Spring 2025 Courses

LACS 10200 (ANTH 10200; CEGU 10200; CHST 10200; HIST 17910; RDIN 10200)
Diana Schwartz Francisco
T 2:00-4:50 PM

This course explores the city of Chicago’s Latin American and Caribbean roots by considering hemispheric connections, both in the city at large and at the University of Chicago. Students will analyze 1) the ways Latin(e/x) American actors have participated in and shaped Chicago’s political economy, 2) how Latine/xs on both sides of the US-Mexico border have impacted and been impacted by social thought at the University of Chicago, 3) the collection and display of Latin American material culture in several of the city’s museums, and 4) Latin(e/x) American civil and human rights activism in the city. The course will move through the city chronologically as well as geographically over the long twentieth century.

Some specific events and themes we will cover include: the Latin American & Caribbean presence at the 1893 Columbian Exposition and the 1933 Century of Progress; early 20th-century Mexican community development and organizing around South Chicago’s steel industry; the Chicago School of Sociology’s fascination with Mexican migrants and Chicago Anthropology’s enchantment with Mesoamerica and Indigenous modernity; the Field Museum and Newberry Libraries as sites of Latin American “collection”; the Chicago School of Economics’ exportation of neoliberal reforms in Chile during the 1970s; and broader Latine transnational and civil rights activism during the late 20th century including the Young Lords, Chilean exiles in the 1970s, and sanctuary politics.

LACS 10201 (ANTH 10201; CEGU 10201; CHST 10201; RDIN 10201)
René Flores
W 2:30-5:20 PM

Since the early 1900’s, thousands of Latin Americans have made Chicago their home. Today, approximately one-third of Chicagoans trace their roots to Latin America. These significant demographic flows raise critical questions: Why have Latin Americans moved to Chicago? How have they adapted to the city? How have they influenced it? This course will expose students to the latest social science research on contemporary immigration with a strong focus on Latinos in Chicago. We will explore its origins, adaptation patterns, and long-term effects on our city.

To explore the Latino experience in Chicago, the course will focus on three communities: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Venezuelans. These three groups migrated to Chicago during distinct periods, with Mexicans arriving in the early 1900s, Puerto Ricans in the 1940s, and Venezuelans in 2023. This temporal variation will enable us to investigate how the evolving social, economic, and political conditions in Chicago have influenced immigrants' experiences.

The ongoing arrival of thousands of immigrants from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and other South American nations to Chicago since the summer of 2023 has heightened the urgency of addressing these issues. In recent months, Professor Flores has collaborated with various city and civic organizations to facilitate the settlement of these immigrants. He will utilize his experiences working with these groups to provide context to this ongoing crisis. Guest speakers, including immigrants, activists, and city officials, will be part of the class.

LACS 10202 (ANTH 10202; CEGU 10202; CHST 10202; LACS 10202; RDIN 10202)
Sergio Delgado Moya
Th 2:00-4:50 PM

This course is an overview of the Latinx arts in Chicago. It explores artworks and artmaking as documents and critical fictions created in response to the social realities of urban Latinx populations in the U.S. and in Chicago in particular. It challenges students to think about (Latinx) art and the humanities under two modalities: as privileged arenas for understanding experience and exploring the values that guide a society, and as economic engines and instruments of political intervention.

The course pursues these objectives though the study of the Latinx arts in Chicago, and through immersive engagements with local institutions where Latinx art operates (as historical object, as tool for social change, as fruit and seed of creative process, as instrument for economic development).

Using the work of Latinx artists, curators, filmmakers, and other cultural brokers based in Chicago, the course studies artworks in the context of the social realities that gave rise to these works.

LACS 12200 (PORT 12200)
Alan Parma
MWF 12:30-1:20 PM

This course is intended for speakers of Spanish to develop competence quickly in spoken and written Portuguese. In this intermediate-level course, students learn ways to apply their Spanish language skills to mastering Portuguese by concentrating on the similarities and differences between the two languages. Students with a placement of 20100 or higher in any of the other Romance Languages are eligible to take PORT 12200 for completion of the College Language Competency Requirement

LACS 14500 (PORT 14500)
Alan Parma
MWF 11:30-12:20 PM

This is an accelerated language course that covers vocabulary and grammar for students interested in working in a business environment where Portuguese is spoken. The focus of this highly interactive class is to develop basic communication skills and cultural awareness through formal classes, readings, discussions, and writings. PORT 14500 satisfies the Language Competency Requirement.

