HIST-J
301 # 24178 (3 cr) Latin American Beyond the Textbook
A. Diaz
12:20-2:50
pm Wednesday
WH 204
College
Intensive Writing Section
This course is part one of a two-course sequence on the history of
Latin America from pre-conquest times to the present. It will survey the
history of Latin America from its first inhabitation to the independence period
in the nineteenth century. Six major themes will be addressed: the development
of the great Amerindian civilizations, the encounter between Europeans and
Amerindians, the making of a colonial society in Spanish America and Brazil,
the struggles leading to the collapse of colonial rule, and the civil wars of
independence. The overriding concern of this survey is to provide an
understanding of how the complex interaction between the different cultures that
met in the Americas shaped these colonial societies, and how some elements of
this legacy persisted and/or were transformed by different social groups before
and after independence.
This course should help students gain some understanding of the
diversity and complexity of Latin America. Students will obtain a sense of both
the major processes that have left their imprint in these countries, and the
experiences of the men and women who lived and made their histories.
Furthermore, this course seeks to bring students a sense of history as a
discipline and as a method for interpreting and understanding the past through
the study of myriad sources. Students should be able to assess the importance
of closely analyzing different perspectives and sources when seeking to
understand and interpret any event or problem of the past.
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HIST-J
301 # 28447 (3 cr) Latinos and the Law: Race, Immigration and Illegality in
U.S. History J. Nieto-Phillips
12:20-2:50
pm Wednesday
BH 335
College
Intensive Writing Section
This
course will explore the long history of migration to the United States,
focusing on the statecraft of immigration control and of citizenship. The
history of immigration is more varied and complex than high school textbooks
suggest. Immigration has been hotly contested for more than two centuries. The
standard "assimilation" narrative and "melting pot"
metaphor fail to capture ways the state has excluded or marginalized immigrant
groups. Racial, national, gender, and socioeconomic criteria long have been
used to determine who would become an "American" and who would remain
an "alien." In this course, we will explore the laws, state
structures, ideologies that have regulated our nation's borders and the
boundaries of our body politic. Drawing on both contemporary and classic
scholarly texts on immigration, as well as films, historical documents and
first-person narratives or memoirs, we will delve into these issues. We will be
paying special attention to the wide-ranging experiences of Latinas and Latinos
in the context of immigration. Since this is a writing-intensive course, there
will be a substantial amount of reading and writing, including several short
writing assignments and two substantial essays.
