TENTATIVE COURSE OFFERINGS (THIS LIST SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
Spanish for Heritage Speakers I – LSP 1250 (also SPAN 1250). This low-intermediate course expands Heritage students' confidence and competence in Spanish by providing opportunities to build upon the conversational skills they have. Through literary texts, other readings, music, films and the visual arts students broaden their vocabulary, improve grammatical accuracy, develop writing skills and enrich their understanding of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. The heritage student grew up speaking Spanish and finished high school in the U.S. After this course student may take SPAN 2000, SPAN 2070, or SPAN 2090. Instructor: Mary K. Redmond. MWF 10:10 - 11:00. 3 credits. (This course fulfills an elective option for the LSP undergraduate minor).
Spanish for Heritage Speakers - LSP 2020 (also SPAN 2000). A course designed to expand bilingual student's knowledge of Spanish providing them with ample opportunities to develop and improve each of the basic language skills. Prerequisite: LPS score 56 or higher, SAT II 590 or higher, CASE placement, or permission of instructor. Instructor: Mary K. Redmond. Two sections: MWF 11:15 – 12:05 and 12:20 – 1:10. 3 credits. (This course fulfills an elective option for the LSP undergraduate minor).
Introduction to Latino/a/x Politics – LSP 2031 (also GOVT 2031). This course offers an introduction to Latina/o/x politics in the United States. We examine the political experiences, participation, and representation of Latino/a/x communities, with attention to identity, leadership, media, social movements, and policy preferences. The course emphasizes the historical, cultural, and demographic factors that shape political engagement and influence. Students gain foundational tools for understanding Latino/a/x within the broader U.S. political system. Instructor: Kennia Coronado. TR 11:40 – 12:55. 3 credits. (This course fulfills social science distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor).
U.S. Immigration Narratives – LSP 2251 (also HIST 2251). Americans are conflicted about immigration. We honor and celebrate (and commercialize) our immigrant heritage in museums, folklife festivals, parades, pageants, and historical monuments. We also build fences and detention centers, and pass more and more laws to bar access to the United States. Polls tell us that Americans are concerned about the capacity of the United States to absorb so many immigrants from around the world. How often have we heard the laments “Today’s immigrants are too different. They don’t want to assimilate” or “My grandparents learned English quickly, why can’t they?” The assumption is that older generations ‘Americanized’ quickly but that today’s immigrants do not want to assimilate. Did 19th century immigrants really migrate to the United States to “become Americans”? Did they really assimilate quickly? Are today’s immigrants really all that different from the immigrants who arrived earlier? Why do these particular narratives have such power and currency? This seminar will explore these issues and help students discern fact from fiction. Enrollment preference given to Freshmen and Sophomores. Instructor: Maria Cristina Garcia. TR 2:55 – 4:10. 3 credits.
Diasporas, Disasters, and Dissent: Re-Thinking Puerto Rican Studies in the 20th and 21st Centuries - LSP 3678 (also ENGL 3678). "Foreign in a domestic sense” is the perplexing way that the Supreme Court of the United States chose to define Puerto Rico’s status in the so-called “Insular Cases” of the early 20th century. Written over 100 years ago, this contradictory ruling looms large over Puerto Rico’s precarious legal standing, despite the fact that there are now more Puerto Ricans living on the US mainland than in the island itself. Seeking to counter the obfuscation of Puerto Rico in the US imaginary, in this course students will analyze how key historical, political, and social moments connected to diasporas, disasters, and dissent have galvanized Puerto Rican cultural production in the 20th and 21st centuries. Instructor: Rebeca Hey-Colón. MW 1:25 – 2:40. 3 credits. (This course fulfills humanities distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor).
Spoken Word, Hip-Hop Theater, and the Politics of Performance – LSP 3754 (also PMA/FGSS/AMST 3754, ENGL 3954). 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 theater. Beginning with the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement, we will employ an interdisciplinary approach, placing theory directly into conversation with practice as we move to explore the ways in which poets and performers create work that engages with the politics of identity. How does the move from the page to the stage, change the manner in which traditional life stories are told? What role does the audience play? What avenues are then further opened up through the advent of contemporary performance practices such as hip-hop theater? What is the relationship between vernacular cultural productions and the performance of politics? What role, if any, does class play? How do genres such as spoken word, slam poetry, and hip-hop theatre serve to make visible the life narratives of people of a particular socio-economic class? Instructor: Karen Jaime. TR 12:20 – 2:15. 4 credits. (This course fulfills humanities distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor).
Latinos and the United States, 1492-1880 – LSP 3770 (also HIST 3770). In this course, we will answer two major questions: What is Latino history? And how should we write Latino History? We will explore these questions without attempting to cover all of Latino history before 1800. We will focus on a variety of experiences to better understand how differences in race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and class have shaped Latino communities over time. We will read academic journal articles and books (secondary sources) and documents from the past, such as diaries, letters, court records, and maps (primary sources). Throughout the semester we will be working in groups toward creating a final project: a Latino history website. Instructor: Camille Suarez. TR 10:10 – 11:25. 4 credits, including the required independent research. (This course fulfills Humanities distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor).
