College Of Arts and Sciences | Ethnicity, Race, and Identity in Latin America
S104 | 0120 | Guardino, P.

How did race and ethnicity become among the most important dimensions
of identity in Latin America?  How have racial and ethnic boundaries
been perceived and enforced by European Americans, African Americans,
and Native Americans?  How have ideas about race and ethnicity
changed over time?  How have visions of race and ethnicity been used
to construct national identities in Latin America? Why and how have
racial and ethnic identities resurged in Latin American politics and
art in recent years?
This course is designed to introduce students to the kinds of
questions historians pose about identities and boundaries.  We will
use a variety of materials to explore race and ethnicity over time.
Students will be exposed to different kinds of information about
race, including both written and visual primary sources from the
past, historical writing based on such evidence, contemporary
cinematic depictions of race and ethnicity in both the past and the
present, and contemporary art and literature.  They will be asked to
think critically about all of these materials and produce arguments
in both written and verbal forms.