Program in Latino Studies

Faculty

Director

  • Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús

Associated Faculty

  • Jeremy I. Adelman, History
  • Aisha M. Beliso-De Jesús, American Studies
  • Vera S. Candiani, History
  • Miguel A. Centeno, Sociology
  • Patricia Fernández-Kelly, Sociology
  • Rubén Gallo, Spanish & Portuguese
  • Brian E. Herrera, Lewis Center for the Arts
  • Amaney A. Jamal, Politics
  • Christina H. Lee, Spanish & Portuguese
  • Christina León, English
  • Rosina A. Lozano, History
  • Douglas S. Massey, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
  • Dan-El Padilla Peralta, Classics
  • Ali A. Valenzuela, Politics
  • Deborah J. Yashar, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs
For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.

Program Information

The Program in Latino Studies, administered by the Program in American Studies, offers an interdisciplinary curriculum that traverses the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The program is designed to provide students with a broad understanding of the emergence, transformation, and consolidation of Latino/a/x as a pan-ethnic group central to the development of the United States as a nation. The course of study also highlights the transnational connections and contexts of Latino/a/x peoples across the Americas, including dynamics of globalization, migration, colonialism, imperialism, citizenship, and diaspora.

In addition, the Program in Latino Studies’ structure facilitates productive engagement with the fields of American studies and Asian American studies and encourages comparative and intersectional work with the Department of African American Studies, the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies and other relevant fields of study that help to contextualize Latino/a/x histories and cultures within the diversity of American experience.

Admission to the Program

Students from all departments are welcome to the program. Students may enroll in the Latino studies certificate program at any time, including the first year. There are no prerequisites, and courses taken prior to enrollment may count towards the certificate requirements. Students may take AMS 101 at any time during their studies, including after enrollment in the certificate program. To enroll in the program, students should complete the online enrollment form.  New students should plan to meet with the associate director or undergraduate administrator of the Program in American Studies before the end of their first year of enrollment, to review their plans for fulfilling the certificate requirements.

Program of Study

Students may earn a certificate in Latino Studies by successfully completing the following requirements, consisting of five courses:

  1. AMS 101, America Then and Now
  2. Three courses in Latino studies, either originating in the program or cross-listed and preferably representing disciplinary breadth in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. No more than one course taken in fulfillment of the student’s concentration may be counted toward the certificate. With the approval of the associate director, a student may substitute a comparative race and ethnicity course that contains substantial Latino studies content for one of these courses.
  3. An advanced seminar in American studies, preferably taken in the senior year.

Certificate of Proficiency

Students who fulfill all program requirements will receive a certificate of proficiency in Latino studies upon graduation.

Courses

LAO 200 Latinos in American Life and Culture (also
SOC 341
/
LAS 336
) Not offered this year SA

This required gateway course will consider how Latinos are transforming the United States even as they embrace a racialized pan-ethnic identity. Readings expose students to the demographic underpinnings of the dramatic growth and historically unprecedented geographic dispersal, the ethical dilemmas posed by undocumented immigration, the historical and contemporary trends in social, economic, and political participation, and the hybrid cultural imprints forged in musical, literary, and artistic work. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Instructed by: Staff

LAO 201 Introduction to Latino/a/x Studies Spring SA

This is an introductory survey of critical topics, themes, and approaches to the interdisciplinary field of Latin@x Studies. Drawing from anthropology, sociology, history, literature, critical race studies, gender and sexuality studies, this course will analyze the role and position of Latin@x in the United States alongside the policies and practices of the US in the Caribbean and Latin America. The course will explore questions of citizenship, immigration, imperialism, settler/colonialism, border crossing/borderlands, mass incarceration, policing, globalization, and other emerging formations of latinidad from a transnational perspective. Instructed by: A. Beliso-De Jesús

LAO 210 Urban Sociology: The City and Social Change in the Americas (See SOC 210)

LAO 218 Latinx Autobiography (also
ENG 258
/
AMS 218
) Fall CDLA

This course begins from the disjoint and relation between the narrated autobiography and the lived life. In reading works by authors including Myriam Gurba, Wendy C. Ortiz, Carmen Maria Machado, Richard Rodriguez, and Junot Diaz, we will explore not only how writers experiment with the project of narrating a life that contends with the structures and strictures of racial matrices, gender binaries, and traumatic abuse - but also how writers test the boundaries of what autobiographies more generally are and are for. Instructed by: M. Huerta

LAO 219 Translating America (See ENG 219)

LAO 222 Introduction to Latin American Cultures (See SPA 222)

LAO 232 Documentary Film and the City (See URB 202)

LAO 239 Rap, Graffiti and Urban Cultures in the Hispanic Worlds (See SPA 239)

LAO 278 Histories and Themes in Mexican Religion (See REL 278)

LAO 304 Spanish in the Community (See SPA 304)

LAO 306 Becoming Latino in the U.S. (See HIS 306)

LAO 321 Latinx Musicals on Stage and Screen (See MTD 333)

LAO 322 Afro-Diasporic Dialogues: Black Activism in Latin America and the United States (See AAS 322)

LAO 323 The Politics of Hip-Hop Dance (See DAN 323)

LAO 327 Latino Global Cities (See SPA 327)

LAO 328 Immigration, Race, and the Black Population of the United States (See SOC 327)

LAO 329 Immigrant America (See SOC 329)

LAO 333 Latino Politics in the U.S. (See POL 333)

LAO 334 Immigration Politics and Policymaking in the U.S. (also
POL 334
/
SOC 321
) Spring SA

Founded and built by immigrants, the U.S. has a complicated relationship with newcomers. How have politics shaped U.S. immigration policy and with what effects on the character of inflows and American identity? Are changing demographics tied to exclusionary attitudes and public views about immigration policy? Do Hispanic attitudes conform to nativist fears? What role do norms, culture and economics play in public attitudes about immigrants? Do members of Congress follow their constituents' preferences when voting on immigration policy? This class will tackle these and related questions about immigration politics and policymaking in the U.S. Instructed by: A. Valenzuela

LAO 353 21st Century Latinx Drama (See THR 353)

LAO 372 Drag Kings: An Archeology of Spectacular Masculinities in Latinx America (See SPA 372)

LAO 385 Theater and Society Now (See THR 385)

LAO 387 Puerto Ricans Under U.S. Empire: Memory, Diaspora, and Resistance (See SPA 387)

LAO 389 Poisonous Flowers: Radical Women in Latin America (See SPA 329)

LAO 401 Latin American Studies Seminar (See LAS 401)

LAO 404 Advanced Seminar in American Studies (See AMS 404)

LAO 465 Latino Urban History (See HIS 465)

LAO 484 Borderlands, Border Lives (See HIS 484)