War and Revolution in 20th century Latino History - LSP 3801 (also HIST 3801)- This course examines war and revolution as drivers of migration from Latin America and the Spanish Caribbean to the United States and Canada. From the War of 1898 to the wars in Central America, war and revolution have displaced millions of people, prompting internal and cross-border migration. This history underscores how migration is multicausal—that is, produced by a wide and complex range of intersecting drivers. War and revolution disrupt livelihoods, produce scarcity, and create the insecurity that makes it impossible to exercise a basic human right to stay home. The course also examines how Latinos have become actors in U.S. wars and interventions in their countries of ancestry. There are no prerequisites for the course but HIST 1802 is strongly recommended. Instructor: Maria Cristina Garcia. TR 11:40 – 12:55. 3 credits. (This course fulfills Humanities distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor).
African American and Latinx Histories – LSP 3805 (also ILRGL 3805). A study of African American and Latina/o histories, cultures, and politics from the American Revolution to present. Themes include slavery, colonialism, revolutions, social movements, labor struggles and emancipation. Oral traditions, poetry, theater, memoirs, and forms of expressive cultures will be an integral part of the course. Instructor Paul Ortiz. MW 10:10 - 11:25. 3 credits. (This course fulfills social science distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor).
Migration: Histories, Controversies, and Perspectives - LSP 3810 (also ILRLR/AMST/PAM/SOC 3810). This introductory course introduces students to issues and debates related to international migration and will provide an interdisciplinary foundation to understanding the factors that shape migration flows and migrant experiences. We will start by reviewing theories of the state and historical examples of immigrant racialization and exclusion in the United States and beyond. We will critically examine the notions of borders, citizenship/non-citizenship, and the creation of diasporas. Students will also hear a range of perspectives by exposing them to Cornell guest faculty who do research and teach on migration across different disciplines and methodologies and in different world areas. Examples include demographic researchers concerned with immigrant inequality and family formation, geographic perspectives on the changing landscapes of immigrant metropolises, legal scholarship on the rights of immigrant workers, and the study of immigrant culture from a feminist studies lens. Instructor: Shannon Gleeson. TR 11:40 - 12:55. 3 credits. (This course fulfills Social Science distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor).
Contemporary Issues in Latina/o/Latin America – LSP 4000/6000 (also LATA 4000/6000). Interested in Latina/o Studies and Latin American Studies? This course will explore topics in Anthropology, Art, Economics, History, Literature, Government, Sociology, and more, of US Latina/o and Latin American contexts. Course features guest speakers from Cornell and other institutions. Course requirements: Attend a total of 12 programming events of your choice throughout the semester sponsored by the Latina/o Studies and Latin American Studies (you should plan for at least one a week), and write a brief follow-up critical or analytic report on some aspect of what you learned. These reports are due within one week of the event. Instructor. T 12:20 – 1:10. 1 credit. (This course DOES NOT fulfill requirements for the LSP minor).
Latin American & Latinx Environmentalisms - LSP 4690 (also SPAN 4690). The Silueta or “earth-body” sculpture series by Cuban American artist Ana Mendieta explores how the human body is bound to the land. In Imagen de Yagul, Mendieta covers her body in white flowers and lies down, assuming the position of a corpse. The image evokes the earth as both grave and garden: the origin and the end of life. The artist’s identity is concealed by the plants that seem to spring from her body, undermining her individuality and pointing instead toward relationality. In the second image, Mendieta dramatizes the earth as an archive of human memory. The imprint left behind by her body is framed by plants as if it were a portrait. What to make of the artist’s absence in this image? Or of the staging of the land as the body’s archive? Scholars have suggested that perhaps the Silueta series is a meditation on Mendieta’s exile from her home in Cuba, or perhaps it is simply a reflection of the way human memory is site-specific. In this course, we will explore how the nonhuman environment has been conceptualized by Latin American and Latinx thinkers, writers, artists, and filmmakers. We will pay particular attention to how colonialism has shaped the material and cultural connections with nature in the Americas, as well as to how Latinx, Latin American, Afro-descendent, and Indigenous thinkers have articulated other forms of relationality between body and land. This class will be conducted in English. However, discussion in Spanish or Spanglish is welcome. Instructor: Carolyn Fornoff. TR 11:40 - 12:55. 3 credits. (This course fulfills Humanities distribution for LSP undergraduate minor.)
Global Food Cultures of Greater Mexico – LSP 4875 (also SPAN 4875). This course explores the rich, global food cultures of Greater Mexico, that is, a idea of Mexican gastronomy that encompasses the country of Mexico, the Mexican American community in the US, and Mexican migrants around the world, as well as the practice of Mexican food culture by non-Mexicans. The course raises fundamental issues related to the ways in which the practice and representation of gastronomy allow the consideration of topics such as colonialism, globalization, gastrodiplomacy, economic development and sovereignty, while discussing the role of food culture in subjectivity and identity. These questions will be explored through an array of literary, artistic and cinematographic texts, as well as the critical work of scholars across the humanities and the social sciences. Instructor: Ignacio Sanchez Prado. TR 2:55 – 4:10. 3 credits. (This course fulfills Humanities distribution for LSP undergraduate minor).