Courses for Fall 2023

Title Instructor Location Time All taxonomy terms Description Section Description Cross Listings Fulfills Registration Notes Syllabus Syllabus URL Course Syllabus URL
LALS 0093-401 Latinx Environmental Justice Teresa Gimenez MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course explores the involvement of the Latinx environmental justice movement since the 1960s. It addresses theories and concepts of environmental racism and environmental justice, underscoring how Latinx have challenged, expanded, and contributed to the environmental justice discourse. In this course, students will explore national case studies of environmental and racial injustice as they bear on Latinx communities both in rural areas and in urban barrios throughout the United States. The course will analyze these case studies through the lens of Latinx artistic and literary texts (essays, paintings, short stories, documentaries, and short films) as they provide a unique historic and multicultural perspective of the Latinx experience with environmental injustice and of how Latinxs imagine alternative transitions and responses to environmental marginalization. In addition, the works of Latinx artists and writers will serve as case studies to deconstruct racial stereotypes of Latinxs as unconcerned about environmental issues, shedding light on how they share a broad engagement with environmental ideas. The case studies analyzed in this course emphasize race and class differences between farmworkers and urban barrio residents and how they affect their respective struggles. The unit on farmworkers will focus on workplace health issues such as toxic chemicals and collective bargaining contracts. The unit on urban barrios will focus on gentrification, affordable housing, and toxic substances in the home. We will also review current and past programs that have been organized to address the aforementioned problems. This is an Academically Based Community Service Course (ABCS course) through which students will learn from and provide support to a Latinx-serving organization in the City of Philadelphia on preventing exposure to hazardous substances, thus bridging the information gap on environmental justice issues in the Latinx community in Philadelphia. Information dissemination and education efforts will be conducted by collaborating with Esperanza Academy Charter School in Philadelphia to implement lessons on preventing exposure to hazardous substances. Studying environmental justice and pairing it with community service will heighten students' awareness of the complexities of culture, race, gender, and class while providing them with an invaluable experience of cross-cultural understanding. ANTH0930401, ENVS0054401, SPAN0093401, URBS0093401
LALS 0400-401 Colonial Latin America TR 5:15 PM-6:44 PM The year 1492 was pivotal in the history of the world. It precipitated huge population movements within the Americas and across the Atlantic - a majority of them involuntary as in the case of indigenous and African people who were kidnapped and enslaved. It led to cataclysmic cultural upheavals, including the formation of new cultures in spaces inhabited by people of African, European and indigenous descent. This course explores the processes of destruction and creation in the region known today as Latin America in the period 1400 - 1800. Class readings are primary sources and provide opportunities to learn methods of source analysis in contexts marked by radically asymmetrical power relationships. AFRC0400401, HIST0400401 History & Tradition Sector (all classes)
LALS 1060-401 Race and Ethnic Relations Tukufu Zuberi TR 12:00 PM-12:59 PM The course will focus on race and ethnicity in the United States. We begin with a brief history of racial categorization and immigration to the U.S. The course continues by examining a number of topics including racial and ethnic identity, interracial and interethnic friendships and marriage, racial attitudes, mass media images, residential segregation, educational stratification, and labor market outcomes. The course will include discussions of African Americans, Whites, Hispanics, Asian Americans and multiracials. AFRC1060401, ASAM1510401, SOCI1060401, URBS1060401
LALS 1090-401 Urban Sociology Alec Ian Gershberg TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course is a comprehensive introduction to the sociological study of urban areas. This includes more general topics as the rise of cities and theories urbanism, as well as more specific areas of inquiry, including American urbanism, segregation, urban poverty, suburbanization and sprawl, neighborhoods and crime, and immigrant ghettos. The course will also devote significant attention to globalization and the process of urbanization in less developed counties. AFRC1090401, SOCI1090401, URBS1090401
LALS 1202-401 Literature of the Americas to 1900 David C Kazanjian TR 5:15 PM-6:44 PM This course examines U.S. literature and culture in the context of the global history of the Americas. Historical moments informing the course will range from the origins of the Caribbean slave-and-sugar trade at the beginning of the nineteenth century, to the Monroe Doctrine of 1823 and the U.S.-Mexico and Spanish-American wars. Readings will include works by authors such as Frances Calderon de la Barca, Frederick Douglass, Helen Hunt Jackson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Jose Marti, Herman Melville, John Rollin Ridge, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, and Felix Varela. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. ENGL1120401
