Spring 2021 Undergraduate Courses

We will update course offerings as they are announced, so please continue checking this page to see all of our offerings.

RELI 245: Latina/o Religions in the US-Mexico Borderlands

Meeting Times T/TH 2-3:15PM

Office Hours TBA

Instructor: Israel Dominguez

The goal of this course is to orient students in the great diversity of Latina and Latino religious formations in the United States today. Focusing on Indigenous, African, and Catholic Creole “inspirations,” this course will introduce students to the emergence of a distinctly U.S. Latina/o religious experience.

AMSTUD 330: American Studies Service Learning w/Carolina Performing Arts: del norte a norte: An American Songbook

Meeting Times TBA (Mode of instruction TBA)

Office Hours TBA

Instructor: Dr. Annette M. Rodríguez

This course provides a comparative approach to the song cultures of the U.S. South and the U.S. Southwest—markedly North Carolina and Northern New Mexico—del norte a norte. Through the examination of a wide variety of song cultures and its artistic and cultural expressions, we explore the interdisciplinary methods of American Studies and contemporary approaches to the study of American society and cultures, with an emphasis on musical performance. Our course traces the connection of the song cultures and the arts to social change and community building. Students will learn about the sociocultural, aesthetic and critical components of song cultures associated with social change, exploring issues of identity, diversity, privilege, cultures, and justice while participating in community service.

The course will trace various performance political strategies thematically (editorial, empathy, humor, religious, satire) drawing comparisons and contrasts between cultural forms of the American South and the American Southwest. As we explore the articulations of calls for justice in song and performance, we ask: How do we use song in times in struggle? And how do we use song for joy in times of struggle? What are the various rhetorical strategies of musical performance? How does cultural context, musical instrumentation, and vocal choice structure musical expression? How does music and performance reflect the values of social movements and/or help movements convey their message?

ANTH 68: Forced Out and Fenced In: New Ethnographies of Latinx Immigration

M/W 5:45-7:00 PM (Remote and Synchronous)

Office Hours TBA

Instructor: Dr. Angela Stuesse

Undocumented immigration receives considerable media attention in the United States today. But what does it actually mean to be undocumented? How does illegality shape the lived realities of migrants themselves? Through in-depth engagement with five new ethnographies on the topic, this course examines the social, political, and legal challenges faced by undocumented Latino immigrants and their families. Through the lens of legal anthropology, which seeks to understand the relationship between law/policy, social relations, and inequality, students will explore the hazards of unauthorized crossing at the U.S.-Mexico border, processes of and obstacles to legalization, economic and health effects of immigration raids and workplace exploitation, coming-of-age challenges of undocumented youth, and consequences of detention and deportation. The authors of each ethnography will be invited to join us via Skype for an informal Q&A conversation.

ENGL 256: Crafting the Dramatic Latinx Film: Theory Meets Practice

Asynchronous Remote w/ Optional Zoom Sessions

Office Hours: T/Th 2-4pm (by appointment)

Instructor: Dr. Guillermo Rodríguez-Romaguera

This course examines key concepts and theoretical approaches to Latinx cinema as students learn how to produce and direct a short narrative film. As they engage with positions and issues of film theory and criticism (including semiotic, cognitive, psychoanalytic, feminist and phenomenological) and apply them to historically significant and recent Latinx films, students practice the basic principles of film production (producing, directing, cinematography, editing, and sound designing) to produce narratives that showcase their ideas on how Latinx identity could be/should be represented in cinema. By the end of the course, students should display basic competence in conceiving and developing dramatic ideas and in using cinema and digital media to engage audiences on issues affecting Latinx communities. Using smartphones and Adobe editing software available to all UNC students, this course instills the attitude that creative and critical ways of thinking should go hand in hand. Films to be discussed might include Roma, El Norte, Selena, Under the Same Moon, La Llorona, María Full of Grace and Culture Shock.

ENGL 267: Growing up Latina/o

T/TH 12:00-1:45 PM (Remote via Zoom)

Office Hours TBA (Via Zoom)

Instructor: Dr. Geovani Ramírez

The Bildungsroman is a novel that depicts the coming of age of a main character whose maturity often coincides with their recognition and embrace of their place in society. Once a primarily European genre, it has been popularized around the world. In the US, more “traditional” iterations of the Bildungsroman, however, have offered primarily Eurocentric and/or male accounts of growing up that exclude other women and minority groups in the US. This course intervenes in this regard by centering women’s and other marginalized youth’s stories surrounding growth. We will investigate the Bildungsroman as a genre and cultural production by studying various literary forms (beyond the novel) and films that offer growing up Latinx narratives. In this course, we will attempt to answer these and other questions: What is the cultural and historical work of a Bildungsroman? How do Latinx youth’s multiethnic and other hybrid identities extend or complicate Bildungsroman traditions? What networks of social relations do Latinx coming of age narratives reveal? How do Latinx Bildungsroman stories help us (re)imagine maturity, growth, and community?

