Hispanic Cultural Studies

Course Description This class is a survey of pre-Columbian civilization and the impact of the Encounter with Europe, modern-socio-historical, cultural and political events which shape present-day Latin America. This semester the course will focus on cultural resistance to colonization and other forms of social injustice in Latin America. Participants will study a diversity of textual forms generated to resist oppression (poetry, songs, murals, films, tapestries). Topics for class discussion are the ownership of culture by the marginalized, cultural products as tools for empowerment; the way diverse socio-political contexts trigger different cultural responses, and political participation and involvement in human rights…