Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies Courses for Spring 2026
| Title | Instructor | Location | Time | All taxonomy terms | Description | Section Description | Cross Listings | Fulfills | Registration Notes | Syllabus | Syllabus URL | Course Syllabus URL | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LALS 0018-401 | Perspective in Afro-Luso-Brazilian Culture | Carlos Bento Dos Santos Pio | CANCELED | This interdisciplinary survey course offered in two sections (Portuguese and English) will provide additional exposure to the language and culture of the Portuguese speaking countries (including Brazil, Portugal and its ex-colonies in Africa), and students will broaden their knowledge by complementing the classroom discussions with the experience of visiting historic and cultural sites in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The history of Portuguese colonization and its influence, and current discussions about contemporary challenges will be incorporated in this course as a way to familiarize students with key issues, such as the influence of African and Indigenous culture in Brazil's language, art, culture, and racial relations in Portugal and the Portuguese ex-colonies in Africa. At the end of this course, students will recognize and discuss important themes, historical figures and cultural characteristics of the Portuguese speaking countries. This course is a Penn Global Seminar, which includes a travel component. An application is required. For more information and to apply, visit: https://global.upenn.edu/pennabroad/pgs | PRTG0018401 | |||||||||
| LALS 0019-401 | Food, Language, and Identity in Afro-Luso-Brazilian Culture | Mercia Flannery | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | This course examines the role of food in linguistic expression, literature, and cultural identity across Afro-Luso-Brazilian traditions. Through the analysis of texts, films, and linguistic practices from Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Cabo Verde, and Mozambique, students will explore how food serves as a powerful lens to reflect and understand social identities, as well as aspects of the historical and political dynamics of these Portuguese-speaking countries. This course is taught in English. | PRTG0019401 | |||||||||
| LALS 0116-401 | American Race: A Philadelphia Story (SNF Paideia Program Course) |
Fariha Khan Fernando Chang-Muy |
TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | This course proposes an examination of race with a three-pronged approach: one that broadly links the study of race in the United States with a multi-disciplinary approach; situates specific conversations within the immediate location of Philadelphia; and examines the international human rights context of race with Greece as a case study. The broad historical examination advances key concepts of race and racialization, explores key theoretical methodologies, and highlights major scholarly works. Students will engage with the study of race through Africana Studies, Asian American Studies, Urban Studies, South Asia Studies, Latin American & Latinx Studies, and through international human rights law. Readings and methodologies will introduce students to critical issues in education, in literature, in sociology, and with methods in oral history, archival work, and ethnography. Most importantly, this extensive approach highlights the impact of race across multiple communities including Black Americans, immigrant populations, Asian Americans, and international communities that are marginalized to emphasize connections, relationships, and shared solidarity. Students are intellectually pushed to see the linkages and the impacts of racism across and among all Americans and from a thematic and legal perspective. As each theme is introduced a direct example from Philadelphia will be discussed. The combination of the national discourse on race, with an intimate perspective from the City of Philadelphia and travel to Greece, engages students both intellectually and civically. The course will be led by Fariha Khan and Fernando Chang-Muy along with local activists with varied disciplinary backgrounds from local community organizations. Each guest lecturer not only brings specific disciplinary expertise, but also varied community engagement experience. This course is a Penn Global Seminar, which includes a travel component. An application is required. For more information and to apply, visit: https://global.upenn.edu/pennabroad/pgs. The course is also supported by the SNF Paideia Program, the Asian American Studies Program and Africana, Latin American & Latinx Studies, Sociology, South Asia Studies, and Urban Studies. | AFRC0116401, ASAM0116401, SAST0116401, SOCI0116401, URBS0116401 | |||||||||
| LALS 0450-401 | Modern Latin America 1808-Present | TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | This course examines central themes of Latin American history, from independence to the present. It engages a hemispheric and global approach to understand the economic and social transformations of the region. We will explore the anti-imperial struggles, revolutions, social movements, and global economic crises that have given rise to new national projects for development, or have frustrated the realization of such goals. Taking a historical perspective, we will ask: What triggers imperial breakdown? How did slaves navigate the boundary between freedom and bondage? Was the Mexican Revolution revolutionary? How did the Great Depression lead to the rise of state-led development? In what ways have citizens mobilized for equality, a decent standard of living, and cultural inclusion? And what future paths will the region take given uneasy export markets and current political uncertainty? | HIST0450401 | History & Tradition Sector (all classes) | |||||||||