LACS 16300 (ANTH 23103; HIST 16103; CRES 16103; SOSC 26300)

Section 1: TR 11:00 – 12:20PM with Brodwyn Fischer

Section 2: TR 2:00 – 3:20PM with Brodwyn Fischer

Section 3: TR 9:30 – 10:50PM with Diana Schwartz Francisco

Section 4: TR 9:30 – 10:50PM with Victoria Saramago

Spring Quarter focuses on the long twentieth century (1870+), with emphasis on how Latin American peoples and nations have grappled with the challenges of development, inequality, imperialism, revolution, authoritarianism, racial difference, migration, urbanization, citizenship, violence, and the environment.

LACS 16460 (ARTH 16460)
Megan Sullivan
TTh 9:30-10:50 AM

This course investigates the development of Latin American art from the early nineteenth century to the present. Through the study of representative artists, movements, and works, we will trace this history from the formation of art academies in newly independent Latin American nations through the region's rise to prominence in an increasingly global art world. Although we will adhere to a roughly chronological organization, a set of key themes and debates will likewise structure our investigation. Among them are: the formation of collective identities (and the intersections of race, class, and nation); the impact of social and political revolutions and counter-revolutions on artistic practices; the reception and adaptation of indigenous and European (and later U.S.) art practices; and the various national, regional, and global frameworks that have been used to think through the specificity of art production from Latin America. Special emphasis will be placed on developing the skills needed to analyze a wide variety of modern and contemporary art, including painting, sculpture, photography, performance art, and site-specific installations.

LACS 20310 (SPAN 20310)
Maria Lozada Cerna
MW 1:30-2:50 PM

Chicago is known to have multiple, diverse Spanish-speaking communities. In this course, students will use these communities as their classroom to analyze and debate current issues confronting the LatinX experience in the United States and Midwest. In parallel, class instruction will reinforce and expand students' grammatical and lexical proficiency in a manner that will allow students to engage in real-life activities involving speaking, reading, listening and writing skills. This intermediate-high language course targets the development of writing skills and oral proficiency in Spanish and is designed as an alternative to SPAN 20300. Students will review problematic grammatical structures, write a number of essays, and participate in multiple class conversations using authentic readings and listening segments as linguistic models on which to base their own production. At the end of class, students are expected to produce an individual project.

LACS 20401 (KREY 20400; CHST 20400; RDIN 20410)
Gerdine Ulysse
W 4:30-6:20 PM

This course will provide opportunities to promote deeper knowledge of the Haitian culture while emphasizing the development of writing skills in the Kreyòl language through the use of a variety of authentic texts and cultural experiences. Topics covered in the course will include the Haitian revolution, cuisine, and audio-visual and performing arts. Moreover, students will participate in different cultural exploration outings in the city of Chicago, which will provide additional opportunities to interpret cultural artifacts and reflect on the Haitian culture and its influence on the representation and daily lives of Haitians in the diaspora, particularly in Chicago. In this course, we will: 1) analyze different cultural artifacts in the Haitian cultures through primary and secondary texts, 2) examine the influences of these cultural phenomena on the representation of Haitians and the creation of Haitian identity in the diaspora, and 3) and reflect on the importance of cultural identity in a migration context. Those who will take the course for Kreyòl credits will also develop additional syntactic knowledge in the language through creation of diverse essays. This course will be conducted in two weekly sessions: a common lecture session in English and an additional weekly discussion session in English or Kreyòl.

LACS 21001 (CHST 21001; CRES 21001; DEMS 21001; HIST 29304; HMRT 21001; LLSO 21001; SOSC 21001)
Susan Gzesh
TTh 09:30 AM-10:50 AM

This course examines basic human rights norms and concepts and selected contemporary human rights problems from across the globe, including human rights implications of the COVID pandemic. Beginning with an overview of the present crises and significant actors on the world stage, we will then examine the political setting for the United Nations' approval of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948. The post-World War 2 period was a period of optimism and fertile ground for the establishment of a universal rights regime, given the defeat of fascism in Europe. International jurists wanted to establish a framework of rights that went beyond the nation-state, taking into consideration the partitions of India-Pakistan and Israel-Palestine - and the rising expectations of African-Americans in the U.S. and colonized peoples across Africa and Asia. But from the beginning, there were basic contradictions in a system of rights promulgated by representatives of nation-states that ruled colonial regimes, maintained de facto and de jure systems of racial discrimination, and imprisoned political dissidents and journalists. Cross-cutting themes of the course include the universalism of human rights, problems of impunity and accountability, notions of "exceptionalism," and the emerging issue of the "shamelessness" of authoritarian regimes. Students will research a human rights topic of their choosing, to be presented as either a final research paper or a group presentation.

