Courses Spring 2007
(see also Fall 2007)
AAAS 104
Topic: INTRO TO CRITICAL US STUDIES
Crosslisted as: LIT 132,HISTORY
104
This course is the introduction to the Critical U.S. Studies
certificate program. The course will ask us to think about what
it means to be an "American." Thinking about that concept demands considering
the critical production in the United States from different disciplinary
perspectives. We will take what we learn about "making" the U.S.
and apply what we learn to problems closer to "home."
Sec.Meeting
Time LocationInstructor
12 LECTuTh 2:50 PM- 4:05 PMSee instructor
Lubiano, Wahneema and Olcott, Jocelyn
CULANTH 168S - SOCIAL ACTIVISM MOTIVATIONS
Documentary fieldwork
based research on the lives of people who have committed themselves
to changing society. Life history interviews exploring personal
and societal transformations with special attention to the antecedents
to personal change leading to examined lives of commitment. Attention
to various areas of social change, including human rights, civil
rights, international activism, labor rights, and environmental
activism. Focus on societal and personal questions regarding
motivations for, and the effectiveness of, good works in several
cultural settings.
Sec.Meeting Time LocationInstructor
01 SEMMW
1:15 PM- 2:30 PMLyndhurst 201Thompson, Charles D.
Crosslisted as DOCST 164S
CULANTH 280 - SELECTED TOPICS Topic: HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM
Sec.Meeting
Time LocationInstructor
01 LECTu Th 4:25 PM-5:40 PMTBAKirk, Robin
Crosslisted as: WOMENST 271
DANCE 181/ MUSIC 120/ SPAN 181S/ THEATRST 180
Using the dynamic
model of the Russian Balagan form at the turn of the 20th century
where social commentary, debate, questioning and provocation
prevailed, we will create a Bilingual Performance (Spanish-English)
designed to include Hispanic and English-speaking authors studied
as part of school's curriculum. Each student will bring to the
course at least one topic, issue or piece of work relevant to
their own subject of interest to be explored and worked on during
the semester to be implemented through a performing element. The
theme of the piece will emerge from the ensemble of the class.
The final piece will borrow elements from music, dance, theatre,
literature, languages. Designed to create interaction and dialogue
with nearby Durham Community Schools.
M W 1:15 PM-3:15
PM (Bivins 210) Instructor Lopez-Barrantes,Rafael
LINGUIST 106 - SPANISH FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONS
Development of lexical
and cultural repertoire in health fields. Includes a service
component within Durham Latino community of at least twenty hours
per semester. Prerequisite: Spanish 76 (Advanced Intermediate
Spanish) or the equivalent. Consent of instructor required.
Sec.Meeting
Time LocationInstructor
01 LECW F 8:30 AM- 9:45 AMSocial Sci 120Fernandez,
Bethzaida
LINGUIST 123
TOPICS: SPANISH LINGUISTICS Topic: Bilingual Spanish/Language/
Change
Topics vary each semester. Specific themes related to social
linguistics. Involves students' collecting and analyzing linguistic
data, framing, and testing hypotheses. Service learning course;
requires twenty hours per semester outside classroom. Consent
of instructor required. Instructor: Paredes
Sec.Meeting Time
LocationInstructor
01 SEMTu Th 10:05 AM- 11:20 AMTBAParedes, Liliana
LIT 162ZS/SPAN
181S
Topic: CUBAN AMERICAN MELANCHOLY/FANTASY
“Cuban America, Exile, Melancholia and Mourning.” The
Cuban revolution of 1959 incited an exodus of more than 700,000
Cubans who settled in various parts of the U.S. creating, in
the process, new Cuban diasporas and precipitating a new American
ethnic identity, “Cuban-American”. The dream of returning
to Cuba has remained quite persistent in many Cuban exile communities
over the last 45 years. This course will study the articulation
of this dream by looking primarily to literature, cultural criticism
and history by generations of Cuban artists and writers who either
left post-revolutionary Cuba very young or who were born in the
U.S. For many of these writers and artists, returning to Cuba,
regardless if they were born there or not, constitutes a seemingly
unavoidable, perfunctory event that will enable them to understand
their hyphenated ethnic identities in the U.S. as well as understand
their relationship to Cuba and its history. These cultural productions
are, in turn, mediated by a blistering sense of loss, sadness,
and melancholy. We will read Sigmund Freud’s theories of
mourning and melancholia to establish a theoretical framework
for understanding the nature of this pervasive infelicitous affect
that yields from Cuban-American accounts of exile. We will also
consider how the familiar account of Cuban exile, melancholia,
and return gets configured differently in Cuban-American queer
and feminist work. This course is interdisciplinary and will
draw on various critical methodologies and archives. For example,
we will read Freud’s psychoanalytic theories of melancholia
and how this process impacts gender, sexual and national identity
formations. Freud’s theories will be read alongside Louis
A. Perez Jr.’s magisterial On Becoming Cuban: Identity,
Nationality & Culture which will challenge us to re-imagine
when it is something like “Cuban-American” identity
first emerges. Another important historical kernel to be addressed
includes a look at Operation Pedro Pan, a secret U.S. government
plan that sent thousands of unaccompanied Cuban children to the
U.S. in the 1960s. Other authors, artists, and cultural critics
to be addressed include: Achy Obejas, Reinaldo Arenas, Cristina
Garcia, and Nilo Cruz. Requirements for this course include one
long research paper (12-15 pages), one oral presentation, spirited
class participation, an ability to still register surprise and
awe, excellent attendance, a sixth sense and a great ear for
hearing even the most muted forms of lamentation.