| LALS 0720-401 | Introduction to Latin American and Latino Studies | Ann C. Farnsworth | MW 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | Designed to introduce students to the interdisciplinary field of Latin American and Latinx Studies, this is a seminar oriented toward first and second year students. Readings will range widely, from scholarly work on the colonial world that followed from and pushed back against the "conquest"; to literary and artistic explorations of Latin American identities; to social scientists' explorations of how Latinxs are changing the United States in the current generation. | HIST1702401 | |||||||||
| LALS 1166-401 | A Nation of Immigrants Reconsidered (SNF Paideia Program Course) | Hardeep Dhillon | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | Many Americans widely accept the notion that the United States is a nation of immigrants despite the fact that immigration and border control has been a central feature of this nation’s past. This course explores the United States’ development of immigration and border enforcement during the twentieth century through an intersectional lens. It roots the structures of modern immigration and border enforcement in Native dispossession and histories of slavery, and interrogates how Asian, Black, and Latinx immigration has shaped and expanded immigration controls on, within, and beyond US territorial borders. In addition to historicizing the rise and expansion of major institutions of immigration control such as the US Border Patrol and Bureau of Naturalization, we explore how immigration controls were enforced on the ground and impacted the lives of everyday people. | AFRC1166401, ASAM1166401, HIST1166401 | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202610&c=LALS1166401 | ||||||||
| LALS 1254-401 | Archaeology of the Inca | Anne Tiballi | TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | The Inca created a vast and powerful South American empire in the high Andes Mountains that was finally conquered by Spain. Using Penn's impressive museum collections and other archaeological, linguistic, and historical sources, this course will examine Inca religion and worldview, architecture, sacred temples, the capital of Cuzco, ritual calendar, ceque system, textiles, metalworking, economic policies and expansionist politics from the dual perspectives of Inca rulers and their subjects. Our task is to explain the rise, dominance, and fall of the Incas as a major South American civilization. | ANTH1254401 | History & Tradition Sector (all classes) | ||||||||
| LALS 1310-401 | Africa and the Transatlantic Slave Trade | Roquinaldo Ferreira | MW 7:00 PM-8:29 PM | This course focuses on the history of selected African societies from the sixteenth through the mid-nineteenth centuries. The primary goal is to study the political, economic, social, and cultural history of a number of peoples who participated in the Atlantic slave trade or were touched by it during the era of their involvement. The course is designed to serve as an introduction to the history and culture of African peoples who entered the diaspora during the era of the slave trade. Its audience is students interested in the history of Africa, the African diaspora, and the Atlantic world, as well as those who want to learn about the history of the slave trade. Case studies will include the Yoruba, Akan, and Fon, as well as Senegambian and West-central African peoples. | AFRC1310401, HIST1310401 | |||||||||
| LALS 1620-401 | The Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire 1450-1700 | Antonio Feros | TR 8:30 AM-9:59 AM | This course will provide students with a solid knowledge of the history of early modern Spain (1450-1700). Through readings of primary and secondary texts that offer a complex vision of the cultural, religious, intellectual, and economic contexts and processes, students will be able to appreciate the intricacies of Spain's historical evolution. The course focuses on the rise and decline of the Spanish monarchy: the conditions that enabled Spain to become the most powerful monarchy in early modern times, and the conditions that led to its decline. This course also touches upon other important aspects critical to understanding early modern Spain: relationships among Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Iberian Peninsula; the conquest and colonization of the New World; and early modern debates about Spain's rights to occupy America and the so-called "destruction of the Indies." | HIST1620401 | History & Tradition Sector (all classes) | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202610&c=LALS1620401 | |||||||
| LALS 1810-401 | Perspectives in Afro-Luso-Brazilian Culture | Mercia Flannery | CANCELED | This interdisciplinary survey course offered in two sections (Portuguese and English) will provide additional exposure to the language and culture of the Portuguese speaking countries (including Brazil, Portugal and its ex-colonies in Africa), and students will broaden their knowledge by complementing the classroom discussions with the experience of visiting historic and cultural sites in Minas Gerais, Brazil. This 1000-level course fulfills the following requirements: 1) advanced language course for students in the Huntsman Program in the Portuguese track, 2) course towards the major or minor in LALS, and 3) the Portuguese certificate. The history of Portuguese colonization and its influence, and current discussions about contemporary challenges will be incorporated in this course as a way to familiarize students with key issues, such as the influence of African and Indigenous culture in Brazil's language, art, culture, and racial relations in Portugal and the Portuguese ex-colonies in Africa. At the end of this course, students will recognize and discuss important themes, historical figures and cultural characteristics of the Portuguese speaking countries. | PRTG1810401 | |||||||||