LACS 21008 (HMRT 21008)
María de los Ángeles Aguilar
TTh 09:30 AM-10:50 AM

This course explores the historical and contemporary uses of police forces by various states to control and criminalize racialized populations, minority groups, and social movements in diverse geographical regions of the Americas. By examining multiple histories of violence, occupation, and domination by police forces, students will delve into societal challenges that continue to affect everyday life. The course will also examine how the deployment of police forces, as part of a wave of punitive approaches that have gained popularity in many democratic nations in recent years, disrupts the social fabric of societies, establishes hierarchies, reinforces inequality, and facilitates the criminalization of dissent.

LACS 21100 (SPAN 21100)
Staff
MW 1:30-2:50 PM

This sociolinguistic course expands understanding of the historical development of Spanish and awareness of the great sociocultural diversity within the Spanish-speaking world and its impact on the Spanish language. We emphasize the interrelationship between language and culture as well as ethno-historical transformations within the different regions of the Hispanic world. Special consideration is given to identifying lexical variations and regional expressions exemplifying diverse sociocultural aspects of the Spanish language, and to recognizing phonological differences between dialects. We also examine the impact of indigenous cultures on dialectical aspects. The course includes literary and nonliterary texts, audio-visual materials, and visits by native speakers of a variety of Spanish-speaking regions.

LACS 21500 (PORT 21500)
Juliano Saccomani
MWF 11:30-12:20 PM

This course helps students develop their skills in understanding, summarizing, and producing written and spoken arguments in Portuguese through readings and debates on various issues of relevance in contemporary Luso-Brazilian societies. Special consideration is given to the major differences between continental and Brazilian Portuguese. In addition to reading, analyzing, and commenting on advanced texts (both literary and nonliterary), students practice and extend their writing skills in a series of compositions.

LACS 21900 (RDIN 21905; SPAN 21905)
Carlos Halaburda
TTh 11:30-12:20 PM

This course introduces students to the writing produced in Hispanic and Portuguese America during the period marked by the early processes of European colonization in the sixteenth century through the revolutionary movements that, in the nineteenth century, led to the establishment of independent nation-states across the continent. The assigned texts relate to the first encounters between Indigenous, Black, and European populations in the region, to the emergence of distinct ("New World") notions of cultural identity (along with the invention of new racial categories), and to the disputes over the meaning of nationhood that characterized the anti-colonial struggles for independence. Issues covered in this survey include the idea of texts as spaces of cultural and political conflict; the relationships between Christianization, secularization, and practices of racialization; the transatlantic slave trade; the uses of the colonial past in early nationalist projects; and the aesthetic languages through which this production was partly articulated (such as the Barroco de Indias, or "New World baroque," Neoclassicism, Romanticism, and Modernismo, among others). In addition to enhancing your knowledge of Latin American cultural history and improving your close reading and critical thinking skills, this course is designed to continue building on your linguistic competence in Spanish.

LACS 22005 (RDIN 22005; SPAN 22005)
Agnes Lugo-Ortiz
MW 3:00-4:20 PM

This course will survey some of the main literary and cultural tendencies in Latin America from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present. We will pay special attention to their aesthetic dimensions, as well as the socio-historical and political conditions that made them possible, and in which they simultaneously intervened. Questions to be studied might include the innovations of the Modernist and avant-garde movements, fantastic literature, the novel of the so-called "Boom," cultural production associated with revolutionary movements, military dictatorships, and the Cold War, as well as new currents in literary and theatrical practices. Likewise, the course will foreground some of the following concepts relevant to the study of this production: modernity and modernization; development and neoliberalism; neo-colonialism and empire; cultural autonomy and ideas of poetic and cultural renewal; the epic vs. the novel; realism and non-verisimilitude; and performativity, among others. In addition to enhancing your knowledge of Latin American cultural history and improving your close reading and critical thinking skills, this course is designed to continue building on your linguistic competence in Spanish.

