SPRING 2006

CORE COURSES

HIST 361 - Modern Latin American History
Viviana Grieco
MWF 2:00pm - 2:50pm
MAX: 35

Fulfills LACS Major/Minor Requirement

DESCRIPTION: This course studies major social, political, economic and cultural trends in Latin America in the19th and 20th centuries including nation building after Independence, integration of "national" economies into the world economic system, the expansion of political participation and citizenship, new and old forms of social stratification, immigration (national and transnational) and the tensions caused by the forces of modernization and tradition. Although the purpose of the course is to provide a general background, case studies will illustrate these trends and will provide the basis for a comparative perspective.

PARTICULARS: Reading load is high (two to three articles per week). Assignments include participation in class discussion, take-home examinations, a short paper and a traditional final exam.

SPAN 300WR - Reading in Spanish: Texts and Contexts
Faculty
MWF Multiple Sessions
MAX: 10 per session

Fulfills LACS Major/Minor Requirement

DESCRIPTION: The primary objective of this course is to provide students with the historical, geographic and aesthetic background relevant to the study of Hispanic culture, including that of Spain, Latin America and the United States. Students acquire this broad knowledge as well as strengthen their language and critical thinking skills through extensive reading, frequent short papers, oral
presentations, and a final research project.

TEXTS :
Fuentes, Carlos. El espejo enterrado.
Dictionary: El pequeño Larousse ilustrado.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

PREREQUISITES: SPANISH 212 or 215, OFFICIAL SPANISH PLACEMENT from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, or permission of the Director of the Language Program.

LAS COURSES

LAS 270 - Cultures of Latin America
(Same as ANT 150)
Benjamin Junge
MWF 10:40am - 11:30am
MAX: LAS 6; ANT 12

DESCRIPTION : This course provides an introduction to contemporary cultural, political and economic issues in Latin America from an anthropological perspective. For the Spring 2006 semester, our theme will be “democracy and citizenship” and we will consider how ordinary people understand their own rights and citizenship, and make sense of the democratic societies in which they live. We will approach democracy not simply as a form of government, but as a powerful ideology used by governments, by social movements, and by ordinary citizens. Readings and other course materials will bring us face-to-face with individuals and groups from different regions, social classes, political affiliations, and economic circumstances. We will consider eight countries which have undergone transitions to democracy after periods of authoritarian rule (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and Nicaragua) and examine these case studies: indigenous populations, urban squatters, landless peasants, Afro-Latinos, the Women’s Movement, and the Lesbian & Gay Rights Movement. Course readings will draw from ethnography, history, and theories of democracy. This course will provide a firm foundation for further study of Latin America or of anthropology, for travel, and for being an informed citizen able to understand the issues behind newspaper accounts of current events.

TEXTS :
Alvarez, Sonia, Evelina Dagnino, and Arturo Escobar, Eds. 1998. Cultures of Politics, Politics of Cultures: Re-Visioning Latin American Social Movements
Lynne Phillips, Ed. 1998. The Third Wave of Modernization in Latin America: Cultural Perspectives on Neoliberalism
Menchú, Rigoberta. 1984. I, Rigoberta Menchú
Several other course readings will be available on e-reserve.

PARTICULARS: This course will feature a combination of lectures, films, student presentations, and open discussions. Grades are based on class participation, short reflection papers, exams and a final paper

LAS 270 - The Making of Modern Latin America
(Same as HIST 211)
Jorge Troisi-Melean
MWF 11:45am -12:35pm
Max: LAS 10; HIST 20

DESCRIPTION: This is an introductory course to the history of Latin America, with special attention to the Modern (post-1800) period. Classes will be organized in both chronological and thematic fashion, with themes mainly focusing on the region's colonial legacy, social, economic, and political life, and the persistent quest for modernization and development. Students taking this course will 1) Obtain knowledge of the major themes in the history of modern Latin America and 2) Gain a deeper understanding of contemporary issues in Latin America by examining their historical roots.

LAS 385WR - Covering Ethnic Communities
(Same as ASIA 370WR, JRNL 350WR)
Sheila Tefft
W 2:00pm - 4:00pm
MAX : LAS 5; ASIA 5; JRNL 5

DESCRIPTION: This course explores Atlanta's fabric of new immigrant communities and lively ethnic media. Students will compare and contrast coverage of immigrants and their neighborhoods in the mainstream press and ethnic publications. They will practice the basics of news reporting and writing and profile immigrant life in Atlanta through a series of journalistic assignments. Class work will be featured on a new website.

LAS 385R - Global Migration from 1000 - 1900
(Same as AFS 389, ECON 351R, HIST 351R)
David Eltis
TTH 11:30am - 12:45pm
MAX: LAS 5; AFS 5; ECON 10; HIST 10

DESCRIPTION : The course examines the forced and free migrations of peoples around the World over nine centuries. After taking up the dimensions and direction of migrations, the course focuses on first, why people have moved (or have been forced to move) and second, the impact that such movements have had on donor and receiving societies. Particular attention will be paid to the role of shifting conceptions of identity and cultures in addition to the usual political and economic factors. There is, of necessity, an emphasis on the Atlantic world and the pattern of slave trading and free migration that re-peopled the Americas with Africans, Europeans, and eventually Asians after 1492.