| LALS 1910-401 | Food, Language, and Identity in Afro-Luso-Brazilian Culture | Mercia Flannery | TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | This course examines the role of food in linguistic expression, literature, and cultural identity across Afro-Luso-Brazilian traditions. Through the analysis of texts, films, and linguistic practices from Brazil, Portugal, Angola, Cabo Verde, and Mozambique, students will explore how food serves as a powerful lens to reflect and understand social identities, as well as aspects of the historical and political dynamics of these Portuguese-speaking countries. This course will be taught in Portuguese. | PRTG1910401 | |||||||||
| LALS 2020-401 | International Organizations in Latin America | Catherine E.M. Bartch | TR 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | International organizations (IOs) play a powerful role in mitigating conflict at the global level. What role do they play in solving problems related to politics, economic development, corruption, inequality, and civil society in Latin America? How much power, influence, and control do they possess in the region? This course examines the role and impact international organizations have had on Latin America since the mid-20th century. After a review of theoretical perspectives on the significance of IOs in inter-American affairs, students will examine the workings, issues, and controversies surrounding IOs in Latin America across themes of democracy, human rights, security, and development - the four main pillars of the OAS. Through readings, short presentations/debates, and guest speakers, students will explore IOs and their action in the region. Some of these IOs include the IMF, World Bank, UN, ICC as well as regional organizations and area trade blocs and agreements of USMCA/NAFTA, Mercosur, Pacific Alliance, ALBA, and other civil society and human rights organizations. A large part of the course will focus on the Organization of American States and its various departments and divisions such as the Inter American Commission for Human Rights. Students will be invited to participate in the Washington Model OAS simulation in April. | PSCI2421401 | |||||||||
| LALS 2143-401 | Extra-Terrestrial: Thematized Space in the Americas | Alhelí Harvey | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | This course begins with the premise of the alien: landscapes, people, artifacts, language. How and where do we experience or encounter things, people, or places that are “out of this world”? We survey a diverse range of expressive cultural material from Latina/o/x America such as travelogues, film, advertising, architecture, and artwork to question the categories of the alien, tourist, and the local. Class readings by Latinx and Latin American Studies scholars on Disneyland, cultural heritage, gentrification, and The X-Files will guide our investigation through the intersections of tourism, architecture, and the production and popularity of “alien” environments in the Americas. Class discussions and visits to local tourist attractions will engage students with everyday surroundings to interrogate how social experiences, economic, and political histories shape our understanding of the actual conditions we live in and imagine a possible world we all share. As we build a hemispheric understanding of the Americas, we will examine dominant and mainstream representations of North American citizenship. This course is organized as a thematic loop: by the end, we will return to our initial point of departure with new questions. This class aims to develop 1) critical thinking skills through collective close reading of secondary sources and seminar-style discussion of complex texts. 2) ability to engage primary and archival sources and their uses for interpreting the built environment. 3) ability to identify and describe central questions in Latinx and Latin American studies in writing through a progressive research-based assignment. | ENGL2143401 | |||||||||
| LALS 2590-401 | Nutritional Anthropology | Caroline E Jones | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | The course is an introduction to nutritional anthropology, an area of anthropology concerned with human nutrition and food systems in social, cultural and historical contexts. On the one hand, nutritional anthropologists study the significance of the food quest in terms of survival and health. On the other hand, they also know that people eat food for a variety of reasons that may have little, if anything, to do with nutrition, health, or survival. While the availability of food is dependent upon the physical environment, food production systems, and economic resources, food choice and the strategies human groups employ to gain access to and distribute food are deeply embedded in specific cultural patterns, social relationships, and political and economic systems. Thus, nutritional anthropology represents the interface between anthropology and the nutritional sciences, and as such, can provide powerful insights into the interactions of social and biological factors in the context of the nutritional health of individuals and populations. Because food and nutrition are quintessential biocultural issues, the course takes a biocultural approach drawing on perspectives from biological, socio-cultural and political-economic anthropology. Course content will include: a discussion of approaches to nutritional anthropology; basics of human nutrition; food systems, food behaviors and ideas; methods of dietary and nutritional assessment; and a series of case studies addressing causes and consequences to nutritional problems across the world. | ANTH2590401, URBS2590401 | |||||||||
