ANTHROPOLOGY
217 Race and Ethnicity Cross-Cultural Perspectives
An introduction to the main theories that attempt to explain race and ethnicity,
including the notion that both are social and not biological entities.
Case studies from around the New World that reflect the ways different
socioeconomic, political, and historical structuring contexts encourage
varying forms of racial and ethnic identification. Application of the principles
derived from this study to understanding racial and ethnic interaction
and tensions in the contemporary United States. Prerequisite: Anthropology
112. Four credit hours.
231 Caribbean Society and Culture An examination
of the historical and contemporary development of the Caribbean; careful
consideration to the racial and ethnic composition of its people. Issues
such as family, class, color, gender, politics, and economic underdevelopment
provide an understanding of the problems presently facing the region. Also
listed as African-American Studies 231. Prerequisite: Anthropology 112.
Four credit hours.
235 Latin American Culture and Society
An examination of the culture and political economy of rural Latin American
societies, assessing the extent to which a historical approach that focuses
on systems of values and institutions promoting social integration best
explains these societies. Prerequisite: Anthropology 112. Four credit hours.
254 Women of the African Diaspora The ways in which
race, class, and gender have structured the lives of women of the African
Diaspora. Case studies from Brazil, the United States, and the Caribbean
are examined to learn how these factors shaped the political, economic,
and social positions of the women in their respective societies. Also listed
as African-American Studies 254. Prerequisite: Anthropology 112.
Four credit hours.
ECONOMICS
214 Economic Policy and Performance in Contemporary Latin America
Analysis of macroeconomic stabilization policies and microeconomic issues
such as regional trade, agriculture, the transnational narcotics industry,
the environment, and labor markets in contemporary Latin America. Prerequisite:
Economics 133 and 134. Four credit hours.
GOVERNMENT
253 Latin American Politics
An introduction to major political institutions, actors, and processes
in the region as well as some key concepts and controversies affecting
discussions of Latin America today. Specifically, an effort to find answers
to the following questions: 1) What are the sources of political instability
in Latin America? 2) What are the basic patterns of state-society interaction
in the region? 3) Is it possible to "make democracy work" in Latin America?
Prerequisite: Government 151. Four credit hours.
254 Latin American Politics in Film
The study of Latin American politics approached from a fresh and creative
perspective. An introduction to major political topics in Latin America
through the interrelated analysis of feature films and readings. Films
are in English or Spanish/Portuguese with subtitles. Topics include human
rights, social movements, discrimination, and political violence. Three
credit hours.
335 United States-Latin American Relations
The evolving relationship between Latin America and the United States from
the 1790s to the present. Analysis will focus on the continuities and changes
in U.S. policy toward Latin America as well as Latin American perceptions
and policies towards the United States; special attention to U.S. policy
in Central America during the Cold War. Post-Cold War issues such as hemispheric
economic integration, drug trafficking, and immigration. Prerequisite:
Government 151 or 253. Four credit hours.
450 Seminar: Democratization in Latin America
Understanding key problems such as the transition from authoritarianism
to democracy, the role of various actors in this process, and the challenges
for the consolidation of democracy. A theoretical analysis of these issues
will be combined with an in-depth study of specific cases to understand
how democracy re-emerged and how it works in Latin America. Prerequisite:
Government 151 or 253. Four credit hours.
HISTORY
173 History of Latin America Latin America's search
for political stability and economic development from the origins of the
indigenous American civilizations to the present. Major themes include
the Aztec and Inca imperial conquests of the 14th century; Spanish and
Portuguese colonization; the Bourbon and Pombaline rationalization of the
18th century; the Independence Wars and national civil wars of the 19th
century; and right- and left-wing dictatorships. Four credit hours.
272 History of Law, Society, and Rebellion in Mexico
To look beyond the clichéd image of the Mexican bandit, this
class considers the complex economic, social, and political problems behind
ruptures in the legal order from Aztec times to the present. By focusing
on revolts, the social origins and political construction of crime, and
state regulation of popular culture, it both traces the outlines of the
history of Mexico and considers how notions of legality vary across time
and cultures. Four credit hours.
273 History of Women, Gender, and Family in Latin America
To consider how women's status in Latin America has and has not changed
since the Conquest, we will examine the historical evolution of such key
factors as family and regional notions of masculinity and femininity,
as well as the impact of political revolutions and economic modernization
on women. Texts used include social histories as well as a novel
and a film. Four credit hours.
275 Strongmen and Populism in Modern Spain and Latin America
For most of the twentieth century, Latin America and Spain have been in
the shadow of a series of caudillos or strongmen. Many have
used populism to try to stabilize and legitimize their rule. We will
seek to understand the historical circumstances explaining Trujilloís
enduring dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, Brazilian Gertulio Vargas's
Estado Novo, the role of Emiliano Zapata and other charismatic warlords
in the Mexican Revolution, and the counterrevolution of Francisco Franco
that plunged Spain into civil war. This class adopts a cross-disciplinary
approach, including films and a novel, and considers social and cultural
explanations as well as political, diplomatic and military aspects of caudillismo
and populism. Four credit hours.
