Program of Study

Program for class of '09 and some '10 degree students.
The program of study is built upon two required introductory courses, “Introduction to Latino/a Studies” and "Latino/a Histories”. In addition students must take a course in US history, two courses in Latina/o history and society, and two further courses in Latina/o literature, art, and music, one course in Latin American and Caribbean Studies and one course in Comparative Ethnic Studies. Four courses, including a seminar, must be taken in a designated area of study, either within a social science or humanities discipline, or in Latin American, African American or American Studies.

Program for NEW students andd some class of '10 degree students.
The reforms to the CSER curriculum that were first sketched out in 2006-07 are now in place. Most important is the establishment of a common core for all of our majors and concentrators, composed of two courses: Colonizations-Decolonizations, which will be team-taught by Professor Mae Ngai and myself this Fall, and Race in Scientific and Social Practice which will be taught in the Spring by Professor Nadia Abu El-Haj. These two courses provide a common conceptual and historical foundation for CSER students. We are very excited about offering this new opportunity to our students. I wish to thank Professor Mae Ngai and Professor Abu El-Haj for their leadership in developing these offerings, and College Deans Yatrakis and Quigley for their support for curricular development. We welcome student feedback in this first pilot year. Students enrolling in one of the majors or concentrations in 2008 should review the requirements of each major in the fall.

It is required that Latino Studies majors undertake study of a foreign language relevant to their area of specialization. Students should consult with their major adviser to develop an appropriate program of foreign-language study.

Courses, Spring 2010

LATS W1601 Introduction to Latino/a Studies *required*

Prof Frances Negron-Muntaner ~ M/W 1:10 - 2:25 PM This course provides an introductory, interdisciplinary discussion of the major issues surrounding this nation's Latino population. The focus is on social scientific perspectives utilized by scholars in the field of Latino Studies. Major demographic, social, economic, and political trends are discussed. Key topics covered in the course include: the evolution of Latino identity and ethnicity; the main Latino sub-populations in the United States; the formation of Latino communities in the United States; Latino immigration; issues of race and ethnicity within the Latino population; socioeconomic status and labor force participation of Latinos; Latino social movements; and the participation of Latinos in U.S. civil society.

LATS W3924 Latino/a and Latin American Social Movements

Stuart Rockefeller ~ W 11:00 AM - 12:50 PM ~ 420 Hamilton In the last two decades new kinds of popular social movements have been transforming politics and social reality throughout the Latin American world. Although the new movements share some broad similarities, they are extremely varied, and arise from very different social and economic conditions. Indigenous rights movements in Brazil, multi-ethnic electoral alliances in Bolivia, growing Afro-Colombian assertion, Dominican community organizing in New York City, and poetic post-marxist guerrillas in Mexico are just a few of the new forms of social activism that are transforming class, ethnic identity and citizenship throughout the Americas, and helped end the dominance of free-market social and economic policies. We will cover a number of important social movements throughout the region, while developing key tools for understanding social movements and their possibilities. We will focus on isues of race, indigeneity, gender, urban vs. rural movements, the challenges of organizing, the relation of social movements and the state, and neoliberal economics.

CSER W3906 Race in Scientific and Social Practice *required*

Prof Catherine Fennell ~ M 11:00 AM – 12:50 PM ~ 420 Hamilton Hall This class presents a genealogy of the development of the race concept since the 19th century. Most centrally, we will examine the ways in which race has been conceptualized, substantiated, classified, managed and "observed" in (social) science and medicine. We will read that history of science in tandem with philosophical, anthropological and historical literatures on race and the effects of racial practices in the social and political world writ large. The class will address a series of questions, historical and contemporary. For example, how has the relationship betwen "race" and "culture" been articulated in the history of anthropology in particular, and in racial theory more broadly? How and why were particular phenotypes understood to signify meaningful biological and social differences? Can there be a concept of race without phenotype--a soley genotyppic racial grouping? More broadly, we will examine how particular scientific projects have intersected with, authorized or enabled specific social and political imaginations.