LACS 23525 (SPAN 23525)
Jean Vallejo Gonzalez
TTh 3:30-4:50 PM

This course explores how Latin American cinema reacted to the changing political contexts of the region during the second half of the 20th century. Using the 1950s as a starting point, when the establishment of the constitution of Puerto Rico in 1952 and the success of the Cuban revolution in 1959 brought new models for state-sponsored experimental cinema, we will see movies that mix documentary and fiction in a manner that the aesthetics of film language are used as an expression of a collective political subjectivity. The relationship between Latin America and the United States will be crucial for this analysis because it points to the colonial/postcolonial context of the fight against imperialism that is manifest in these movies. In this regard, we will see cinema related to the processes of resistance during and after the dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil and Chile, and the ways the precarious economies of Colombia, Perú and Puerto Rico required the development of new ways of cinematographic self-representation at the turn of the 21st century. The emphasis will be on experimental film, focusing on their guerilla production strategies and the aesthetic innovations that are explored in these movies. Some of the filmmakers we will discuss are Raúl Ruiz (Chile), Luis Ospina (Colombia), Santiago Álvarez (Cuba), Amílcar Tirado (Puerto Rico), Gianfranco Annichini (Perú), Albertina Carri (Argentina) and Eduardo Coutinho (Brazil); among others.

LACS 25810/35810 (ARTH 25810/35810)
Megan Sullivan
TTh 12:30 PM-01:50 PM

This course investigates twentieth-century abstraction as a global phenomenon, focusing on the period from 1945 through the 1960s. Case studies will be drawn primarily from the United States, Europe, Latin America and East Asia, but individual research projects from other regions will be welcome. Themes and questions to be addressed include: the repetition of historical avant-garde strategies such as the grid, the monochrome, and non-compositional order in Europe, the United States, and South America; the global reception and adaptation of Abstract Expressionism; distinct understandings of gesture, mark-making, and subjectivity; the meaning and use of color; the relationship of abstraction to industry and design; the deployment of abstraction as a "weapon of the Cold War" and a strategy of internationalization; and autochthonous definitions of abstraction outside the West. Artists and groups to be studied include: Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Ellsworth Kelly, Agnes Martin, Zero, Blinky Palermo, Georges Mathieu, Lucio Fontana, Neoconcretism, Alejandro Otero, Gutai, and Tansaekhwa.

LACS 27025 (GNSE 23173; SPAN 27025)
Laura Colaneri
TTh 2:00-3:20 PM

Femicide, or the gender-motivated killing of women and girls, has garnered increasing attention in twenty-first century Latin America, which has some of the highest rates of gender-based violence in the world. Latin American activists, performers, writers, and filmmakers have attempted to reckon with the impacts of femicide in the cultural sphere, seeking to not only identify the social, historical, and political roots of gender violence, but also advocate for justice and mourn those they have lost. This course will discuss prevailing discourses of femicide in the region, addressing the roles of activism, journalism, literature, and film in both shaping and responding to these discourses. Texts will include memoirs like Cristina Rivera Garza's El invencible verano de Liliana (2021), documentaries like Lourdes Portillo's Señorita extraviada (2001), as well as fiction, such as Roberto Bolaño's "La parte de los crímenes" from the novel 2666 (2004).

LACS 27200 (PORT 27200)
Thomaz Amancio
TTh 12:30-1:50 PM

This course provides a survey of Brazilian culture through its literature, music, cinema, visual arts, and digital culture. Through these different media, we will discuss topics such as urban development, racial issues, gender issues, modernity, deforestation, and internal migrations, besides samba, bossa nova, Tropicália, funk, and visual arts movements, among others. Authors may include Machado de Assis, Oswald de Andrade, Clarice Lispector, Caetano Veloso, Angélica Freitas, Glauber Rocha, Conceição Evaristo, and Karim Aïnouz.

LACS 28498 (PBPL 28498; GNSE 20153)
Maria Bautista
TTh 2:00 PM-3:20 PM

Although the inequities between men and women have diminished during the last decades, large gaps are still evident and resistant to change. Throughout this course, we will explore the origins of these disparities which are all fundamentally rooted in the patriarchal nature of society. Understanding how patriarchy came to be the dominant order requires a multidisciplinary and historical approach. The first lectures will cover debates in biology, human evolution, history and archeology that explain the deep roots and the spread of this order throughout the centuries. The next set of lectures will cover how current cultural practices and social norms facilitate the reproduction of the patriarchy and will also examine alternative ways in which societies have organized themselves where women have powerful roles or live in matriarchies. The class will also capture how women from the Global South contest this order within their societies and on their own terms. Finally, we will evaluate policies that have aimed to close the gap between men and women around the world. A central theme of the course is that to understand how to craft effective policies one needs to understand the mechanisms which created patriarchy and led it to persist. The students will offer presentations that will revise these policies from a critical perspective based on the material we covered throughout the quarter. The final lectures will include a variety of guest speakers.