277 History of the Maya from 200 B.C.
A multidisciplinary survey (archaeology, anthropology, sociology, literature,
and history) of the trajectory of the Mayan peoples from the writing of
the first known Maya glyphs (c. 200 B.C.) to the current conflicts in Chiapas
and Guatemala. Four credit hours.
LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
171 Introduction to Latin American Studies
An intensive, cross-disciplinary introduction to Latin American society
and culture. Elite and popular search for identity through writings and
art (music, painting, murals.) Institutions and structures found across
Latin America such as frontiers, the landed estate, urban shantytown, religious
syncretism. Four credit hours.
298A Cinema and Identity in Latin America
Questions of identity--national, personal, political--as they are played
out in film making in Latin America over the twentieth century through
an overview of film industries throughout the continent and focusing on
recent trends in Mexico and Argentina. Part 1- film production in Mexico
since 1988 (the start of the Salinas sexenio), considering issues as diverse
as the changing role of women, the challenge to hegemonic discourses of
power and narrative, and the perennial presence of the border between Mexico
and the US. Part 2 begins with the end of the guerra sucia in Argentina,
and examines attempts by film-makers during this period to re-imagine and
cinematically re-assess the events of the dictatorship. Four credit hours.
298B Third World Feminisms
An examination of debates surrounding feminism and the Third World, including
the tensions inherent in the relationship between First and Third World
feminists, including an overview of general debates on the issue with focus
on three principal areas. First, the problematic relationship between Latin
American women and the perceived notion of feminism as a middle class Western
construct; second, writing by and about Muslim Women, concentrating on
recent scholarship on Afghanistan and current debates about Islam and the
West; finally, writing by minorities living in the First World--Latina
women in the US and Asian women in the UK. The final section will explore
cultural, political and economic issues regarding the Third/First World
phenomenon with particular attention to questions of language, identity,
and power. Four credit hours.
483f, 484js Senior Honors Thesis
A year-long research project for senior majors, resulting in a written
thesis to be publicly presented and defended. Students may register either
for two credits in the fall, January, and spring terms or for three credits
in the fall and spring terms. Prerequisite: a 3.3 or higher major average
at the end of the junior year and permission of the Latin American Studies
Advisory Committee. Two or three credit hours.
491f, 492s Independent Study
An independent study project devoted to a topic chosen by the student with
the approval of an advisor. Only independent studies taken with a Colby
faculty member and approved by the director of the Latin American Studies
Program may count toward fulfilling major requirements. One to four credit
hours.
SPANISH
231 Advanced Spanish A
review of Spanish grammar at the advanced level. Prerequisite: Spanish
131. Four credit hours.
273 Contemporary Spanish-American Short Story A study
of the contemporary Spanish-American short story through close readings
of representative texts by authors such as Reinaldo Arenas, Jorge Luis
Borges, Julio Cortázar, José Donoso, Rosario Ferré,
Gabriel García Márquez, Juan Rulfo, and Ana Lydia Vega.
Four credit hours.
276 U.S. Latina/Chicana Women Writers An examination
of a selection of novels, short stories, poetry, theater, and non-fiction
by United States Latina and Chicana women writers. Interdisciplinary
in approach, the course will focus on the relationship beween the texts
read and several important issues. Topics include feminism, the social
and cultural construction of race and ethnicity, immigration, cultural
nationalism, and identity formation. Readings are in English.
Four credit hours.
298 Indigenismo An examination of race, class, and gender in Latin American literature. Through close readings of selected 19th- and 20th- century novels in their socio-historical contexts, an analysis of the construction of the "Indian" and "creole" in cultural productions, focusing on theoretical issues of transculturation, hybridity, and subalternity and their roles in the formation of Latin American national communities. Prerequisite: Spanish 135. Four credit hours.
371 The Colonial Experience: European and Amerindian
Responses to the Cultural Encounter An exploration
of texts and iconography produced to report, understand, legislate, and
record the various dimensions of the cultural encounter during the 16th
and 17th centuries. The course emphasizes the efforts by both Europeans
and Amerindians to control the memory of events and to position themselves
in colonial society. Requires close reading of representative primary documents
from all parts of the colonial Spanish World. Formerly listed as Spanish
397. Four credit hours.
493A Seminar: Postmodernism in Latin America An exploration of the concept of postmodernism and the debates surrounding it in Latin America. Through a variety of cultural products (literature, film, television, fashion, advertising, music, folklore, performing arts) an analysis of its diverse manifestations and representations throughout the region, its influences, contradictions, and implications for Latin American identities, cultures, and societies. Prerequisite: Spanish 135. Four credit hours.
493B Seminar: Sexual Dissidence in Cuba A study of the textual production of same-sex sexual subjectivities in post-1959 Cuba in the context of the government's official attitude toward homosexuality, which has developed from the oppressive policies of the 1960s and the 1970s to the somewhat less intolerant views of the 1990s. While focused on same-sex sexualities in Cuba, the seminar will provide a framework for discussing literary, cultural, and political dimensions of sex, gender, sexuality, desire, identity, and community. Materials include texts, documentaries, and feature films. Four credit hours.
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