Feminist scholars have long positioned historical revision as a crucial literary strategy. Dominant histories sometimes obscure the contributions of women and people of color, and, as Carmen Maria Machado articulates, the silences that develop in those accounts “illustrate a difficult truth: sometimes stories are destroyed, and sometimes they are never uttered in the first place; but either way something very large is irrevocably missing from our collective histories.”


In this course, we will look at some of the ways that Latinx creatives and authors have used their work to address the gaps and silences of historical and literary records. We will ask what kinds of literary and visual forms they mobilize and consider what narrative methods they deploy. Along the way, we will think critically about revision as a tool: Is narrative revision a means for creating social, political, or structural change? What kind of knowledge is created in acts of creative remembrance? How does the revision or retracing of personal or cultural memory alter or impact the construction of racial and ethnic categories?


This focus on revision is also a means for considering the importance of those strategies for our own writing practice. Throughout term we will practice rewriting and reconceptualizing arguments for different mediums, genres, and audiences. The grade for this course will be based on participation, writing, and revision.
Days: TU TH  09:30-10:50 AM

Investigation of media representations of gender, race, and sexuality in the United States. Topics include media images of and by one or more minority groups in the United States, including African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicano/Latinos, Native Americans, gays, and lesbians.

Prerequisite: Satisfactory completion of the Lower-Division Writing requirement.

Repeatability: Unlimited as topics vary.
Days: TU TH  03:30-04:50 PM

Over the last century, Latin Americans have frequently mobilized and armed themselves to obtain fundamental political, economic, and social reform.  Major revolutionary upheavals shook Mexico, Cuba, Bolivia, and Nicaragua while many more outbreaks have erupted albeit unsuccessfully.

Non-violent attempts at social change have also occurred most notably in places like Guatemala and Chile.  This course will take a comparative approach to the causes, development, and consequences of selected social revolutionary movements. Along the way, we will explore such topics as social justice, state formation, nationalism, leadership, gender, ethnicity, and the role of international affairs.  The course will examine these case studies through lectures, discussions, videos, and primary / secondary source readings.
Days: MWF  01:00-01:50 PM

This course introduces students to the origins and construction of race with particular attention to how race has helped to shape Latin America from colonial times to the present.  This will be a broad analysis of the place that racial and ethnic ideologies have played in national political structures, economic formations, and social movements.  We will examine the formation of individual and collective identity in Latin America among Europeans, indigenous groups, blacks, as well as Asians across a variety of historical and geographical settings.
Particular attention will focus on the forces that have shaped the context and perceptions of race over time, including nation-building, science, miscegenation (racial mixing), indigenismo, resistance, etc.
We will also see how racial ideas relate to class, gender, and even the arts.  These issues will be covered through lectures, discussions, videos, and primary/secondary readings.
Days: MWF  11:00-11:50 AM

Introduction to the major authors and movements of Iberian literature and culture from the Middle Ages to the present.

Prerequisite: SPANISH 3 or SPANISH 3H or AP Spanish Literature Exam. AP Spanish Literature Exam with a minimum score of 4. Placement into SPANISH 101A is also accepted.

Days: TU TH  09:30-10:50 AM

Introduction to the major authors and movements of Iberian literature and culture from the Middle Ages to the present.

Prerequisite: SPANISH 3 or SPANISH 3H or AP Spanish Literature Exam. AP Spanish Literature Exam with a minimum score of 4. Placement into SPANISH 101A is also accepted.

Days: TU TH  12:30-01:50 PM