LALS 1260-401 Latinx Literature and Culture Jennifer Lyn Sternad Ponce De Leon CANCELED This course offers a broad introduction to the study of Latinx culture. We will examine literature, theater, visual art, and popular cultural forms, including murals, poster art, graffiti, guerrilla urban interventions, novels, poetry, short stories, and film. In each instance, we will study this work within its historical context and with close attention to the ways it illuminates class formation, racialization, and ideologies of gender and sexuality as they shape Latinx experience in the U.S. Topics addressed in the course will include immigration and border policy, revolutionary nationalism and its critique, anti-imperialist thought, Latinx feminisms, queer latinidades, ideology, identity formation, and social movements. While we will address key texts, historical events, and intellectual currents from the late 19th century and early 20th century, the course will focus primarily on literature and art from the 1960s to the present. All texts will be in English. ARTH2679401, COML1260401, ENGL1260401, GSWS1260401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=LALS1260401
LALS 1261-401 Radical Arts in the Americas Jennifer Lyn Sternad Ponce De Leon CANCELED This course explores the complex and fruitful relationship between literature and the visual arts, including painting, sculpture, installations, and performance art. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. ARTH2990401, CIMS1261401, COML1261401, ENGL1261401, THAR1261401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=LALS1261401
LALS 1320-401 Portuguese for the Professions Carlos Bento Dos Santos Pio TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM Portuguese for the Professions is designed for advanced-level students to develop their ability to use a wide technical vocabulary. The course will cover an array of topics in the areas of Economy, Politics, Science, Technology, Law and others as they pertain to the societies and cultures of the Lusophone countries, with particular emphasis placed on Brazil. Through readings, movies, discussions, essays and presentations, students will enhance their ability to write about and discuss these topics while employing the appropriate technical vocabulary. PRTG1320401
LALS 1475-401 History of Brazil: Slavery, Inequality, Development Melissa Teixeira MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM In the past decade, Brazil has emerged a leading global power. As the world's fifth-largest country, by size and population, and the ninth-largest by GDP, Brazil exerts tremendous influence on international politics and the global economy, seen in its position as an emerging BRIC nation and a regional heavyweight in South America. Brazil is often in the news for its strides in social welfare, leading investments in the Global South, as host of the World Cup and Olympics, and, most recently, for its political instability. It is also a nation of deep contradictions, in which myth of racial democracy -- the longstanding creed that Brazilian society has escaped racial discrimination -- functions alongside pervasive social inequality, state violence, political corruption, and an unforgiving penal system. This course examines six centuries of Brazilian history. It highlights the interplay between global events -- colonialism, slavery and emancipation, capitalism, and democratization -- and the local geographies, popular cultures, and social movements that have shaped this multi-ethnic and expansive nation. In particular, the readings will highlight Brazil's place in Latin America and the Lusophone World, as well as the ways in which Brazil stands as a counterpoint to the United States, especially in terms of the legacy of slavery and race relation. In this lecture, we will also follow the current political and economic crises unfolding in Brazil, at a moment when it has become all the more important to evaluate just how South America's largest nation has shaped and been shaped by global events. AFRC1475401, HIST1475401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=LALS1475401
LALS 1625-401 Era of Revolutions in the Atlantic World Roquinaldo Ferreira MW 5:15 PM-6:44 PM This class examines the global ramifications of the era of Atlantic revolutions from the 1770s through the 1820s. With a particular focus on French Saint Domingue and Latin America, it provides an overview of key events and individuals from the period. Along the way, it assesses the impact of the American and French revolutions on the breakdown of colonial regimes across the Americas. Students will learn how to think critically about citizenship, constitutional power, and independence movements throughout the Atlantic world. Slavery and the transatlantic slave trade were seriously challenged in places such as Haiti, and the class investigates the appropriation and circulation of revolutionary ideas by enslaved people and other subaltern groups. AFRC1625401, HIST1625401
LALS 1740-401 Capitalism, Socialism, and Crisis in the 20th Century Americas Amy C Offner TR 10:15 AM-11:14 AM From the crisis of the Great Depression through the 1970s, the United States and Latin America produced remarkable efforts to remake society and political economy. This course analyzes the Cuban and Guatemalan revolutions, as well as social movements that transformed the United States: the black freedom movement, the labor movement, and changing forms of Latinx politics. In all three countries, Americans looked for ways to reform capitalism or build socialism; address entrenched patterns of racism; define and realize democracy; and achieve national independence. They conceived of these challenges in dramatically different ways. Together, we’ll compare national histories and analyze the relationships between national upheavals. HIST1740401 History & Tradition Sector (all classes) https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=LALS1740401