LACS 29299 (FREN 29301; KREY 29300)
Gerdine Ulysse
MW 3:00-4:20 PM

This course examines the concept of language identity (i.e., the language[s] people employ to represent themselves) in multilingual Creolophone communities, particularly in Haiti. This course also examines the relationships between language identity, learning, language use, and literacy development in these societies. By the end of the course, students will be able to explain: 1) what language identity in multilingual Creolophone community reveal about speakers and their language attitudes; 2) how context and mode of communication can impact language identity and language use; 3) literacy acquisition and achievement in Creole communities; and 4) how Creolophones' learning and literacy development are affected by language policies and ideologies. A final project will require students to design and conduct a preliminary sociolinguistic study based on students' interests in the French-Creolophone world.

LACS 29700

Students and instructors can arrange a Reading and Research course in Latin American Studies when the material being studied goes beyond the scope of a particular course, when students are working on material not covered in an existing course or when students would like to receive academic credit for independent research.

LACS 29299
Diana Schwartz Francisco
F 9:30-12:20 PM

This second part of the BA Colloquium, which is led by the LACS BA Program Adviser, continues to assist students in formulating approaches to the BA capstone project and developing their research and writing skills, while providing a forum for group discussion and critiques.

Must be a 4th year major in Latin American Studies to enroll

LACS 29900

Independent study course intended to be used by 4th year BA students who are writing the BA thesis.

LACS 33710 (SPAN 33710)
Agnes Lugo-Ortiz
Th 2:00-4:50 PM

A partir de una serie de casos emblemáticos, en este seminario investigaremos las relaciones entre producción literaria, cultura visual y la formación de imaginarios territoriales en Hispanoamérica durante el siglo XIX. Nuestro objetivo no es tan solo examinar los principios y procedimientos estéticos e ideológicos mediante los cuales la nación pudo ser concebida como una unidad geográfica, con fronteras discernibles y características propias-ello principalmente en torno a la figura del "paisaje". También nos interesa examiner otros modos de espacialización que, si bien no del todo ajenos a la máquina simbólica del estado nacional, son sin embargo irreductibles a ella. Entre estos se encuentran, por ejemplo, las epistemologías cartográficas asociadas a las exploraciones científicas que se dispararon hacia todo lo largo y ancho del continente desde finales del siglo XVIII-y vinculadas al discurso de la Historia Natural-o simbolizaciones relativas a la idea de la propiedad privada sobre la tierra y sus medios de explotación y desarrollo (particularmente, para nuestro caso, al régimen de la propiedad esclavista con sus pretensiones de "excepción" y soberanía ante la ingerencia estatal).

LACS 38810 (CMLT 38810; SPAN 38810)
Larissa Brewer-Garcia
T 9:30-12:20 PM

This course explores portrayals of human difference in literature, travel writing, painting, and autobiography from Spain, England, and the Americas. Students will become versed in debates surrounding the emergence of human distinctions based on religion, race, and ethnicity in the early modern era. Understanding these debates and the history surrounding them is crucial to participating in informed discussion, research, and activism regarding issues of race, empire, and colonialism across time and space.

LACS 45000 (CEGU 45000; SPAN 45000)
Victoria Saramago
T 12:30-3:20 PM

The environmental humanities have emerged in the past couple of decades as a crucial field to understand the multifaceted history of environmental thought and culture around the world as well as to grapple with the intractable challenges wrought by the current environmental crisis. In Latin America, the field has flourished in dialogue with Anglophone ecocriticism at the same time as it has expanded its thematic, theoretical, a critical reach. This course provides an overview of the environmental humanities in the context of Latin American literature and culture. We will delve into key concepts and problems in the field, from the debates on the Anthropocene and alternative terms to the cultural history of forests and deserts, subfields such as ecofeminism, plant studies, animal studies and energy humanities, as well as concepts particularly productive in the region such as (post)extractivism and multinaturalism. This course will combine primary sources, including works of literature, cinema and visual arts, with a robust attention to influential scholarship on the field.

LACS 40100

LACS 64400 (SSAD 64400; SPAN 20306)
Veronica Moraga Guerra
T 9:30-12:20 PM

Social Work students will strengthen their knowledge of the Spanish language, especially the vocabulary and functions relevant to clinical social work practice. In addition, they will develop greater cultural competence concerning the Latinx community, enabling them to function pragmatically appropriately in a range of contexts. The course explores a variety of communicative strategies to adapt phonetics, register, and diction to rhetorical situations commonly encountered by clinical social work professionals. It also provides cultural instruction through a variety of readings and participation in hands-on, authentic activities.