Fall 2024 Course Flyers

MAS 301

introduction to mexican american and latina/o studies

MWF 10-11 am #39205

UTC 3.112

Rachel Gonzalez-Martin

In this introductory course, students study the field of Mexican American and Latinx/e Studies as an interdisciplinary and intersectional arena of academic inquiry, which centers on challenging and dismantling the inherent inequalities and multiple oppressions foundational to the making of the United States through the eyes of the diverse Latinx/e experiences. We survey the historical, political, socioeconomic, and cultural fabric, which shapes this heterogenous populace and examine the formation of “Latinx/e” communities as multiracial ethnic populations in the United States. We explore the multifaceted histories of colonialism in the Americas and U.S. imperialism through an investigation of transnational, transborder contexts Last, students use qualitative intersectional approach to unravel how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, language, migration, indigeneity, and citizenship are integral to the multiplicity identities of the U.S. Latinx/e diaspora.

MAS 301

introduction to mexican american and latina/o studies

TTH 2-3:30 pm

#39200

BUR 130

Danielle Clealand

This course provides a foundation for understanding the histories, experiences, politics and identities of Latino/a/xs in the United States. We will examine the history of migration and theoretical interventions that have shaped Mexican American and Latina/o Studies as an academic discipline. We will also strengthen students’ awareness and appreciation for the diversity of the Latinx experience. This course will cover topics such as politics, representation, immigration, inequality, language, race, gender, policing and criminal justice.

MAS 311

ethnicity & gender: La Chicana

TTH 11-12:30 pm #39215 BUR 216 Lilia Rosas

Among the many catalysts that centralized the narratives of Chicanas into the discourse the U.S. Southwest/Mexican Borderlands, the 1971 La Conferencia de Mujeres por la Raza in Houston inspired how Chicanas/Xicanas, xicanindias, mestizas, indigenous, Mexican American, and brown women defined themselves, asserted their roles and identities, and shared their stories. This course privileges the stories, struggles, contestations, imaginations, writings, and accomplishments of Chicanas in the United States in the mid-twentieth and early twentieth-first centuries. Through a close examination of literature, and attention to historical and theoretical materials, we will create a growing understanding of the significance of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, language, spirituality, and citizenship in affecting the daily lives and social worlds of Chicanas. By end of the semester, we will also gain a complex insight into the importance of how Chicana feminism, Xicanisma, intersectionality, migration, borders, and community are formative in the Chicana experience(s).

MAS 315

latina performance: celia-selena

TTH 11-12:30 pm

#39225

UTC 4.124 Laura Gutierrez

While this course’s title suggest that the span of the class material covered will begin with a visual cultural analysis of Celia Cruz, the Queen of Salsa, and will end with Selena, the Queen of Tejano, these two figures only conceptually bookend the ideas that will be explored during the semester. This class will begin by sampling several performances of Latinas in popular cultural texts to lay the ground for the analytical and conceptual frameworks that we will be exploring during the course. The class also asks the following: how can we reconcile that the notion of Queen, as signaled by these two figures, or the notion of Diva, used to signal a performance of beauty and virtuosity that merits adoration, with the idea that in this society Latinas are often devalued in a myriad of ways? By combining methods from Latinx Studies and Performance Studies, where embodied practices and representations of race and ethnicity are conjoined in our analysis, we will have a wider understanding of Latinas in popular culture in the United States beginning in the early 20th Century. To that end, this class will examine figures in U.S. 20th and 21st centuries popular culture who have enriched the music and film industries yet have been exoticized, discriminated, and marginalized. By being attendant to the conventions that have manufactured certain representations—that is, learning to analyze performance texts in popular culture—the students will come to understand not only questions of gender and race and ethnicity as important analytics but will also become conversant in the theories and practices of performance. Some of the figures that we will study include Carmen Miranda, Lupe Vélez, Dolores del Río, María Montez, Rita Moreno, Celia Cruz, La Lupe, La India, Jennifer López, Selena, Shakira, Cardi B.

MAS 319 fighting for latino power

TTH 12:30-2 pm #39235 GEA 114 Angie Gutierrez

In this course, students will learn about issues that affect Latino political representation in the U.S. today. This course will be divided into three aspects that are critical to U.S. political power. Starting with the U.S. census, we will discuss the political implications of being counted. Why does the census matter, and what does it mean for Latino communities? We will explore ethnic and racial classification on the census and how this impacts how minorities are represented in the United States. We will then transition to voting rights and learn about rights Latino voters have and how these voting rights have been protected through the courts. We will discuss past voting rights cases in addition to present and future threats to Latino voting rights. Finally, we will conclude by examining Latino political representation in elected offices through both campaign outreach and descriptive representation.