TEXTS :
Hoerder, Dirk. 2002. Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium

LAS 385WR - Latin American History in Fiction and Film
(Same as FILM 395WR, HIST 385WR, ILA 385WR )
James Woodard
TUTH 8:30am - 9:45am
MAX: LAS 5; IDS 15

DESCRIPTION : This course will examine portrayals of the Latin American past by filmmakers, screenwriters, and novelists. It will involve the critical reading/viewing of selected novels and feature films (and one screenplay) in light of works by contemporary historians, as well as responding to these readings/viewings in formal papers and in-class discussion. Our main question will not be whether the writer or director has produced an accurate depiction of the events in question—though we will certainly discuss this issue—but rather how s/he has framed the events in question, for what audience, and with what implications. We will also upend the comparison at different points and examine how historians have used fiction.

TEXTS : The fiction and film of the Mexican Revolution (including Mariano Azuela’s The Underdogs, Carlos Fuentes’ Death of Artemio Cruz, Elia Kazan’s Viva Zapata! and John Steinbeck’s screenplay of the same) will figure prominently in the course, though we will also examine further novels and feature films.

LAS 385R - Latin American Politics
(Same as POLS 331)
Juan del Aguila
MWF 10:40am - 11:30am
MAX : LAS 10; POLS 35

DESCRIPTION:This course offers a broad interpretation of Latin American politics and government from developmental and cultural perspectives. Significant issues shaping contemporary politics will also be discussed, namely democratization, neoliberal economic models, human rights and the tension between militarism and democratic legitimacy.

TEXTS :
Blake, Charles. 2005. Politics in Latin America
Skidmore, Thomas, and Peter Smith, Eds. 2005. Modern Latin America

LAS 490RSWR - Caribbean Women Writers
(Same as FREN 488SWR, WS 385SWR)
Valérie Loichot
TH 9:00am - 12:00pm
MAX: LAS 3; FREN 12; WS 3

DESCRIPTION: This course explores the writings of women from the Francophone and Creolophone Caribbean: Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Haiti. Some of the questions we will raise are: How do Caribbean women reclaim an image doubly-constructed by the male gaze and that of the colonizer ? How do they reclaim language in the space of tension between French and Creole, orality and writing? What particular racial dynamics inform their works? What is the position of motherhood and sexuality in their texts? Are Western feminisms relevant to analyze their situation?

TEXTS: Mayotte Capécia, Suzanne Césaire, Maryse Condé, Marie-Célie Agnant, Gisèle Pineau, and Edwidge Danticat.

PARTICULARS:1 short paper, 1 research paper, 1 oral presentation, class participation. The course is taught in French.

LAS 490RS - Crime and Punishment in Southern Cone Fiction
(Same as SPAN 460S)
Hernan Feldman
TTH 10:00am - 11:15am
MAX: LAS 3; SPAN 12

DESCRIPTION:How is crime socially construed? Are there any defining features that shape the dangerous contours of the so-called criminal mind? And what about punishment? Does punishment fit the crime? Or would it be more exact to say that punishment owes so much to its mirror image because punishment is not very different from the crime itself? Is punishing then part of the solution or part of the problem? Are we to conclude that everything is ultimately tied to fear, hate, revenge and violence? This course intends to explore the multiple answers that these and many other questions may trigger by studying representations of crime and punishment in narrative, comics and film produced in the Southern Cone during the second half of the 20th century. In addition, the class will touch upon seminal theoretical works dealing with punishment such as Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, and Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain. One of the most challenging objectives of the course will be to carefully consider to what extent cultural production perpetuates, or otherwise bolsters, the ethical parameters of a society that has proven utterly incompetent in dealing responsibly with the contradictions the penal system facilitates.

TEXTS:
Cristina Peri Rossi, “El contrato”
Ana María Shúa, “La mujer herida”
Jorge Luis Borges “Emma Zunz”
Roberto Bolaño, Amberes
Mempo Giardinelli, El décimo infierno
Juan José Saer, La pesquisa
Sergio Gómez, La mujer del policía

COMICS:
Carlos Nine, Muertes y castigo
Héctor Oesterheld, Mort Cinder, Roberto Fontanarrosa, Boogie el aceitoso.

FILMS:
Andrés Waissbluth, Los debutantes
María Victoria Menis, El cielito
Marcelo Piñeyro, Plata quemada
Adrián Caetano, Un oso rojo
Gaspar Noé, Irreversible.

PARTICULARS: The final grade will be the result of active participation in class (20%), a midterm exam (20%), an oral presentation (10%), two five-page response papers (20%), and a twelve-page research paper (30%).

LAS 490RS - Inka Art and Architecture
(Same as ARTHIST 485S)
Rebecca R. Stone
TH 9:00am - 12:00pm
MAX: LAS 3; ARTHIST 10 undergraduate, 5 graduate

DESCRIPTION: This seminar concerns the art and architecture of the Inka empire, the largest in the Renaissance world. Topics include: the state as a work of art, ritual clothing, stone as verb, the capital city of Cuzco, provincial quarters of the empire, ritual, and evidence for shamanism. Inka works of art in the Michael C. Carlos Museum collection will be featured.