LALS 1900-401 Topics in Portuguese, African and Brazilian Cultures Mercia Flannery TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM This course explores aspects of Luso-Brazilian culture and film in light of its social context and reception. For current course content, please see department's webpage: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/hispanic-portuguese-studies/pc. CIMS1901401, PRTG1900401
LALS 2135-401 Trash: The Dime Novel David C Kazanjian W 3:30 PM-6:29 PM This seminar explores the rise of the “dime novel” across the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the United States. See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. ENGL2135401
LALS 2390-401 Clarice Lispector Zita C Nunes CANCELED This seminar focuses on the work of Clarice Lispector, the Ukrainian-born Brazilian novelist and short story writer (1920-1977). See the English Department's website at www.english.upenn.edu for a description of the current offerings. COML2390401, ENGL2390401, GSWS2390401, PRTG0090401
LALS 2401-401 Indians, Pirates, Rebels and Runaways: Unofficial Histories of the Colonial Caribbean Yvonne E Fabella W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This seminar considers the early history of the colonial Caribbean, not from the perspective of European colonizing powers but rather from “below.” Beginning with European-indigenous contact in the fifteenth century, and ending with the massive slave revolt that became the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), we will focus on the different ways in which indigenous, African, European and creole men and women experienced European colonization in the Caribbean, as agents, victims and resistors of imperial projects. Each week or so, we will examine the experiences of a different social group and their treatment by historians, as well as anthropologists, archaeologists, sociologists, and novelists. Along the way, we will pay special attention to the question of primary sources: how can we recover the perspectives of people who rarely left their own accounts? How can we use documents and material objects—many of which were produced by colonial officials and elites—to access the experiences of the indigenous, the enslaved, and the poor? We will have some help approaching these questions from the knowledgeable staff at the Penn Museum, the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and the Van Pelt Library. AFRC2401401, GSWS2401401, HIST2401401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=LALS2401401
LALS 2680-401 Contemporary Immigration in the U.S. Wendy Roth CANCELED While this course will engage immigration issues more broadly, we will centrally focus on questions of immigrant incorporation and the effects of U.S immigration policy. We will start with the broad question of what should be done about the estimated 10.5 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States. Then, we will take a deeper look at the ways in which macro-level forces such as our laws and institutions shape the micro-level, everyday lives of undocumented immigrants and those living in mixed-status families. We will pay close attention to the circumstances of young people, including their experiences of exclusion and belonging across social and educational contexts. More specifically, we will examine how these factors might affect young people's development, schooling experiences, academic trajectories and aspirations, assimilation and ethnic identity, family dynamics, civic engagement, and employment. SOCI2680401
LALS 2978-401 Just Futures Seminar II: Health and Healing in Abiayala (the Americas) Lucia Isabel Stavig TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM Health and Healing in Abiayala (the Americas) will introduce students to ecosocial notions of health, colonialism’s contributions to ill-health, and decolonial action as healing action. Part one of the course introduces general concepts of body, health, and illness in biomedical models. It then pivots to the relational and ecosocial practices of body, health, and wellbeing among many First Peoples of the Abiayala, highlighting “radical relationality.” For many First Peoples, community includes humans, plants, animals, ancestors, and earth beings (such as the land, mountains, rivers, and lakes) that are materially, socially, and spiritually interdependent. These beings work together to maintain a “shared body” through practices of reciprocal care. Part two of the course examines how the shared body has been and is threatened by the colonization of Indigenous lands and bodies through (e.g.) land dispossession, pollution, extractive industry, lack of access to quality education and medical care, forced sterilization, forced removal of children, exploitative economic relations, and political violence. The third part of the course will follow how First Peoples of Abiayala are healing from the physical, social, and spiritual wounds of colonialism through decolonial action. First Peoples are creating their own healing centers and ecological protection agencies, engaging in Land Back movements, in legal and direct-action processes to protect the shared body from extractive industry, and reproductive justice movements. Healing is future oriented, powering the “radical resurgence” of First Peoples. Some questions addressed in this class include, where does the body begin and end? What constitutes personhood? How does continued colonization affected indigenous peoples’ health—and that of all peoples? How do indigenous peoples use ancestral knowledges, relation ethics, and local ecologies to help heal historic and contemporary wounds to power their futures? Is there a political dimension to healing? How do autonomy and self-determination figure into healing and wellbeing? ANTH2978401, GSWS2978401, HSOC2332401
