This course is designed to provide a vehicle for instructors to address a topic with which they are especially concerned; usually more restricted than the subject matter of a regular lecture course. Topics will vary with instructor. See departmental announcements.

This course offers a geographic survey of spaces identified as belonging to both the core and margins of what Cuban scholar José Martí called “Nuestra América”. The course examines new ways of thinking about where the racial and ethnic geographies representative of Latin America begin and end. As such, we will critically consider the constitutive racial and ethnic identities that make up Latin America and the ways in which the geographic imaginary of this immensely diverse region can be understood through networks driven by diaspora and distinct socio-political movements. Throughout, we will examine the cultural and political boundaries that are created and crossed in what we broadly call the Americas. The course will draw from academic scholarship, literature and film in order to weave together critical voices from California, the Caribbean, Mesoamerica, the Andes and Amazon. Students will come away with a stronger knowledge of the region’s history and geography, as well as key debates on political, economic and cultural topics concerning Latin American peoples and intellectual movements.

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