Afterlives of Violence: Race, Gender, & Colonization in LatinX Studies

EMR 182 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

The communities of Latin American and Caribbean origin that make up the LatinX category are undeniably diverse. They are in fact so diverse that the category of LatinX is constantly thrown into crisis by questions of who is included and who is excluded. The  diversity of communities comprising this pan-ethnic category mirrors the complicated history of race within Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America.
 

In this advanced course, we will build the conceptual and theoretical frameworks for understanding Latinx life at the intersections of race, gender, and colonialism. We will   become critical observers of and advocates against racial and gender inequalities within  LatinX communities by learning about the histories of race, gender, and colonialism in the Americas. 

The course begins by understanding how European colonization of the Americas created racial and gender regimes to exert domination over the original inhabitants of the Americas and the enslaved Africans transported via the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The course proceeds by exploring the work of scholars such as Saidiya Hartman and Diana Taylor to better grasp the consequences of the colonial encounters upon which European modernity and contemporary globalization are built. The course will then explore how race and gender were further shaped by the operations of U.S. empire in the 20th century, including the creation of borders, annexation, and neoliberal displacement. The course will conclude by examining how scholars use ethnography and literature to articulate politics of resistance and to continuously experiment with unruly expressions of LatinX culture.

The course is necessarily interdisciplinary, drawing from Black diasporic Studies, queer studies, Afro-Latinx studies, ethnography, archival methods, and literature. However, the course remains tied to learning critical theory in relation to grounded engagements that always center the diverse Latinx lives at the heart of this field of study. Students will  learn critical skills for understanding theory, developing their own original claims, and articulating a well-defined argument of the field of Latinx studies.