| LALS 2601-401 | The Asian Caribbean | Rupa Pillai | TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | Although Asians have lived in the Americas for centuries, the Asian American community and experience tends to be defined by the post-1965 wave of immigration to the United States. In an effort to correct this narrative this course will explore the histories, experiences, and contributions of some of the forgotten Asians of the Americas. In particular, we will focus on the earlier labor migrations of Chinese and South Asian individuals to the Caribbean and the United States. The experiences of these individuals, who built railroads, cut sugarcane, and replaced African slave labor, complicate our understandings of race today. By examining the legal and social debates surrounding their labor in the 19th century and exploring how their experiences are forgotten and their descendants are rendered invisible today, we will complicate what is Asian America and consider how this history shapes immigration policies today. | ASAM2610401, GSWS2610401, SAST2610401 | |||||||||
| LALS 2610-401 | Latinos in the United States | Emilio Alberto Parrado | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | This course presents a broad overview of the Latino population in the United States that focuses on the economic and sociological aspects of Latino immigration and assimilation. Topics to be covered include: construction of Latino identity, the history of U.S. Latino immigration, Latino family patterns and household structure, Latino educational attainment. Latino incorporation into the U.S. labor force, earnings and economic well-being among Latino-origin groups, assimilation and the second generation. The course will stress the importance of understanding Latinos within the overall system of race and ethnic relations in the U.S., as well as in comparison with previous immigration flows, particularly from Europe. We will pay particular attention to the economic impact of Latino immigration on both the U.S. receiving and Latin American sending communities, and the efficacy and future possibilities of U.S. immigration policy. Within all of these diverse topics, we will stress the heterogeneity of the Latino population according to national origin groups (i.e. Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and other Latinos), as well as generational differences between immigrants and the native born. | SOCI2610401 | |||||||||
| LALS 2680-401 | Contemporary Immigration in the U.S. | Robert G. Gonzales | T 12:00 PM-2:59 PM | 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. | EDUC5432401, LALS5680401, SOCI2680401, SOCI5680401 | |||||||||
| LALS 3360-401 | The Peopling of the Americas | Theodore G Schurr | MW 10:15 AM-11:44 AM | The peopling of the Americas is a question that has intrigued scholars and laymen for over 500 years. The origin of Native Americans was also a seminal issue during the emergence of American Anthropology as a discipline at the turn of the 20th century, with research on this topic animating current studies of ethnohistory, indigenous archeology, post-colonialism and repatriation. The proposed course will review the scholarship dedicated to describing this long history from an interdisciplinary perspective. It will explore their roots in the expansion of modern humans into Eurasia, evaluate the new archeological and genetic research that has fundamentally altered our understanding of the migration history and diversity of indigenous peoples in the American continents, and examine issues of identity, ethnicity and cultural heritage in contemporary Native populations that extend from this knowledge. The course will further draw on the instructor's fieldwork experience working with indigenous communities in Alaska, Canada, the Lower 48, Mexico and the Caribbean, as well as native Siberians in Russia, where the cultural and biological roots of ancestral Native American populations lie. | ANTH3360401 | |||||||||
| LALS 3680-401 | Surrealism in the Americas | Ricardo Bracho | R 3:30 PM-6:29 PM | Surrealism in the Americas is a workshop focused around the reading, writing and production of surrealist manifestos, plays, performances, poems and fiction. Taking the stance that surrealist literary production is at its base a left aesthetic engagement with form and politics, the course will survey North American, South American, and Caribbean engagements with what is largely misunderstood as a European aesthetic and movement. The works of Aime Cesaire, Adrienne Kennedy, Leonora Carrington, Martin Ramirez, and Grupo Etcetera, among many others, will be studied and used as models for students' own writing and performance. Work will be both individually and collectively generated and the opportunity to work on public performances of surrealist plays will be part of the workshop. | ENGL3680401, GSWS3680401, THAR3680401 | |||||||||
| LALS 3684-401 | Theatrical Modernity and Postmodernity in Latin America | Selma Feliciano Arroyo | TR 12:00 PM-1:29 PM | This course will focus on the theatrical tradition of Latin America during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In addition to reading some of the most influential playwrights of the region, we will discuss the aesthetic theories and sociohistorical contexts that have shaped contemporary Latin American and Latino theater and performance practices. We will also explore how the stage has served as a space in which to represent, debate, negotiate, and complicate issues related to national, gender, political, and ethnic communities and identities. | SPAN3684401 | |||||||||