ENGL 359: Latina Ecofeminism & Disability

T/TH 2:00-3:15 PM (Remote via Zoom)

Office Hours TBA (Via Zoom)

Instructor: Dr. Geovani Ramírez

This course will offer a theoretical grounding on Latina feminism and the historical moments and movements that inspired and/or influenced such Latina feminist thought and productions. In this course, we will gain a foundation for how Latinas theorize about Latinx gender, identity, culture, history, and aesthetics, and we will explore the intersections between Latina feminist thought and disability studies and ecofeminism. We will analyze a variety of cultural productions by Latinas including visual art, film, and music as it relates to health and environments. Along other lines of questioning, this course asks, what happens to discourses surrounding climate change, hazardous waste, reproductive health, and medicine when we consider Latina feminism and its theorization of Latinx experiences and epistemologies? What can Latina feminist thought and cultural productions offer to discussions surrounding the future of the environment and healthcare?

LTAM 390: Heritage and Migration in North Carolina

T/TH 11 AM- 12:15 PM (Virtual Synchronous)

Office Hours: TBA

Instructor: Dr. Hannah Gill

Experience and document North Carolina’s Latin American history! This undergraduate course trains students to use oral history as a method for understanding the immigration and settlement of North Carolinians with Latin American ancestry. The course will address the ethical and practical aspects of oral history including the preparation, transaction transcription, and archiving of oral history interviews. Students will complete an independent research project using the New Roots/Nuevas Raíces archive and conduct two virtual or in-person oral history interviews. An estimated 15% of course materials are in Spanish, so it is recommended that students have intermediate-advanced levels of Spanish language proficiency. The course is virtual and synchronous.

SPAN 344: Race and Ethnicity in Latin America

MW 1:25-2:40 PM (Mode of instruction TBA)

Office Hours TBA

Instructor: Dr. Emil’ Keme

Prerequisites: SPAN 261 or 267.

Course attributes: BN- Beyond the North Atlantic GL- Global Issues

How do ideas of race and ethnicity originate in and have shaped Latin American societies since the second half of the 20th century? How do race and ethnicity intersect with nationhood, class and gender? How do Indigenous and Black writers and artists’ address and challenge ideas of race and ethnicity in their work? Using an intersectional framework, this course will address the answers to these questions by critically examining the social, cultural, and political constructions of race and ethnicity and its consequences as they are represented in contemporary Indigenous and Black literatures, music and film. Some of the authors to be studied include: Domitila Barrios de Chungara (Aymara), Martín Tonalmeyotl (Nahuatl), Maya Cu Choc (Q’eq’chi Maya), Gladys Potosí (Kichwa), Victoria Santa Cruz, Lelia Gonzalez, Nancy Morejon, Manuel Zapata Olivella and Quince Duncan.

Spring 2021 Graduate Courses

English 864-001: Seminar on LatinX Environmentalisms

M 3:35 – 6:35 PM (Remote via Zoom)

Office Hours by phone (tba)

Instructor: Dr. María DeGuzmán (deguzman@email.unc.edu)

This graduate seminar introduces students to various poieses, practices, and implications of “LatinX environmentalisms.” We investigate the “LatinX” and the “environmentalisms” (plural) in relation to one another and together, exponentially. We consider how these LatinX environmentalisms engage histories of colonialism, lived experiences of neo-colonialism, and figure the intersection of nature and culture in terms of the effects of the “Anthropocene” and the struggle for environmental justice. We consider a variety of critical approaches, a range of literary genres (nonfiction, novels, short stories, drama, and poetry), visual productions (film, photography, installation art, mural art, and other public art), and some youth development, place-based environmental literacy projects. We consider the ways in which these LatinX environmentalisms intersect with, yet also—in their pronounced concern with environmental justice—differ from “mainstream” environmentalism with its focus on conservation, preservation, and wilderness. We strive to develop a nuanced understanding of the plurality of approaches within LatinX environmentalisms as indicated by our primary texts, visual productions, and critical readings.

Regular class attendance and participation are required each and every time the zoom class meets. Please note that this course will be taught remotely (synchronously).

Assignments: Consistent class attendance and participation, an 8 to 10-page essay, and an end of term paper (journal article quality) 20 – 25 pages.

SPAN 835: Central American Migration (Graduate Seminar)

M 3:35-6:05 PM (Mode of instruction TBA)

Office Hours TBA

Instructor: Dr. Emil’ Keme (edelvall@email.unc.edu)

Through a critical examination of literature and film, this course will explore how Central American authors and film directors address the root causes of migration, the journey north or south, settlement, and the challenges Central American migrants face in the new country. We will discuss the social, cultural, economic, and political histories of migrants’ countries of origin, including the effects of U.S foreign policy and economic power dynamics in these regions. We will also explore the transnational links that migrants create and maintain with their communities as well as the relationship between migration and larger global, imperial, and colonial socio-economic forces operating in Central America-American contexts.

Required texts

Migrante by Marcos Antil

Trece colores de la resistencia hondureña by Melissa Cardoza

Los migrantes que no importan by Oscar Martinez

On Heroes, Lizards and Passion by Zoila Ellis

El país bajo mi piel de Gioconda Belli

The World in Half by Cristina Henriquez