Spring 2023 tentative course offerings (this list subject to change)
Course roster
Research Strategies in Africana and Latina/o Studies - LSP 1101 (also ASRC 1900). The digital revolution has made an enormous amount of information available to research scholars, but discovering resources and using them effectively can be challenging. This course introduces students with research interests in Latino and Africana Studies to search strategies and methods for finding materials in various formats (e.g., digital, film, and print) using information databases such as the library catalog, print and electronic indexes, and the World Wide Web. Instructors provide equal time for lecture and hands-on learning. Topics include government documents, statistics, subject-specific online databases, social sciences, the humanities, and electronic citation management. Instructor: Reanna Esmail. MW 2:40 – 3:30. 1 credit. PLEASE NOTE: This course is a ½ semester course – 2nd 7 week session – 3/15 – 5/20/2023. This course does not fulfill minor requirements.
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 11:20 - 12:10. 4 credits. This course fulfills Humanities distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor. This course fulfills Humanities distribution/elective for the LSP undergraduate minor.
Introduction to Latinos in U.S. History – LSP 1802 (also HIST/AMST/LATA 1802. This course seeks a fuller recounting of the 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. Instructor: Maria Cristina Garcia. TR 11:25 – 12:40. 4 credits. This course fulfills required course 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 12:25 – 1:15 and 1:30 - 2:20. 4 credits. This course fulfills Humanities distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor. This course fulfills Humanities distribution/elective for the LSP undergraduate minor.
Diasporas from the Spanish Caribbean – LSP 2253 (also HIST 2253). This seminar examines the Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Dominican diasporas in the United States. We will examine US relations with these three countries; the root causes of this Caribbean migration; their history in particular urban areas of the United States; and the political, social, and cultural issues that have attracted attention. Instructor: Maria Cristina Garcia. TR 2:45 – 4:00 pm. 3 credits. This course fulfills Humanities distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor.
Latino Theatre Production – LSP 3010 (also COML/LATA 3010). Students develop a specific dramatic text for full-scale production. The course involves selection of an appropriate text, close analysis of the literary aspects of the play, and group evaluation of its representational value and effectiveness. All students in the course are involved in some aspects of production of the play, and write a final paper as a course requirement. Credit is variable depending upon the student’s role in play production: a minimum of 50 hours of work is required for 1 credit; a maximum of 3 credits are awarded for 100 hours or more of work. Instructor(s): Debra Castillo/Juan Manuel Aldape Muñoz. MW 1:00 – 2:15. 1 – 3 credits, variable. This course fulfills Humanities distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor.
Border Environments – LSP 3336/6336 (also COML 3336/6336): This course focuses on a place and a concept where two of the most urgent issues of our times-- migration and environmental degradation -- converge, collide, and shape each other. It examines borders not as abstract lines on the map, but as dynamic hubs that connect human societies, politics, and cultures with the natural and built environments that we inhabit and transform. Through scholarly and creative work from an array of borders around the world, we will develop new theoretical approaches and methodological toolkits for rethinking and re-visioning borders in an era of climate change, toxic pollution, and mass extinction. Using lenses of environmental ethics and justice, the course encourages multi- and inter-disciplinary projects from students and will feature guests from diverse areas, disciplines, and practices. Instructor(s): Debra Castillo/Anindita Banerjee. MW 2:55 – 4:10. 4 credits. This course fulfills Humanities distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor.
Multicultural Issues in Education - LSP 3405 (also ANTHR/EDUC/AMST 3405). This course explores research on race, ethnicity and language in American education. It examines historical and current patterns of minority school achievement as well as practices of teaching and learning in diverse families, communities, and schools. Policies, programmatic and pedagogical responses to diversity, including multicultural and bilingual education, are addressed. Instructor: Sofia Villenas. TR 11:25 – 12:40. 4 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. Faculty. M 1:00 – 2:15. 1 credit. This course does not fulfill minor requirements.
Nightlife – LSP 4701/6701 (also PMA 4701/6701). This course explores nightlife as a temporality that fosters countercultural performances of the self and that serves as a site for the emergence of alternative kinship networks. Focusing on queer communities of color, course participants will be asked to interrogate the ways in which nightlife demonstrates the queer world-making potential that exists beyond the normative 9-5 capitalist model of production. Performances of the everyday, alongside films, texts, and performance at will be analyzed through a performance studies methodological lens. Through close readings and sustained cultural analysis, students will acquire a critical understanding of the potentiality of spaces, places, and geographies codified as "after hours" in the development of subcultures, alternative sexualities, and emerging performance practices. Instructor: Karen Jaime. TR 1:00 – 2:15. 4 credits. This course fulfills Humanities distribution for LSP undergraduate minor.
Ethnoracial Identity in Anthropology, Language and Law - LSP 4434/6424 (also ANTHR 6424, LAW 7231, AMST 6424). This course will examine the role that both law and language, as mutually constitutive mediating systems, occupy in constructing ethnoracial identity in the United States. We will approach the law from a critical anthropological perspective, as a signifying and significant sociocultural system rather than as an abstract collection of rules, norms, and procedures, to examine how legal processes and discourses contribute to processes and cultural production and reproduction that contributes to the creation and maintenance of differential power relations. Course material will draw on anthropological, linguistic, and critical race theory as well as ethnographic and legal material to guide and document our analyses. Instructor: Vilma Santiago-Irizarry. F 12:25 - 2:20. 4 credits. This course fulfills Social Science distribution for the LSP undergraduate minor.