, and short stories raise awareness of and emotional engagement with the racialized environmental impact of colonialism and coloniality in South Asia, Africa, and Latin America? We will explore the potential of narratives to challenge common assumptions regarding the environment, race, and power; and discuss how contemporary literature and film address the continuities between colonial pasts and the growing levels of toxicity in multiple regions of the Global South.

Instructor(s): Nikhita Obeegadoo, Victoria Saramago     Terms Offered: Not offered this academic year
Equivalent Course(s): PORT 27777, RDIN 27777, CEGU 27777, FREN 27777, SPAN 27777, SIGN 27777

LACS 28300. Poéticas Afrocaribeñas: de la esclavitud a Bad Bunny. 100 Units.

In this course, we will study key manifestations of the Afro-Hispanic Caribbean poetic tradition, from its earliest known expressions in the nineteenth century to present-day practices in hip-hop and reguetón. The course examines what is meant by Afro-Caribbean poetics, the tropological systems and thematic repertoires that have characterized it, how these have transformed over time, and the extent to which this poetry has served as a vehicle for exploring the cultural and racial identities of the region and as an instrument of resistance to various forms of extreme violence. The course will also introduce the concepts and methods necessary for poetic analysis. Materials to be studied will include the work of enslaved and free Afro-descendants in the late period of Spanish colonialism in the Americas (Plácido and J. F. Manzano); the experimental approaches of the Negrista avant-garde (Nicolás Guillén and Luis Palés Matos); feminist reformulations of these traditions (Nancy Morejón, Mayra Santos); and the music of contemporary artists such as Calle Trece, iLe, and Bad Bunny.

Instructor(s): Agnes Lugo-Ortiz     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): SPAN 22005 is recommended. Taught in Spanish.
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 28300, SPAN 28300, SPAN 38301

LACS 28400. Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology: Approaches to the Past. 100 Units.

This course is intended to provide students with a thorough understanding of bioanthropological, osteological and forensic methods used in the interpretation of past and present behavior by introducing osteological methods and anthropological theory. In particular, lab instruction stresses hands-on experience in analyzing human remains, whereas seminar classes integrate bioanthropological theory and its application to specific archaeological and forensic cases throughout the world. At the end of this course, students will be able to identify, document, and interpret human remains from archaeological and forensic contexts. Lab and seminar-format classes each meet weekly.

Note(s): This course qualifies as a Methodology selection for Anthropology majors.
Equivalent Course(s): ANTH 28400, LACS 38400, BIOS 23247, ANTH 38800

LACS 28728. Making Sense of and Resisting Violence in Latin America. 100 Units.

This course addresses the question of violence in the context of contemporary Latin America. We will use the tools of sociology--and the social sciences more broadly--to better understand the kinds of violence that have arisen, how people make sense of them at different degrees of proximity, and how communities have resisted them. The course will focus on three Latin American contexts: Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina. We will analyze forms of police, military, and insurgent violence in the region, as well as the organizational infrastructure of Human Rights and state branches that respond to and help make sense of violence, alongside community forms of resistance. Academic readings, books, and movies will inform our class-based discussions. Students will walk out of the course with a deeper understanding of how violence looks and feels, and a conceptual map of the forms of resistance that have emerged across the region.

Instructor(s): Nicolas Torres Echeverry     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): SOCI 30652, HMRT 38728, HMRT 28728, SOCI 20652, GLST 25256

LACS 28900. The U.S. - Mexico Borderlands. 100 Units.

This course examines the US-Mexico Borderlands from a time before political borders to the contemporary moment. As a vast geographical and conceptual space of cooperation and antagonism, the borderlands that include what is today the southwestern United States and northern Mexico comprise a crucial site to interrogate the formation and limits of colonial imposition, national identity, state power, racial segregation, environmental transformation, and capitalist expansion. In this course, we will map the history of the Mexico-US borderlands by drawing from testimony, fiction, images, cartography, music as well as scholarship that centers the experiences of those who have lived in and moved through this territory. This course is open to all.

Instructor(s): Schwartz Francisco, Diana     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): CEGU 38900, GLST 28900, HIST 36310, HIST 26310, LACS 38900, CEGU 28900

LACS 29002. Envisioning Freedom. 100 Units.

Did the emancipation of millions of African-descended people from the bonds of chattel slavery-beginning with the 1791 slave rebellion in Haiti and ending with Brazilian abolition in 1888-mark the beginning of an irrevocable march towards Black freedom? Or was it merely an evolution in the continuing exploitation of Black people throughout the Americas? This course scrutinizes the complex economic, political, ideological, social, and cultural contexts that caused and were remade by emancipation. Students are asked to consider emancipation as a global historical process unconstrained by the boundaries of the modern nation-state, while exploring the reasons for and consequences of emancipation from a transnational perspective that incorporates the histories of the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa. By focusing on the ideological ambiguities and lived experiences of enslaved people, political actors, abolitionists, religious leaders, employers, and many others, this seminar will question what constitutes equality, citizenship, and freedom. Finally the course will explore what role emancipated slaves played in shaping the historical meanings and practices of modern democracy.

