Brazil through AI: Small Projects, Big Questions

This course explores Brazil's language, literature, science, music and society through short, hands-on projects powered by AI. Students use tools such as Google Gemini and Google Colab to analyze texts, search scholarly literature, collect and visualize public data. Every project focuses on Brazil, but the methods apply to any language, culture or field of study. The course is taught in English. No prior knowledge of Portuguese or programming is required, and there are no prerequisites. Students from all majors are welcome.Offered in collaboration with the Lemann Center for...

Mexican National Cinema

This course (CRN 49961) explores how Mexican cinema, from the arrival of sound in the 1930s through 21st century production, has commented on and participated in major social and national processes such as the Mexican Revolution, the (re)construction of national identity, modernization, as well as the negotiation of changing conceptions of class, gender, and race. We will analyze canonical, landmark films as well as lesser-known works to explore how a variety of directors and genres have engaged the country’s national imaginary through time. As film is an industrial art form, we will examine...

Imaging Mexico

“Imaging Mexico” (CRN 49964) explores how since the post-independence period in the early 1800s through the present, visual cultures have participated in and commented on the formation of national identity in Mexico. We will study a variety of textual and visual mediums including prose, painting, sculpture, architecture, prints, crafts, photography, and film in order to analyze how these various cultural forms have contributed to a variety of national projects. Students will hone the capacity to speak and write analytically about various forms of cultural production using each medium’s...

Archival Futures, Colonial Pasts: Rethinking the Latin American Archive

Early definitions of the Spanish word “archivo” describe the archive as a “public space”—a place where “original” documents and artifacts are preserved. It underscores the importance of preserving for posterity as a way to protect cultural heritage. These early definitions also emphasize the significance of treating what is preserved as something of utmost value. In the 18th century, it was also conceived as something that needed to be kept but “in perfect order” so that it is not lost or damaged. The act of care and vigilance with which something is kept was equally important. However,...

Indigenous Mexico

Currently, Mexico considers itself a pluricultural nation. This has not always been the case. Indigenous peoples have always lived in Mexico, but their visibility and inclusion within the nation has ranged. We will start studying Mexico before it was Mexico and continue into the present day. Through historical texts, literature, art, and film, this course will explore how Indigenous people have been represented and represent themselves, how Indigenous cultures were appropriated by the state, and how Indigenous peoples continue to fight for autonomy on various fronts.CRN: grad 54430,...

Unwritten Textualities: Indigenous Literatures and Beyond

Indigenous literatures are often placed in binaries and in a western chronological timeline, from oral to written and from traditional to modern. And yet Indigenous literatures of Abiayala include a wide range of textualities, with many Indigenous authors claiming that there are not always strict separations between the written word and other non-alphabetic texts, instead they are in conversation and inform each other. This course will introduce students to various forms of Indigenous textualities and the connections between them. Students will read poetry, oral stories, zines, murals and...

The Social Lives of Bilingualism

This course presents an introduction to fundamental concepts regarding language, bilingualism, and society, and furthermore, we will integrate these concepts with real-world applied contexts, specifically to technology and large language models, healthcare and health behavior, weather risk communication, business management, and immigration, law, and politics. You will learn about how languages, such as Spanish and English, are used and perceived in these contexts and how their use and perception can have positive and negative material outcomes for speakers. Texts include both scholarly...

The Social Lives of Bilingualism

This course presents an introduction to fundamental concepts regarding language, bilingualism, and society, and furthermore, we will integrate these concepts with real-world applied contexts, specifically to technology and large language models, healthcare and health behavior, weather risk communication, business management, and immigration, law, and politics. You will learn about how languages, such as Spanish and English, are used and perceived in these contexts and how their use and perception can have positive and negative material outcomes for speakers. Texts include both scholarly...

Global Varieties of Spanish

This Spanish dialectology course explorers the linguistic and social markers that give rise to the numerous varieties of Spanish spoken across the world. We will explore the relationship between language, individual and society in the context of the spread of Spanish across the world, concentrating on Spanish varieties spoken in Spain and Latin America, including the United States, but will also give an overview of Spanish in Africa (Equatorial Guinea, Morocco), and other parts of the world (Israel, Turkey, the Philippines). Students will synthesize information regarding how the Spanish...

Sociolinguistics

This course is an introduction to the theoretical and empirical foundations of sociolinguistic variation, with a specific-focus on Spanish-speaking and/or Hispanic/Latine communities. The course will start off with discussions of why we study sociolinguistics and how we can use our research towards efforts in diversity, equity, and inclusion. From there the course will introduce students to the field’s history, starting with variationist practices moving into questions of performance and indexicality. We will also pause before the semester break to have a week-long, practical workshop on...
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