LALS 200 Introduction to Latin American Studies

Latin America and the Latinx world encompasses communities and regions most dynamic in acknowledgement of nature’s rights and preservation of natural resources, urban growth, regional integration, and a variety of new ways of thinking about the overall world. LALS 200 will expand students’ understanding of this fascinating, complex region through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary perspectives, and will critically examine the wealth of experiences, cultural productions and histories of Latin America and Latinx regions. The study of texts, art, and activism from marginalized perspectives (indigenous, Latinx, Afro-Latinx/e/Latin American, women, LGBTQI+ communities, biocentric worldviews) evidences various strands of thought and critique that challenge Western master narratives of coloniality: that mode of thinking that legitimizes colonialism and contemporary neocolonialisms. Through the study of film, literature, drama, and various radical counter-discursive artistic practices in Latin America and the Latinx world, the course fosters thinking and living in community with non-Eurocentric social values.