Instructor(s): M. Hicks     Terms Offered: Spring
Equivalent Course(s): RDIN 29002, HIST 39002, LACS 39002, HIST 29002, RDIN 39002

LACS 29117. Theater and Performance in Latin America. 100 Units.

What is performance? How has it been used in the Americas in precolonial, colonial, and post/neocolonial contexts? This course is an introduction to theatre and performance in Latin America and the Caribbean that will examine the intersection of performance, politics, and social life. We ask: how have embodied practice, theatre and visual art been used to negotiate ideologies of race, gender and sexuality? What is the role of performance in relation to systems of power? How has it negotiated dictatorship, military rule, and social memory? The goals of the course are: 1) to give students an understanding of foundational texts in Performance Studies 2) to give students an overview of the history of performance and theatre practices in Latin America 3) to introduce students to some important performance artists in Latin America.

Instructor(s): Leora Baum     Terms Offered: Winter
Equivalent Course(s): TAPS 28479, GNSE 29117, RDIN 29117, SPAN 29117

LACS 29205. The Simultaneity of Time: Reading Jorge Luis Borges in the 21st Century. 100 Units.

Through complex and evolving perspectives of time, reading, language, and writing, Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) developed both an "ethics" and a "technics" of the "intellectual" vis-à-vis literature, history, and philosophy. Over the 20th century, the political and cultural consideration of his ethics and technics varied depending on the moment, but the debates only increased Borges´ influence as a language crafter and as a thinker, beyond the language he chose to write (Spanish, he could have been an English writer, but he opted for Spanish). The course will seek to serve as a collective close reading of the prose works (fiction and non-fiction) by Jorge Luis Borges, relying on excellent editions and translations: J. L. Borges, Collected Fictions (Viking, Pinguin 1998), translated by Andrew Hurley, and Jorge Luis Borges, Selected Non-Fictions (Pinguin 2000), edited and translate by Eliot Weinberger, Esther Allen, Suzanne Jill Levine. Each session will consist of a short contextualization and introduction by the instructor, a general discussion, and a short dialogue especially addressing the concerns of those students who decide to read Borges´ works in the original Spanish.

Instructor(s): Mauricio Tenorio     Terms Offered: Winter. Course not offered in 2025–26
Equivalent Course(s): HIST 26307, FNDL 29205

LACS 29299. Language Identity and Power in French-Creolophone Contexts. 100 Units.

This course examines the concept of language identity (i.e., the language[s] people employ to represent themselves) in multilingual Creolophone communities, particularly in Haiti. This course also examines the relationships between language identity, learning, language use, and literacy development in these societies. By the end of the course, students will be able to explain: 1) what language identity in multilingual Creolophone community reveal about speakers and their language attitudes; 2) how context and mode of communication can impact language identity and language use; 3) literacy acquisition and achievement in Creole communities; and 4) how Creolophones' learning and literacy development are affected by language policies and ideologies. A final project will require students to design and conduct a preliminary sociolinguistic study based on students' interests in the French-Creolophone world.

Instructor(s): Gerdine Ulysse     Terms Offered: Spring
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of French and Kreyòl will be helpful, but not required.
Note(s): Taught in English.
Equivalent Course(s): FREN 29301, KREY 29300

LACS 29700. Reading and Research in Latin American Studies. 100 Units.

Students and instructors can arrange a Reading and Research course in Latin American Studies when the material being studied goes beyond the scope of a particular course, when students are working on material not covered in an existing course or when students would like to receive academic credit for independent research.

Instructor(s): Staff     Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Summer Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of undergraduate thesis/project adviser required
Note(s): College students are required to submit the College Reading and Research Course Form. Must be taken for a quality grade.

LACS 29801. BA Colloquium I. 100 Units.

This colloquium, which is led by the LACS BA Program Adviser, assists students in formulating approaches to the BA capstone project and developing their research and writing skills, while providing a forum for group discussion and critiques. Graduating students present their BA projects in a public session of the colloquium during the spring quarter.

Instructor(s): Diana Schwartz Francisco     Terms Offered: Autumn
Prerequisite(s): For fourth year (graduating) students majoring in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
Note(s): Required of students who are majoring in Latin American Studies. Students must participate in all three quarters but register in Autumn and in Winter (LACS 29802) only.

LACS 29900. Preparation of the BA Essay. 100 Units.

Independent study course intended to be used by 4th year BA students who are writing the BA thesis.

Terms Offered: Autumn Spring Summer Winter
Prerequisite(s): Consent of undergraduate thesis/project adviser required
Note(s): Typically taken for a quality grade.