| LALS 3730-401 | Clashing Concepts in Hispanic American Poetry and Short Fiction | Daniela A Cavalli | MW 1:45 PM-3:14 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 | https://coursesintouch.apps.upenn.edu/cpr/jsp/fast.do?webService=syll&t=202610&c=LALS3730401 | ||||||||
| LALS 3736-401 | Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Contemporary Latin American Literature | Oscar Montoya | TR 3:30 PM-4:59 PM | The publication of Cien años de soledad in 1967 was one of the highest moments in 20th century Latin American literature. Behind this masterpiece was the arduous and tireless work of a writer that had been searching for a personal style during almost a decade. This search also has a continental dimension. In García Marquez’s work, readers find the main topics, aesthetic quests, and political conflicts that hold the Latin American imagination, from the “crónicas de conquista” to the artistic vanguard adventures of the middle of the century. His narrative brings together early discussions about magical realism and the literary boom, anthropological inquiries rooted in transculturation and critical regionalism, as well as questions on class, race, and gender. In this course we will read different moments of his work, from his early short stories to some of his major novels. In addition, we will compare his writing to some of their contemporaries’, in order to have a comprehensive idea about the formation of the Latin American contemporary canon. | SPAN3736401 | |||||||||
| LALS 3750-401 | Latin American Environmentalisms: Ecological Conflict and Cuidado (Care) across the Americas | Kristina M Lyons | W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | This course thinks with and from Latin America to consider the environmental and ecological conflicts and politics of cuidado (care) emerging across the hemisphere in times of climate crisis and deepening socio-environmental injustice. Latin American thinkers and practitioners have provided innovative conceptual and methodological tools for analyzing, organizing, and acting in defense of territory and life. In this course, we will consider how legacies of colonialism and (neo)extractivism are not only an ongoing curse of the Americas, but also a a condition of possibility for feminist, decolonial, Indigenous, and ecological proposals, such as degrowth, buen vivir, cuerpo-territorio (body-territory), rights of nature, ontological politics, and participatory action research, among other ways of knowing, being, and doing. What can we learn from engagement with the historic and contemporary socioenvironmental challenges occurring across the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Americas? How are diverse urban and rural communities, technoscientific actors, researchers, and ancestral knowers understanding and responding to the region’s emerging climate and environmental scenarios? What are the possibilities for dialogue, exchange, and problem solving between such diverse actors and their multiple ways of knowing and being that span millennial, colonial, and modernizing temporalities? Throughout the course, we will interrogate and reflect on these questions from the situated perspectives of Latin America and its many territorial realities, ecological relations, and social worlds. | ANTH3750401, ANTH5750401, LALS5750401 | |||||||||
| LALS 3800-401 | Creations of the Global. Global Awareness and Globalization in Latin American Cultures | Teresa Gimenez | MW 12:00 PM-1:29 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 specific Section Details. | SPAN3800401 | |||||||||
| LALS 3908-401 | Body and Soul: Hispanic Perspectives on Health, Illness, and Healthcare | Linda Grabner | TR 1:45 PM-3:14 PM | TBD | SPAN3908401 | |||||||||
| LALS 4250-401 | Latinx Cultural History | Johnny Irizarry | T 5:15 PM-8:14 PM | This course takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the study of the resiliency and impact of Latinx cultural and artistic contributions, aesthetics, expressions, and institution building in the United States from the Civil Rights Era to the present. We will explore how Latinxs culturally define being "American", and how their artistic expressions shape and influence the creativity and productivity of American and global arts & cultural expressions. More broadly, we will explore the Latinx interactions of race, culture, society, economy, and politics in the U.S. | SOCI2932401 | |||||||||
| LALS 5430-401 | Migration, Displacement, and Education | Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher | W 2:00 PM-3:59 PM | Migration has long shaped societies, economies, and education systems, influencing policies and lived experiences across the globe. This course explores the intersections of international migration, displacement, education, and policy, with a focus on how migration impacts children, youth, and their communities. We examine key theories of migration and incorporation while critically analyzing issues such as border securitization, forced displacement, and the educational experiences of migrant and refugee learners in a variety of international contexts, including the US. The course also engages with contemporary displacement crises, the role of schools in shaping inclusion and exclusion, and the evolving definitions of refugee status and durable solutions. Through an interdisciplinary lens, students will develop a nuanced understanding of migration’s complexities, including its connections to climate change, global governance, and shifting legal frameworks. The course emphasizes migrant agency, advocacy, and alternative migration futures, encouraging students to critically engage with equity, justice, and human rights in migration discourse. As part of the course, students are encouraged to design their own final project related to the topic of migration based on their personal interests. | EDUC5430401 | |||||||||