TEXTS: Readings given as handouts or on reserve.

PARTICULARS:Students will present a topic of their choosing in class and write a 20-page [undergrad 15-page] paper.

LAS 490RS - New Latin American Cinema
(Same as SPAN 460S)
Dierdra Reber
MWF 11:45am - 12:35pm
MAX: LAS 3; SPAN 15

DESCRIPTION: In recent years, the international film scene has paused to take note of a wave of Latin American blockbusters in a phenomenon that has been accorded the status of a veritable cinematic movement. This "new" Latin American cinema, most visibly championed by directors from Mexico and Brazil, tends to be explained as the result of private financing in a move away from national sources of artistic funding. What kind of "freedom" does independent capital imply? What kinds of stories do they tell, and why do they have so many teenage protagonists? How do these films position themselves with respect to the global market, and what are the cultural implications of that positioning? Does the nationality of the director, cast, crew, or shooting location(s) define the nationality of a film? In what ways may these films be considered national, Latin American, or global? This course will explore these questions in the context of Latin American cinema from the past five years with the particular objectives of developing working hypotheses about the models of selfhood operative in these films and the types of local-global relationships they propose.

TEXTS: Critical, technical, and theoretical readings will be available through electronic reserves.

FILMS:
Rodrigo Bellott: Dependencia sexual (Bolivia, 2003)
Fabián Bielinsky: Nueve reinas (Argentina, 2000)
Juan José Campanella: El hijo de la novia (Argentina, 2001)
Carlos Carrera: El crimen del padre Amaro (Mexico, 2002)
Sebastián Cordero: Ratas, ratones y rateros (Ecuador, 1999), Crónicas (Ecuador, 2004)
Alfonso Cuarón: Y tu mamá también (Mexico, 2001)
Alejandro González Iñárritu: Amores perros (Mexico, 2000); 21 Grams (U.S., 2003); Babel (2006)
Joshua Marston: María, llena eres de gracia (Ecuador, U.S, 2004)
Fernando Meirelles: Cidade de Deus (2002)
Fernando Pérez: Suite Habana (Cuba, 2003)
Juan Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stoll: 25 watts (Uruguay, 2001)
Walter Salles: Abril despedaçado (2001), Diarios de motocicleta (2004), Dark Water (2005)
Barbet Schroeder: La virgen de los sicarios (Colombia, 2000)
Juan Carlos Tabío: Lista de espera (Cuba, 2000)

PARTICULARS: Brief reaction papers and class presentations throughout semester; final research paper.

LAS 490RS - Political Institutions in Latin America
(Same as POLS 490S)
Barry Levitt
W 2:00pm - 4:30pm
MAX: LAS 6; POLS 9

DESCRIPTION: How do political institutions work in Latin America, roughly two decades after most of the region experienced transitions to democracy? Are theories of political institutions that were developed in the context of Europe or North America useful for understanding these institutions in Latin America, or should we be using more “homegrown” approaches? In this seminar, we begin by reading theoretical and comparative work on political institutions around the world. We will then focus our attention on the political parties, legislatures, electoral systems, and other political institutions of Latin America. In a part of the world with a troubled history of political instability, these are more than just academic questions: the future of Latin American democracy itself may be at stake.

TEXTS: We will read all or part of the following volumes:
Mainwaring, Scott and Timothy Scully, Eds. Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America
Mainwaring, Scott and Matthew Shugart, Eds. Presidentialism and Democracy in Latin America
Schedler, Andreas, Larry Diamond and Marc Plattner, Eds. The Self-Restraining State
Morgenstern, Scott and Benito Nacif. Eds. Legislative Politics in Latin America
Mainwaring, Scott and Christopher Welna, Eds. Democratic Accountability in Latin America
Additional articles/chapters TBA

PARTICULARS: All course readings are in English. The prerequisite for this class is LAS 101 or any course on political institutions or Latin American politics. This course satisfies the College’s General Education Requirement (GER) for an advanced seminar.

GRADES:
Preparation and class participation: 20 %
Brief (1-2 pg.) response papers and
oral presentationson weekly readings: 25 %
Paper proposal and annotated bibliography: 15 %
Final paper (15-20 pages): 40 %

LAS 495A– Honors Thesis I
LACS Faculty
No set meeting time

Fulfills Emory College Honors Program requirement

DESCRIPTION: First semester of Honors Program thesis writing for those students participating in the College Honors Program

PREREQUISITES: Enrollment limited to program majors who qualify to participate in the Honors Program.

LAS 495BWR – Honors Thesis II
LACS Faculty
No set meeting time

Fulfills Emory College Honors Program requirement

DESCRIPTION: Second semester of Honors Program thesis writing for those students participating in the College Honors Program.

PREREQUISISTES: Must have completed LAS 495A.

LAS 497R – Independent Research in Latin American and Caribbean Studies
LACS Faculty
No set meeting time