Sec.Meeting
Time LocationInstructor
02 SEMTu Th 2:50 PM- 4:05 PMTBAViego,
Antonio
LIT 162ZS / SPAN 181S
Topic: EL PENSAR DESCOLONIAL El Pensar Descolonial;
Cartografia Filosófica, Económica Y Política de América “Latina” Hoy.”
"Latin" America has been on the spot, lately, thanks
to the visibility, flamboyance and politics of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez and thanks to the fact that for the first
time the Presidential Seat has been occupied by an Aymara instead
of a president of European Descent. Chávez and Morales
have turned the tables around, and invite (if not compel) us
to re-imagine "Latin" America beyond Fidel Castro and
Lula, beyond Kirchner and Bachelet. What is the difference introduced
by Chávez and Morales? The decolonial option, I would
suggest. That is, if in the history of "Latin" America
in the past 60 years (that is, the history of the Cold War and
after the Cold War, with the last stage of neo-liberal globalization),
the options were either Capitalism or Socialism, now there is
another option, Decoloniality. This seminar explores the de-colonial
shift and the de-colonial options beyond left and right, beyond
either capitalism or socialism/communism. El seminario sera dictado
en Castellano. Lecturas en Castellano principalmente, pero también
en Inglés.
Sec.Meeting Time LocationInstructor
01
SEMM 11:40 AM-2:10 PMSEE INSTRUCTORMignolo, Walter
SOCIOL 116 - COMP
RACE/ETHNIC STUDIES
The social, legal and cultural
construction of racial and ethnic hierarchies in a comparative
international context with the United States and the United Kingdom
of central analytical concern. Racial formation and racial segregation
in specific historical and national contexts including the normative
case of the Anglo-Saxon core in the United States and how its
dominance has led to patterns of ethnic antagonism and discrimination;
the historical context of racial stereotypes and their representation
in various mediums. Social justice movements and public policies
designed to challenge racial and ethnic domination including
controversial topics such as "positive discrimination" (United
Kingdom) and Affirmative Action (United States/South Africa).
May include comparative case studies from India, South Africa,
Brazil, and continental Europe. Instructor: Staff Sec.Meeting
Time LocationInstructor
01
LEC MW 1:15 PM-2:30 PMGross Chem 104Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo
SPANISH 142S
- LATINA/LATIN AMERICAN POP CULTURE Drawing on contemporary
popular culture, this course explores what "Latinness" and
the "national" constitute in the creation and consumption
of Latino identities as deployed both in the United States and
Latin America. Exploring how Latina, Latino, and Latin American
bodies inhabit particular cultural and geographic contexts, the
course addresses the ways that popular cultural forms are developed,
contested, or resolved vis-à-vis issues of difference,
multicultural inclusiveness, domestic history, and narratives
of exile and migration. The deployment of popular aesthetic forms
in both Latino and Latin American contexts orients us to think
about the ways that popular culture operates as a structurally
active agent countering exoticized or "tropicalized" referents
for peoples, nations, and cultural practices. Of particular concerns
are such questions as: What are the pressing sociocultural and
political issues confronted by U.S. national culture and how
are these accounted for, if not represented, through the different
perspectives and terrains that shape Latino popular culture?
How does the seeming contemporary development of U.S. Latino
cultures dialogue not only with Americanness but with Latin Americanness
as well? We will unravel these questions by analyzing multiple
forms of cultural production, including novels, films, television
shows, advertising, comic strips, and music.
Tu Th 11:40 AM-12:55 PM (Soc/Psych 129) Instructor: Claudia Milian