LALS 3020-401 Diplomacy in the Americas - The Penn Model OAS Program Catherine E M Bartch TR 4:30 PM-5:59 PM "Diplomacy in the Americas" an academically based community service course in which students work with Philadelphia and Norristown public school students to explore solutions to critical problems facing the Americas. Entrenched political, economic, and social inequality, combined with environmental degradation, weak institutions, pervasive health epidemics, weapon proliferation, and other issues pose formidable hurdles for strengthening democratic ideals and institutions. The Organization of the American States (OAS), the world's oldest regional organization, is uniquely poised to confront these challenges. "Diplomacy in the Americas" guides students through the process of writing policy resolutions as though the students were Organization of the American States (OAS) diplomats, basing their research and proposals on democracy, development, security, and human rights - the four pillars of the OAS. Students will also read literature about what it means to educate for a democracy and global citizenry, and they will have the opportunity to turn theory into practice by creating and executing curriculum to teach and mentor the high school students through interactive and experiential pedagogies. PSCI2420401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=LALS3020401
LALS 3158-401 ¡Huelga! The Farmworker Movement in the United States Amy C Offner R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This intensive research seminar invites students to explore the history of farmworkers in the United States during the twentieth century. Research will primarily but not necessarily exclusively focus on the west coast, a region in which many archival sources have been digitized. Students may explore a wide variety of topics, including but not limited to: farmworker unions; the relationship between farmworker mobilizations and other movements in the US and abroad; the experiences of workers from the Philippines and Latin America and the role of US imperial and immigration policies in the lives of farmworkers; farmworkers' confrontations with and participation in systems of racism; the Great Depression in rural communities; the history of gender and family in farmworker communities; the history of environment and health; struggles over citizenship and social rights; counter-mobilizations of growers and the right; religion in farmworker communities; legislative and legal strategies to obtain rights denied agricultural workers in federal law; artistic, musical, and cultural production; or the relationship between consumers and the workers who produced their food. HIST3158401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=LALS3158401
LALS 3515-401 Race, Rights and Rebellion Keisha-Khan Perry W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This course provides an in-depth examination of theories of race and different kinds of social struggles for freedom around the globe. We will critically engage the latest scholarship from a variety of scholars and social movement actors. From anti-slavery revolts to struggles for independence to anti-apartheid movements, this course will emphasize how racialized peoples have employed notions of rights and societal resources grounded in cultural differences. Though much of the readings will highlight the experiences of African descendant peoples in Africa and its diaspora, the course will also explore the intersections of Black struggles with social movements organized by indigenous peoples in the Americas. Students will also have the unique experience of accessing readings primarily written by primarily Black scholars, some of whom have participated as key actors in the social movements they describe. Key concepts include power, resistance, subaltern, hegemony, identity politics, consciousness, and intellectual activism. The course will be organized around the following objectives: 1. To explore a range of contemporary theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches to the study of social movements; 2. To focus on the relationship between race, gender, class, culture, and politics in the African diaspora; 3. To study the historical development of organized struggles, social protests, uprisings, revolutions, insurgencies, and rebellions; 4. To examine the political agency of African descendant peoples in the global struggle for liberation and citizenship. AFRC3515401, ANTH2515401, SOCI2907401
LALS 3602-401 Technologies in Hispanic Cinema: Cyborgs, Robots, and Gadgets Reyes Caballo-Marquez MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM Contemporary Latin American and Spanish Cinema offer a great reflection on the role that new technologies have in the film industry, and in our lives, in the digital era. Often, we find that technologies are used in an original way to overcome financial shortages in times of crisis, or when resources are limited. In this context, sometimes it is actually thanks to the new technologies that the work of new directors can be produced or distributed. Some recent Latin American and Spanish sci-fi movies find genuine ways to bring about social and political commentary through the use of technological narratives. Reflections on technology are often found in many other film genres too. Our aim in this course will be to explore the use of technology in film in the present and in the past, as well as to study narratives that place technology at the center. We will focus our study on films where technology is a key factor and will reflect on the impact of technologies in our experience as spectators as well. CIMS3602401, SPAN3602401