| LALS 5680-401 | Contemporary Immigration in the U.S. | Robert G. Gonzales | T 12:00 PM-2:59 PM | 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. | EDUC5432401, LALS2680401, SOCI2680401, SOCI5680401 | |||||||||
| LALS 5750-401 | Latin American Environmentalisms: Ecological Conflict and Cuidado (Care) across the Americas | Kristina M Lyons | W 1:45 PM-4:44 PM | This course thinks with and from Latin America to consider the environmental and ecological conflicts and politics of cuidado (care) emerging across the hemisphere in times of climate crisis and deepening socio-environmental injustice. Latin American thinkers and practitioners have provided innovative conceptual and methodological tools for analyzing, organizing, and acting in defense of territory and life. In this course, we will consider how legacies of colonialism and (neo)extractivism are not only an ongoing curse of the Americas, but also a a condition of possibility for feminist, decolonial, Indigenous, and ecological proposals, such as degrowth, buen vivir, cuerpo-territorio (body-territory), rights of nature, ontological politics, and participatory action research, among other ways of knowing, being, and doing. What can we learn from engagement with the historic and contemporary socioenvironmental challenges occurring across the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Americas? How are diverse urban and rural communities, technoscientific actors, researchers, and ancestral knowers understanding and responding to the region’s emerging climate and environmental scenarios? What are the possibilities for dialogue, exchange, and problem solving between such diverse actors and their multiple ways of knowing and being that span millennial, colonial, and modernizing temporalities? Throughout the course, we will interrogate and reflect on these questions from the situated perspectives of Latin America and its many territorial realities, ecological relations, and social worlds. | ANTH3750401, ANTH5750401, LALS3750401 | |||||||||
| LALS 5830-401 | Art, Sex and the Sixties | Jonathan D Katz | M 5:15 PM-8:14 PM | With a distinct emphasis on performance, film, installation art, video and painting, this course explores the explosion of body-based, nude and erotic work from the 1950 to the 1970s, with particular focus on the 1960s. And it seeks to explore this dynamic not only within the familiar confines of North America and Europe but within Latin America and Asia, too, in what was a nearly simultaneous international emergence of the erotic as a political force in the art world. Reading a range of key voices from Frankfurt School philosopher Herbert Marcuse, to performance artists Carolee Schneemann and Yoko Ono, Neo-Freudian theorist Norman O. Brown and Brazilian theorist and poet Oswald de Andrade, we will examine how and why sexuality became a privileged form of politics at this historical juncture in a range of different contexts across the globe. We will pay particular attention to how and why an art about sex became a camouflaged form of political dissidence in the confines of repressive political dictatorships, as were then rising in Brazil, Argentina. and ultimately Chile. Students interested in feminist, gender or queer theory, Latin American Studies, social revolution, performance studies, post war art and Frankfurt School thought should find the course particularly appealing, but it assumes no background in any of these fields. | ARTH5830401, CIMS5830401, GSWS5200401 | |||||||||
| LALS 6900-401 | Studies in 19th- and 20th-Century Spanish American Literature: Realism in Latin American Literature |
Ericka Beckman Laura L Flippin |
T 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 | SPAN6900401 | |||||||||
| LALS 6970-401 | Museum of the Americas: Literature and Cultural Heritage in Latin America |
Jorge Tellez Laura L Flippin |
W 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 | |||||||||
| LALS 7941-401 | Print Cultures of the Global South | Sara Kazmi | R 10:15 AM-1:14 PM | This course will analyse the forms, contexts, and politics surrounding anticolonial, left and dissident print cultures of the global south. Course materials will draw on the archive of political magazines, party newspapers, cultural journals, and pamphlets to study how these print forms shaped the cultures, institutions, and communities of revolutionary politics. Engaging the global south revolutionary periodical as form, the course will analyze its role as a forum for political debate, a tool for political organizing, and a crucial medium for literary and aesthetic experiments. We will examine revolutionary periodicals from contexts ranging from colonial India to Apartheid-era South Africa to Pinochet-ruled Chile to appreciate the ways in which periodicals often served as sites for articulating political theory and literary activism ‘from below’. We will focus on movements and political concepts that decisively shaped 20th-century struggles against colonialism, and those that followed in the wake of formal decolonization, including but not limited to Afro-Asianism, Marxist internationalism, black internationalism, Third Worldism, and Tricontinentalism. Classes will be conducted in the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and a large part of the course will be dedicated to workshopping archival material from the collections. | AFRC7941401, COML7941401, ENGL7941401, SAST7741401 |