Courses

This course will examine race and ethnic relations between Whites, Blacks, Latinos, and Asians in the United States. The goal of this course is for students to understand how the history of race and ethnicity in the U.S. affects opportunity structures in, for example, education, employment, housing, and health. Through this course students will gain a better understanding of how race and ethnicity stratifies the lives of individuals in the U.S.

Full details for LSP 1105 - Race and Ethnicity in the United States: Social Constructs, Real World Consequences

This course seeks a fuller recounting of U.S. history by remapping what we understand as "America." We will examine traditional themes in the teaching of U.S. history—territorial expansion and empire, migration and nation building, industrialization and labor, war and revolution, and citizenship and transnationalism—but we will examine this "American experience" in a broader hemispheric context and include as actors americanos of Spanish, Mexican, Caribbean, and Central/South American ancestries.

Full details for LSP 1802 - Introduction to Latinos in U.S. History

Designed to expand bilingual Heritage students' knowledge of Spanish by providing them with ample opportunities to develop and improve each of the basic language skills, with a particular focus on writing vocabulary. The heritage student has at least one parent of Hispanic origin and grew up speaking Spanish at home; s/he also finished high school here in the US. After this course, students may take SPAN 2095.

Full details for LSP 2020 - Spanish for Heritage Speakers

One in ten residents of the United States was born outside the country. These people include international students, temporary workers, refugees, asylees, permanent residents, naturalized U.S. citizens and undocumented migrants. The arrival of these newcomers affects the cultural, economic, political and social dynamics of the country. Since immigration shows no signs of slowing down—in the United States or in many other nations of the world—the causes, consequences and repercussions of immigration will be one of the most important topics of the 21- century. Therefore this class will examine the history and contemporary role of immigration in the U.S. political system. The class will focus on two aspects of immigration: First, a historical examination of immigration policy from the founding of the country all the way forward to the current debate over immigration reform. Second, we will evaluate and assess the political incorporation and political participation of immigrant groups in the U.S. and determine whether immigrants are being incorporated, and if not, why? We will reflect on many important questions including the costs and benefits of immigration, issues related to civil rights and civil liberties, and finally propose our own ideas and solutions to the current immigration reform debate.

Full details for LSP 2152 - (Im)migration and (Im)migrants: Then and Now

This course discusses the health status of minorities in the United States. Explores intra-group diversity such as migration, economic status, and the influence of culture and the environment on the health status, access to health care and utilization of health services. Special attention to Latino and other minority populations.

Full details for LSP 2200 - Sociology of Health and Ethnic Minorities

This introductory course to the study of the Caribbean will begin with examinations of what constitutes the Caribbean and an understanding of Caribbean space.  We will then study its peoples, contact between Europeans and indigenous peoples, African enslavement and resistance, Indian indentureship and other forced migrations.  By mid semester we will identify a cross-section of leading thinkers and ideas. We will also pay attention to issues of identity, migration and the creation of the Caribbean diaspora. Constructions of tourist paradise and other stereotypes and the development of critical Caribbean institutions and national development will be discussed as we read and listen to some representative oral and written literature of the Caribbean and view some relevant film on the Caribbean. This inter-disciplinary survey provides students with a foundation for more specialized coursework on the Caribbean offered in our department.

Full details for LSP 2212 - Caribbean Worlds

Designed for the general student population, this course appeals to students who intend to work with diverse communities (for example, students with interests in medicine, law, labor, government, business, the hospitality industry, or in the fields of gender, queer, or ethnic studies), or who are from diverse backgrounds and are now navigating the university. Serving as an introduction to the critical inquiries and scholarly fields of the English department, the course uses literature, visual, digital, and popular culture, alongside literary, social, and cultural theory to consider how people from different cultures encounter and experience each other. In light of changing national and global contexts of pandemic, environmental and climate change, trade and civil wars, and growing interracial and interethnic tensions, the course examines histories of racial representations, dating to the colonial era that resonates in twenty-first century depictions of race, class, gender, and other markers of "difference".

Full details for LSP 2770 - Representing Racial Encounters, Encountering Racial Representations

In this course, we will critically examine the production and performance of race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender through literature and contemporary performance genres such as spoken word, slam poetry, and hip-hop theatre.

Full details for LSP 3754 - Spoken Word, Hip-Hop Theater, and the Politics of Performance

The Latinx experience in the United States is, too often, predominantly shaped by law, state power, and police action. Drawing from a theoretical and methodological toolkit developed within the anthropology of law, this course considers how a spurious condition of illegality and the constitution of Latinxs as a population presumably in need, as  scholars Flores and Yúdice argued in a seminal 1990 article, have shaped individual and collective life among them and their communities. Although immigration is salient among the issues we will examine, it will not be the only one and we will stress how it articulates with multiple sociocultural and legal domains to suffuse and inform a variety of processes.

Full details for LSP 3762 - Law, Latinxs, Illegality

Interested in Latino Studies and Latin American Studies? This course will explore topics in Anthropology, Art, Economics, History, Literature, Government, Sociology, etc., of US Latino and Latin American contexts. Course features guest speakers from Cornell and other institutions.

Full details for LSP 4000 - Contemporary Issues in Latin - Latino America

Guided independent study.

Full details for LSP 4210 - Undergraduate Independent Study

Interested in Latino Studies and Latin American Studies? This course will explore topics in Anthropology, Art, Economics, History, Literature, Government, Sociology, etc., of US Latino and Latin American contexts. Course features guest speakers from Cornell and other institutions.

Full details for LSP 6000 - Contemporary Issues in Latin-Latino America

This course introduces graduate students to a broad selection of works in the field of Latinx History.  The seminar has several goals: (1) to provide a broad overview of important works in the field (2) introduce students to recent scholarly works that might help students prepare for candidacy exams and doctoral research; (3) expose students to different historical questions, methodologies, and approaches to historical writing; (4) provide an opportunity for graduate students to either write a bibliographic essay or research and write an article length essay of original scholarship; and (5) prepare students to teach Latinx history or draw on this history for courses in other disciplines.

Full details for LSP 6052 - Readings in Latinx History

Guided independent study.

Full details for LSP 6210 - Graduate Student Independent Study

What are minoritarian aesthetics? How do these inform the production and reception of performance, broadly defined? How does attending to the aesthetics involved in the production of artistic and cultural productions open up new ways of critically understanding the world around us? In seeking to answer these questions, and others, this seminar will introduce graduate students to theories and critiques that attend to the aesthetic dimensions of visual culture, scripted staged performances, performance art, and contemporary media created by Black, queer, Asian, Caribbean, and Latinx/Latin people. Drawing on the work of theorists Fred Moten, José Esteban Muñoz, Leticia Alvarado, and Sandra Ruiz amongst others, students will interrogate the dialectical relationship between the artist's subject position and their resultant creative and critical work.

Full details for LSP 6611 - Minoritarian Aesthetics In/And Performance

The Latinx experience in the United States is, too often, predominantly shaped by law, state power, and police action. Drawing from a theoretical and methodological toolkit developed within the anthropology of law, this course considers how a spurious condition of illegality and the constitution of Latinxs as a population presumably in need, as  scholars Flores and Yúdice argued in a seminal 1990 article, have shaped individual and collective life among them and their communities. Although immigration is salient among the issues we will examine, it will not be the only one and we will stress how it articulates with multiple sociocultural and legal domains to suffuse and inform a variety of processes.

Full details for LSP 6762 - Law, Latinxs, Illegality