LALS 3700-401 Abolitionism: A Global History Roquinaldo Ferreira CANCELED This class develops a transnational and global approach to the rise of abolitionism in the nineteenth century. In a comparative framework, the class traces the rise of abolitionism in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, examining the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade, the rise of colonialism in Africa, and the growth of forced labor in the wake of transatlantic slave trade. We will deal with key debates in the literature of African, Atlantic and Global histories, including the causes and motivations of abolitionism, the relationship between the suppression of the slave trade and the growth of forced labor in Africa, the historical ties between abolitionism and the early stages of colonialism in Africa, the flow of indentured laborers from Asia to the Americas in the wake of the slave trade. This class is primarily geared towards the production of a research paper. *Depending on the research paper topic, History Majors and Minors can use this course to fulfill the US, Europe, Latin America or Africa requirement.* AFRC3700401, HIST3700401
LALS 3703-401 Taking Off: How Some Economies Get Rich Melissa Teixeira M 3:30 PM-6:29 PM What makes an economy grow? This question has been asked – and answered – many times over in the modern era. From Adam Smith’s classic Wealth of Nations (1776) to today’s political leaders, many have debated the ingredients necessary for a nation to prosper, or policies to promote growth. Some point to the need for fiscal responsibility, others an educated labor force, or to tariffs, natural resources, and the right laws. This seminar explores the deep history of this problem of economic growth. Students will read works by economists, social scientists, and historians that present different theories for why some nations develop faster than others. With case studies from across the globe, we will tackle topics like why Europe industrialized first, or the paradox of why the abundance of natural resources does not necessarily contribute to long-lasting economic development. This course also asks students to think critically about the metrics used to measure “success” and “failure” across nations, as well as how such comparisons between societies have been mobilized to legitimize imperial expansion, human exploitation, environmental destruction, or political repression. By discussing how governments, corporate interests, and individual actors have implemented strategies to increase national wealth, students will also be asked to grapple with some of the consequences of economic growth for the environment, human welfare, and social inequality. *Students may fulfill one geographic requirement for the History major or minor with this course. The specific requirement fulfilled will be determined by the topic of the research paper.
LALS 3730-401 Studies in Modern and Contemporary Latin American and Latinx Literature Ashley R Brock TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM Studies in Modern and Contemporary Latin American and Latinx Literature is an upper-division seminar taking a literary-studies approach to Latin American cultural production of the 19-21st centuries. Traditions covered may include Spanish American, Brazilian, and U.S. Latinx literature. Course content may vary. Please see the department website for current course offerings: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/hispanic-portuguese-studies/undergraduate/hispanic-studies SPAN3730401
LALS 3800-401 Studies in Modern and Contemporary Latin American and Latinx Culture Jorge Tellez TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM Studies in Modern and Contemporary Latin American and Latinx Culture is an upper-division seminars focusing on significant issues or historical moments in Latin American and Latinx culture. Course content may vary. Please see the department website for current course offerings: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/hispanic-portuguese-studies/undergraduate/hispanic-studies SPAN3800401
LALS 3800-402 Studies in Modern and Contemporary Latin American and Latinx Culture Maria Victoria Garcia Serrano TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM Studies in Modern and Contemporary Latin American and Latinx Culture is an upper-division seminars focusing on significant issues or historical moments in Latin American and Latinx culture. Course content may vary. Please see the department website for current course offerings: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/hispanic-portuguese-studies/undergraduate/hispanic-studies SPAN3800402 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=LALS3800402
LALS 3902-401 What Is Mexico? Questioning Mexican Icons Jorge Tellez TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM This course studies Mexico through many lenses. From history to art, from anthropology to pop culture, from literature to film, our primary objective is to question current and past iconicity to develop a more complex and nuanced understanding of Mexican history and culture. SPAN3902401