MAS 319 North American Borderlands

This course examines the formation of political borders in nineteenth- and twentieth-century North America, their contestation, and the multiple meanings attached to them. Discussion topics include borderlands historiography, the physical demarcation of boundary lines, borderlands identity formation, economic land-use, the nonhuman world, and policing and empire.

MAS 337c Chicana Feminisms

MW 11:30-1 pm

#39260

This course tracks the rise and development of Chicana feminist consciousness in the 1960s and 1970s across the Southwest United States. Drawing on both contemporary scholarship and primary source material from the Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective, students will learn about the individuals, organizations, theories, and aesthetic practices that shaped Chicana feminism in its early years and contributed to the development of an intersectional analytic that was later elaborated and expanded on by writers like Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherrie Moraga, Norma Alarcón, Chela Sandoval, and many others. A central theme of this course is how Chicanas developed consciousness through alternative newspapers and journals, film, photography, poetry and art that challenged not only racist and sexist stereotypes but also the male-centered ethos of the Chicano movement. Students will emerge from this course with a strong foundation in the history of Chicana feminist thought in the 1970s, an understanding of how Chicana feminism has contributed to contemporary theories of intersectionality, and an appreciation for how Chicanas raised consciousness and developed their ideas through newspapers and other types of publications.

MAS 364E Policing Latinidad

TTH 3:30-5 pm

#39275

GEA 127 Michael Hames

García

How does the criminal justice system make itself felt in the everyday lives of Latinxs? From border enforcement, to stop and frisk, to the phenomenon of mass incarceration, many Latinxs find themselves and their communities enmeshed within a dense web of surveillance, punishment, and detention. This interdisciplinary course will examine the historical, political, economic, and social factors that have, in many ways, criminalized Latinidad and/or rendered Latinidad illegal.

We will examine how race, class, education, gender, sexuality, and citizenship shape the American legal system and impact how Latinxs navigate that system. This course will pay special attention to the troubled and unequal relationship between Latinxs and the criminal justice apparatus in the United States and how it has resulted in the formation of resistant political identities and activist practices.

MAS 364r

Race Politics and Caribbeans

TTH 11-12:30 pm #39295

WCP 5.102 Danielle Clealand

Race, Politics and Caribbeans is a course dedicated to the study of racism, race and racial politics among Spanish-speaking Caribbeans both on the islands (Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico) and in the United States. We will discuss racial politics in the three countries and compare notions of identity, experiences with racism and anti-racist protest with the United States. Topics such as black social movements, race and the Cuban Revolution, migration, racial conflict in the Dominican Republic and Haitians, silence around racism, government policies, political attitudes, race and party affiliation, Black Lives Matter and experiences with racism among Black Caribbeans will all be covered in this course. We will follow these topics and debate how racial politics migrate from the Caribbean to the United States. Finally, we will talk about how Caribbean Latinos in the U.S. compare to other Latino groups as well as Black Americans and Black immigrant groups with regard to allyship, inequality and socioeconomic position.

MAS 374

Latinx Masculinities

TTH 2-3:30 pm #39324

RLP 1.108 Sergio Barrera

Mexican American and Latino men have been called machistas, patriarchs, emotionless, and narcos among other things; but are they capable of more? In this course, we will explore the history of U.S. Latinx masculinities and intergenerational Latin American masculinities to understand the academic, social, cultural, and political rhetoric that has influenced how the media, government, and communities have depicted Latinx men and their masculinities. We will begin by understanding Latinx men under the context of 19th and 20th century displacement, (im)migration, war, and terrorism, alongside anthropological and sociological texts about Mexican American/Latino families and men that have haunted Latinx masculinities in present day. We will then work through how Latinx communities, and Latinx people have actively protested heteropatriarchal values, behaviors, and representations linked to Latinx masculinities and Latinx men. In this course we will closely look at the influences of family, religion, politics, (im)migration, language, citizenship, race, gender, sexuality, class, and education in order to analyze intersectionality, power, privilege, performance, and resistance.

