Courses

CHICLA 102

Introduction to Comparative US Ethnic and American Indian, and Indigenous Studies

Instructor: Colin Rohrbaugh
T & Th 11:00 am–11:50 am

Introduction to comparative ethnic studies, examining race, ethnicity, and indigeneity within the United States. Includes perspectives from African American, American Indian and Indigenous, Asian American, and Chicanx/e and Latinx/e studies.

CHICLA/HISTORY 151

The North American West to 1850

Instructor: Allison Powers Useche
T & Th 11:00am – 12:15pm

Explores the history of places that have been called the American West before 1850. We start with Indigenous occupation; continue with European invasion and the creation of two new nations, Mexico and the U.S.; and end with U.S. conquest. We watch Indian lands becoming the object of Spanish, French, and English empires, and then see European incursions giving way to the hopes of new nation-states and newly empowered Indian peoples like Lakotas and Comanches. After studying the trails and trades that brought newcomers west, we reach key converging events: U.S. seizure of the Mexican North, resolution of the Oregon boundary dispute, discovery of western gold, West Coast arrival of Chinese immigrants, and Mormon exodus to the Great Basin. We use economic, environmental, political, cultural, and social analyses, and we attend to the dreams of many westerners: of North American, Latin American, European, African, and Asian origin or descent, and of all genders and class statuses.

CHICLA/HISTORY 153

Latina/Latino/Latinx History

Instructor: TBA
T & Th 11:00 am  – 12:15 am

Examines the historical, social, and legal experiences of Latinas/Latinos/Latinxs in the United States since the mid 1800s with emphasis on the history of Mexican migrations. Latinas/Latinos/Latinxs is an umbrella term for people with origins in Latin America: including people from South America, Central American, and North America as well as Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

CHICLA/CURRIC 200

Chicanx/e & Latinx/e Education in the U.S.

Instructor: Mariana Pacheco
T & Th 9:30am – 10:45pm
Political, historical, and cultural aspects of how Chicanx/e, Mexican American, and Latinx/e students have experienced K-12 education in the U.S. Provides an overview of the extent to which K-12 educational policies, programs, and practices help explain the schooling experiences and educational achievement of Chicanx/e, Mexican American, and Latinx/e children in the U.S. context. While their education is typically characterized in terms of (a) language background and linguistic difference and (b) the immigrant experience, provides an intersectional framing that will challenge assumptions about factors related to language and immigrant status that can often drive oversimplified explanations for this population’s perceived educational underperformance.

CHICLA 201

Introduction to Chican@/Latin@ Studies

Instructor: Megan Bailon
MW 2:30pm – 3:45 pm; T & Th 9:30am – 10:45am; T & Th 11:00 am – 12:15pm

Introduces students to various interdisciplinary and transnational literatures on the study of Chican@s & Latin@s in the U.S. Offers a survey of scholarly literature, paradigms, theories, and debates within the field pertaining to the historical, economic, cultural, and sociopolitical dimensions of the experience of people of Latin American descent in what is now the United States. Themes will include migration, labor, civil rights, community development, education, gender and more.  

Note: 40 seats in the MW 2:30-3:45 section are reserved for a FIG. 

CHICLA/SPANISH 282

Citizens of Photography

Instructor: Guillermina de Ferrari Rueda
MWF  11:00am – 11:50am
Explores photographic archives and photography-based aesthetic projects that reflect on the experiences of the Latinx, Caribbean, Latin American and Afro-American experience. Explores race and identity, migration, marginalization and colonialism in the USA, as well as key moments in Caribbean and Latin American history and culture: revolutions; dictatorship and genocide; globalization and violence; environmental and financial catastrophes. Stimulates critical thinking about power structures and political representation. Encourages political participation in a multicultural society and contributes to a deeper understanding of the experience of marginalized groups.

CHICLA 328

Cultures and Histories Topics in Chicanx/e and Latinx/e studies

Instructor: Rubén Medina
T & Th 2:30 pm – 3:45pm
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

Latinx Migration to the U.S. in Literature and Film

Latinx/e migration to the U.S. from a cross-disciplinary cultural studies perspective. Analyzes essays, films, testimonies, poetry, documentaries, and autobiographies while exploring theories of migration, cultural identity, transnationalism, self-fashioning, transculturation, and viewpoints on the U.S. as a nation. Examines various historical, social, political, and cultural aspects of Latinx migration. These include the development of Mexican and Latinx communities in the U.S., multi-generational ties and bi-national lives, racial, gender, and ethnic exclusion, social integration and mobility, urban life and city transformation, the sense of belonging, the process of becoming ‘American,’ mixed status, U.S. perceptions of “illegal aliens,” and the development of new, differential identities.

CHICLA 330

Topics in Chican@ & Latin@ Studies

Instructor: Estevan Molina
T & Th 2:30pm-3:45pm
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

Latinx/e Sports Experience in the US

Provides a multidisciplinary overview of the Latinx/e Sport Experience in the U.S. Students will examine the historical and sociological factors that have made athletics a foundation of Latinx/e culture, serving as a catalyst for opportunity and empowerment, while also acting as a site of historical oppression. The course also addresses the political and legal issues of labor and athlete migration across youth, collegiate, and professional levels. By exploring sport as a site of cultural expression and socialization, students will gain insight into how the Latinx/e community leverages athletics to create belonging and identity throughout the United States.

CHICLA/COUN PSY 331

Immigrant Health and Well-Being

Instructor: Joelle Taknint
T & Th 11:00am – 12:15pm
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

Develop an understanding of immigrant health in the United States from the perspective of social and structural determinants. Applies concepts to a comprehensive framework for the development of health. Describes health assets and risks for specific vulnerable immigrant groups, such as women, children, and undocumented individuals and mixed immigration status families. Provides guidelines for improving immigrant access to quality health care, including language services, provider competence, policy and organizational supports, and community-based collaboration, advocacy, and research. 

CHICLA 334

Feminist Social Movements Across the Americas

Instructor: Aurora Santiago-Ortiz
T & Th 1:00pm – 2:15pm
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

Explores feminist activism in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Feminist activism, broadly construed, will be explored through ethnography, interviews, documentaries, public facing scholarship, among other forms of intellectual production. Applies transdisciplinary perspectives to consider work from a range of academic fields and topics to understand the major political, economic, and social issues framing feminist social movements across the Americas. 

CHICLA 364

Latinx Popular Culture

Instructor: Rubén Medina
T & Th 9:30am – 10:45am
Prerequisites:
(CHICLA/​SPANISH  222 

or SPANISH 223) and SPANISH 224

Analysis of Latina and Latino popular culture to consider the varied make-up of Latinos, their specific histories, social dynamics and politics through their creative expressions, performances and cultural contestations. Covers key terms and concepts, cultural developments, and diverse interpretations while focusing in the analysis of Latinx music, performance art, film and media, sports, food, and car culture.

Note: this course is taught in Spanish

CHICLA 435

Colony, Nation, and Minority: the Puerto Rican’s World

Instructor: Jorell Meléndez-Badillo
M & W 2:30pm – 3:45pm
Prerequisites: Sophomore standing

A historical introduction to the Puerto Rican experience, from island to mainland. Varieties of colonial rule, social institutions, cultural processes, and ethnic and national identity. Migration to the U.S. and social dynamics of stateside communities.