LALS 3930-401 Latinx Environmental Justice Teresa Gimenez MW 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This course explores the involvement of the Latinx environmental justice movement since the 1960s. It addresses theories and concepts of environmental racism and environmental justice, underscoring how Latinx have challenged, expanded, and contributed to the environmental justice discourse. In this course, students will explore national case studies of environmental and racial injustice as they bear on Latinx communities both in rural areas and in urban barrios throughout the United States. The course will analyze these case studies through the lens of Latinx artistic and literary texts (essays, paintings, short stories, documentaries, and short films) as they provide a unique historic and multicultural perspective of the Latinx experience with environmental injustice and of how Latinxs imagine alternative transitions and responses to environmental marginalization. In addition, the works of Latinx artists and writers will serve as case studies to deconstruct racial stereotypes of Latinxs as unconcerned about environmental issues, shedding light on how they share a broad engagement with environmental ideas. The case studies analyzed in this course emphasize race and class differences between farmworkers and urban barrio residents and how they affect their respective struggles. The unit on farmworkers will focus on workplace health issues such as toxic chemicals and collective bargaining contracts. The unit on urban barrios will focus on gentrification, affordable housing, and toxic substances in the home. We will also review current and past programs that have been organized to address the aforementioned problems. This is an Academically Based Community Service Course (ABCS course) through which students will learn from and provide support to a Latinx-serving organization in the City of Philadelphia on preventing exposure to hazardous substances, thus bridging the information gap on environmental justice issues in the Latinx community in Philadelphia. Information dissemination and education efforts will be conducted by collaborating with Esperanza Academy Charter School in Philadelphia to implement lessons on preventing exposure to hazardous substances. Studying environmental justice and pairing it with community service will heighten students' awareness of the complexities of culture, race, gender, and class while providing them with an invaluable experience of cross-cultural understanding. ANTH3930401, ENVS3445401, SPAN3930401, URBS3930401
LALS 4240-401 Latinx Communities and the Role of CBO's in Social Change Johnny Irizarry W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM The purpose of this course to create a Latino Studies/Service Learning ABCS course that cultivates dialogue and knowledge about the social, political, cultural and historical complexities of the Latinx experience in the United States (Philadelphia in particular) and the roles Latinx CBO's play in meeting the needs of Latinx communities and in impacting social change. SOCI2931401
LALS 4517-401 Love and Rockets: The Great American Comic Book (The One Series) Natalia Reyes TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM This One Series course explores Love and Rockets, an anthology comic book series created by the collective known as Los Bros Hernandez and published continuously since 1978. We will approach the series through the lenses of Comics Studies and Latinx Studies. Is it true, as one scholar says, that, “Love and Rockets is the closest thing we have to ‘The Great American Comic Book?’” How does the series continue or challenge the legacy of the underground comix movement of the 1960s and 1970s? We will consider how Love and Rockets incorporates elements of the anarchist LA punk scene, challenges notions of Latinidad, and expands the visual vernacular of gender & sexuality in American comics. Alongside two representative volumes from Love and Rockets, we will read criticism, watch documentaries, incorporate our own comics research, and write comics of our own. Assignments will include brief research exercises and short writing in various forms. For the final projects, students will have the choice of a critical essay or creative project. Students will come away from the class with increased visual literacy as well as a basic theoretical framework for ethnic studies writ large. ENGL4517401 https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=LALS4517401
LALS 4650-401 Race and Racism in the Contemporary World Michael G Hanchard M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This undergraduate seminar is for advanced undergraduates seeking to make sense of the upsurge in racist activism, combined with authoritarian populism and neo-fascist mobilization in many parts of the world. Contemporary manifestations of the phenomena noted above will be examined in a comparative and historical perspective to identify patterns and anomalies across various multiple nation-states. France, The United States, Britain, and Italy will be the countries examined. AFRC4650401, PSCI4190401