MAS 374

Rhetorics of Ethnic Studies

MW 2:30-4 pm

#39330

GWB 1.130 Karma Chávez

Ethnic Studies programs have been a part of colleges and universities for more than 50 years. Moreover, over the past two decades an increased number of K-12 schools have offered courses in ethnic studies. At the same time, the teaching of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality has been a perennial target of conservative think tanks, student groups, and elected officials. This course will supply a limited examination of histories of ethnic (and gender) studies in both higher education and to a lesser extent, K-12 institutions and the rhetoric of attacks on, and defenses of, ethnic and gender studies presently and throughout the late 20th Century through engaging with a mix of primary and secondary source materials.

The course will consider questions including: why are ethnic and gender studies considered threatening? On what bases have such programs been attacked? What kinds of arguments are used in attacks on these programs? How have their proponents defended such programs? Ultimately, one key question the class will consider is whether rhetoric as the practice of argumentation and persuasion has any meaningful role in the so-called "debates" about ethnic and gender studies? If so, what is rhetoric's role? And if not, what does that mean for the state of democratic life in the United States?

MAS 374

Central Americans in the U.S.

TTH 9:30-11 am #39335 GAR 3.116 Wanda Hernandez

Central Americans in the United States form a significant and rapidly growing demographic within the nation’s immigrant and ethnic population. Their presence in contemporary American political discourse often goes unnoticed. This course examines the historical and governing factors shaping the experiences and identities of U.S. Central Americans. We will explore the lives, cultures, and experiences of Central Americans residing in the U.S., with our focus encompassing the intricate dynamics of Central American migration, shedding light on both historical and current migration patterns. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, we will investigate themes such as transnational politics, identity politics, nation-state formation, and the politics of Black and Indigenous communities through the lens of Diaspora Studies, Transnational Studies, and Performance Studies. By the end of the course, students will develop a nuanced understanding of the Central American experience in the United States and will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to engage with Central American histories, cultures, and contemporary issues of Central Americans from a diasporic and transnational perspective.

MAS 374

Black and Indigenous Feminisms

MWF 10-11 am #39340 BIO 301 Nicole Ramsey

Black and Indigenous Feminisms in the Americas offer a compelling exploration of the intricate interplay between race, gender, and culture in the Americas. This course delves into the multifaceted experiences of Black and Indigenous women, both historically and in contemporary settings. Students will actively participate in in-depth dialogues, conduct critical analysis of text, and analyze the activism, literature, art, and social movements led by notable figures such as Rigoberta Menchu, Berta Carceras, Epsy Campbell, Miriam Miranda, Francia Marquez, and more. Through this exploration, we will highlight their significant roles in reshaping the complex landscapes of gender equality, racial and environmental justice, and decolonization. By critically examining these voices and narratives, students will cultivate a deeper understanding of the ongoing struggles, resilience, and empowerment within these communities. This course offers a platform for fostering inclusive dialogue and promoting social change.

MAS 392 North American Borderlands

TH 2-5 pm #39375 PAR 305 C J Alvarez

This course is designed to provide graduate students an introduction to borderlands history and historiography in North America. We will begin by examining the development of the field and then move on to read some of the most influential examples of borderlands history in recent years. Under the broad umbrella of “borderlands” we will explore more specific topics related to indigenous history, history of slavery/labor history, police/legal history, gender history, and environmental history. In addition to our weekly discussion of these texts, I will supplement our conversation with ongoing guidance about spatial analysis and approaches to place-based research and writing. And finally, using my own work as an example, I will try to demystify as much as possible the process and experience of academic publishing.

MAS 395m interpretive methods

T 2-5 pm

#39380

GWB 1.130 Julie Minich

This course offers graduate students the opportunity to explore and examine different methodological approaches in the interdisciplinary field of Latinx Studies, with an emphasis on modes of inquiry in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Methodological explorations may include case studies, archives, oral histories, ethnographies, and cultural analysis.

MAS 398t

Supervised Teaching in Mexican American & Latina/o Studies

W 2-5 pm

#39400

GWB 1.138 Lilia Rosas

This course offers graduate students the opportunity to explore and examine different methodological approaches in the interdisciplinary field of Latinx Studies, with an emphasis on modes of inquiry in the humanities and interpretive social sciences. Methodological explorations may include case studies, archives, oral histories, ethnographies, and cultural analysis.