Latin American Cinema: Screening the People

This course explores how Latin American cinema, from the arrival of sound in the 1930s through 21st century production, has represented the people whose lives reflect the region’s widespread socioeconomic, demographic, and political realities such as working poverty, recent immigration to the region, internal migration, Indigeneity, and armed conflict, among others. We will study the various styles, modes, and genres through which cinema has produced a broad variety of representations of “the people” that range from lovable comedic figures to catalysts for indignation. Our exploration of film...

Storytelling in Latin America: An Introduction to the Latin American Short Story

This course focuses on the modern Latin American short story, highlighting the development of its literary and cultural traditions. We will explore the evolution of the short story in Latin America throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Our study will examine the various literary styles used by writers during this period and will analyze current trends among contemporary authors. We will delve into genre conventions, literary and theoretical movements, and the works of significant Latin American short story writers, including Horacio Quiroga, Juan Rulfo, Jorge Luis Borges, Elena...

Queering the Borders: Gender, Sexuality, and Migration in Latin American and Latinx Culture

This course focuses on the analysis of gender, sexuality, migration, and borders in Latin American and Latinx cultures. It serves as a survey course that introduces key issues and themes surrounding gender identities, sexuality, and borders, drawing on Gloria Anzaldúa's borderland theory. Her theory recognizes the experiences of immigrants, exiles, mixed-race individuals, queer communities, and those who cross traditional binary boundaries. In this context, gender and sexual diversity in borderland popular culture challenge heteronormativity and the rigid dualistic notions of sex and gender....

Unwritten Textualities: Indigenous Literatures and Beyond

This course will introduce students to various forms of Indigenous textualities and the connections between them. Often, Indigenous literatures are placed in binaries and in a western chronological timeline, from oral to written and from traditional to modern. Students will read poetry, oral stories, newspapers, zines, and textiles amongst other forms to expand understandings of Indigenous literatures. While themes will vary, they will include identity, history, and politics. Course will be taught in English and readings will be provided in English, Spanish, and various Indigenous languages...

Abya Yalan Literatures: Indigenous Knowledges and the Written Word

This course examines contemporary Indigenous literatures of Abya Yala (or Latin America) and its relationship to Indigenous autonomy. Students will explore poetry, novels, short stories, newspapers, and literary magazines published across the 20th century in Mexico and Guatemala, as well as questions of form, genre, themes, and authorship. Considering the inclusion of other forms of textualities in Indigenous Studies, this course will also explore the relationship between the written word and other Indigenous cultural productions. Themes explored include language, the nation, representation,...

The Acquisition of Spanish

Examination of the acquisition of Spanish in multilingual learning contexts (by second language learners, heritage bilinguals, and L3 learners). We focus on the acquisition of phonetics/phonology, morphosyntax, semantics, lexicon, and pragmatics, with particular emphasis on the role of context of acquisition (naturalistic, classroom, and study abroad). Taught in Spanish.Fulfills MA in Hispanic Linguistics requirement for acquisition. Also open to undergraduates who have had SPAN 303 and 305.M 1:00-3:50 pm; 217 Gregory Hall  CRN: 64871 (grads), 64870...

The Politics of Melodrama in Latin American and Latinx Cultures

This course explores the social and political history of melodrama in Latin American and Latinx cultures. We will discuss the role that melodrama has had within Latin American media following a long-term chronological approach that begins with nineteenth-century serialized novels (folletín) and ends with recent telenovelas from Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, and the United States. As a language of emotions and familiarity, Spanish-speaking melodrama has been a key tool to reflect on the most critical social and political issues, from mid-twentieth-century populisms to...

Race and Nation in Argentine Popular Culture

This course explores Argentine popular culture by focusing on the interplay between race and nation. We will follow a long-term chronological approach from the nineteenth century to the present, examining the formation of a plebeian culture from gauchesca poetry to sports icons like Diego Maradona, from early-twentieth-century tango recordings to contemporary cumbia villera. We will cover a broad spectrum of cultural production —literature, music, cinema, comics, and television— as well as other dimensions of popular culture such as soccer/fútbol. The course will delve...

Desired and Policed: Paradigms of Spanish Womanhood

This course examines ideologies of Spanish womanhood in Spanish culture (literature, essay, visual art) produced between 1800-1936. Special attention will be given to pressing issues in women’s lives, such as marriage and domesticity, motherhood, divorce, wage labor, femininity, and sexuality. Thus, we will examine the prototype of womanhood conceived by both men and women during the 19th and 20th centuries, including the construction of the “angel in the house,” the femme fatale, and the modern new woman. Prerequisite: SPAN 228 MWF 10:00-10:50 am; 217...

Print and Power in 19th-Century Latin America

This course examines the long nineteenth century in Latin America (1790–1910), focusing on the interplay between literature and politics. Delving into the turbulent processes that shaped modern Latin America, students will explore theoretical debates surrounding the creation of the new republics. Students will analyze print media—including pamphlets, newspapers, essays, popular poetry, foundational romances, and textbooks—to examine how these transformations redefined key concepts such as citizenship, gender roles, racial identities, and class structures. The course will cover both canonical...
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