LALS 5110-401 Ethics, Archaeology, and Cultural Heritage Richard M Leventhal T 1:45 PM-4:44 PM This seminar will explore some of the most important issues that are now a central part of archaeological, anthropological and historical research throughout the world. The identification and control of cultural heritage is a central part of the framework for research within other communities. Issues for this course will also include cultural identity, human rights, repatriation, colonialism, working with communities and many other topics. Field research today must be based upon a new series of ethical standards that will be discussed and examined within this class. Major topics include: cultural heritage - definitions and constructs, cosmopolitanism and collecting, archaeology and looting, cultural heritage preservation, museums - universal and national, museum acquisition policies, cultural identity, international conventions (including underwater issues), national laws of ownership, community based development, cultural tourism, development models, and human rights. ANTH5110401
LALS 5240-640 Latinxs and the Law Catherine E M Bartch W 5:15 PM-8:14 PM Based in concepts and principles of Constitutional law and critical race theory, this course explores the interpretation and impact of seminal court cases in U.S. history as applied to Latinxs in the United States and abroad. With a particular focus on the 20th century, students will examine how court decisions have affected civil rights, immigration policies, welfare, political incorporation, education, and other important issues affecting Latinxs. Students will also explore additional themes including the status and treatment of Latinxs in the criminal justice system, representation of Latinxs in the judiciary and how Supreme Court decisions have affected U.S. foreign policy with Latin America. https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202330&c=LALS5240640
LALS 5420-401 Parallel Plagues: Infectious Diseases and their Control in Peru and The United States Michael Z Levy Infectious agents continue to emerge, killing and harming humans and animals with unrelenting regularity. The emergence and control of these agents are, in some ways, remarkably different in different geographies. In other ways the patterns and consequences of infectious agents are very similar. The course will be structured around a series of pairings of infectious disease problems that affect Peru and the United States. Some pairings will be in terms of the agents themselves; others will be more thematic. In each case we will trace two lines of inquiry, one in each country, but always with an eye to the harmonics--where these lines resonate--even if they do not interact. The primary goal of the course is to investigate the historical, political and economic forces driving infectious disease in Peru and the US. A co-primary goal is to bring students and faculty from Penn and our partner institutions in Peru, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, to work their way through topics in infectious disease control, which are inherently challenging. The course will be taught in English but a workable knowledge of Spanish will be helpful. PUBH5420401
LALS 5940-401 Diversity in Higher Education Ann E Tiao This course explores issues of diversity as they pertain to higher education, including race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, sexual orientation, ideology, etc. Rather than focusing on specific populations of people, the course will tackle issues of diversity within the context of concrete higher education functions and problems.
LALS 5940-402 Diversity in Higher Education Eklovya Jain
Leland S Mcgee
Saryu Sanghani
Ann E Tiao
This course explores issues of diversity as they pertain to higher education, including race, ethnicity, gender, class, religion, sexual orientation, ideology, etc. Rather than focusing on specific populations of people, the course will tackle issues of diversity within the context of concrete higher education functions and problems.
LALS 6610-401 Language Diversity and Education Guadalupe Del Rosario Barrientos
Nelson L Flores
Katherine O'Morchoe
Suzanne Inkyung Oh
Erica Marie Poinsett
T 11:45 AM-1:44 PM Exploration of issues affecting educational policy and classroom practice in multilingual, multicultural settings, with an emphasis on ethnographic research. Selected U.S. and international cases illustrate concerns relating to learners' bilingual/bicultural/biliterate development in formal educational settings. Topics include policy contexts, program structures, teaching and learning in the multilingual classroom, discourses and identities in multilingual education policy and practice, and the role of teachers, researchers, and communities in implementing change in schools. EDUC5252401
LALS 6610-402 Language Diversity and Education Guadalupe Del Rosario Barrientos
Nelson L Flores
Katherine O'Morchoe
Suzanne Inkyung Oh
Erica Marie Poinsett
T 5:00 PM-6:59 PM Exploration of issues affecting educational policy and classroom practice in multilingual, multicultural settings, with an emphasis on ethnographic research. Selected U.S. and international cases illustrate concerns relating to learners' bilingual/bicultural/biliterate development in formal educational settings. Topics include policy contexts, program structures, teaching and learning in the multilingual classroom, discourses and identities in multilingual education policy and practice, and the role of teachers, researchers, and communities in implementing change in schools. EDUC5252402
LALS 6900-402 Studies in 19th- and 20th-Century Spanish American Literature Ericka Beckman R 1:45 PM-4:44 PM Topics vary. Please see the Spanish Department's website for the current course description: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/hispanic-portuguese-studies/pc SPAN6900402
LALS 6970-401 Studies in Latin American Culture Ashley R Brock M 1:45 PM-4:44 PM Topics vary. Please see the Spanish Department's website for the current course description: https://www.sas.upenn.edu/hispanic-portuguese-studies/pc SPAN6970401