Tinker Visiting Professors' Courses

Writing the Unspeakable: History, Memory, and Reflection Through Literature

LACS 25137/35137 (CMLT 25137/35137)
Carlos Soto Román
TR 11:00 - 12:20 PM

This course will focus on literature as a tool to explore tragic and traumatic events in history, such as wars, genocides, and natural disasters. Through different examples, we will review different poetic and narrative forms that delve into historical and personal memory, remembering, reflecting, and analyzing events that have marked the lives of individuals, communities, and nations. We will discuss how writing can be an effective way of coping with the painful burden of history, helping to heal the wounds of the past, and reflect on how literature can serve as a way of preserving the memory of the victims of these tragic events, allowing their stories to be told, remembered and honored in order to bring us a little closer to reparation and justice.

Introduction to Demographic Methods: An Application to Latin America

LACS 25138/35138 (SOCI 20612/30612)
Luciana Luz and Jenny Trinitapoli
M 3:30 - 5:50 PM

This course introduces key demographic concepts and measures to analyze population size, composition, distribution, and the three demographic components: fertility, mortality, and migration. Discussing the main demographic techniques for period and longitudinal data, most frequently used in demographic analyses, the course aims at developing basic skills for calculating and interpreting main demographic indicators, building and critically analyzing life tables, and properly using standardization and decomposition methods to compare populations. Focusing on Latin American countries at different points in time will enhance comprehension of the demographic transition in place in the region, and the applicability of these measures to understand recent demographic trends. Applications will be conducted using software Excel and R.