CSER W3990 Senior Thesis Seminar

Prof Frances Negron-Muntaner & TA Anjuli Kolb ~ Day & Time TBA The Senior Paper Colloquium provides undergraduate seniors with an academic context in which to develop their senior papers/theses for the majors administered by the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (Comparative Ethnic Studies, Latino/a Studies, Asian American Studies). The Colloquium is required for all students who want to write a senior paper/thesis. In the senior paper/thesis, students explore in depth some topic of special interest to them by conducting extensive background reading and research.
The Senior Paper Colloquium focuses primarily on developing students’ ideas for their research projects and workshopping their written work. The course is designed to develop and hone the skills necessary to complete the senior paper. Students will receive guidance in researching for and writing an advanced academic paper. Conducted as a seminar, the colloquium provides the students a forum in which to discuss their work with each other. In the seminar, students will give and receive feedback and comment on each other’s work. While most of the course is devoted to the students’ work, during the first weeks of the term students will read and discuss several ethnic studies-oriented texts to help them gain insight into the kinds of research projects done in the field. These texts will serve as models on which students can base their own projects.

Courses, Fall 2009

LATS W3919 Modernity in the Caribbean: The Emergence of Transnational Corporations

Liliana Gomez ~ W 11:00 AM - 12:50 PM The interrelations of the construction of race and modernity have been widely discussed, less so the role of corporations in the consolidation of racial discourses through labor. We will hence look carefully at the emergence of corporations and their constitution as a transnational phenomenon that either generated their own racial discourses or incorporated the racial ideologies from the 19th century, when the expansion of the capitalist production or globalization accelerated. The Caribbean represents a particular setting where the multiple labor and population migrations and the different imported ethnic groups over the centuries were part of a laboratory of modernity. In this sense, we will follow the hypothesis that 'race' has been as well constituted through labor. To do this, we will look at the different practices applied by the corporations as well as at the internal and external dynamics that constituted labor in the Caribbean, such as labor in the form of slavery or modern forms of labor. We will also look at the interrelations of race and gender, gender and labor. From within a critical and historical perspective we will follow the question of the construction of race through labor and comprehend it as integral part of modernization. The main aim of the class is to offer an in-depth overview to the topic. We will provide a primarily original and secondary bibliography that interprets and rationalizes that question.

CSER W3928 Colonizations/Decolonizations *required*

Gray Tuttle & Natasha Lightfoot ~ T 4:10 - 6:00 PM ~ 420 Hamilton This course explores the centrality of colonialism in the making of the modern world, emphasizing cross-cultural and social contact, exchange, and relations of power; dynamics of conquest and resistance; and discourses of civilization, empire, freedom, nationalism, and human rights, from 1500 to 2000. Topics include pre-modern empires; European exploration, contact, and conquest in the new world; Atlantic-world slavery and emancipation; European and Japanese colonialism in Asia, Africa, the Middle East. The course ends with a section on decolonization and post-colonialism in the period after World War II. Intensive reading and discussion of primary documents.

CSER W3990 Senior Thesis Seminar (two semester course)

Prof Frances Negron-Muntaner & TA Anjuli Kolb ~ R2:10 - 4:00 PM The Senior Paper Colloquium provides undergraduate seniors with an academic context in which to develop their senior papers/theses for the majors administered by the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race (Comparative Ethnic Studies, Latino/a Studies, Asian American Studies). The Colloquium is required for all students who want to write a senior paper/thesis. In the senior paper/thesis, students explore in depth some topic of special interest to them by conducting extensive background reading and research.
The Senior Paper Colloquium focuses primarily on developing students’ ideas for their research projects and workshopping their written work. The course is designed to develop and hone the skills necessary to complete the senior paper. Students will receive guidance in researching for and writing an advanced academic paper. Conducted as a seminar, the colloquium provides the students a forum in which to discuss their work with each other. In the seminar, students will give and receive feedback and comment on each other’s work. While most of the course is devoted to the students’ work, during the first weeks of the term students will read and discuss several ethnic studies-oriented texts to help them gain insight into the kinds of research projects done in the field. These texts will serve as models on which students can base their own projects.

Related Courses, Fall 2009

Some courses may have prerequisites or applications, please consult departments directly for specific requirements.

ENGL W4200 CARIBBEAN DIASPORA LITERATURE

Frances Negron-Muntaner ~ T/R 10:30 - 11:50 AM