Historical examination of ancestor worship, Santería (Cuba), Vodun (Santo Domingo), Espiritismo (Puerto Rico), and other African-based belief systems. Formation from African to slave societies and use in contemporary period.

History of the Caribbean from before the Spanish conquest until the consolidation of the US imperial sphere in 1898. Emphasis on Spanish, English, and French colonialism and the formation of Jamaica, Saint Domingue/Haiti, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Española/Dominican Republic.

Examines the experience of Caribbean women in nations of origin and in diasporic communities in the US. Focus on work, migration, transnationalism, family, daily life, gender relations, and politics.

Credit not given for both this course and 01:988:210.

Introduction to art and visual culture of the Caribbean from pre-Conquest to the present.  Representational practices in relation to the region’s diversity, history of colonization, dictatorships, and revolutions.  Role of the visual in defining national, gendered, classed, racial, and regional identities.

01:595:101 recommended as a prerequisite.

Study of development of Puerto Rican literature from the Spanish colonial period to the present. Emphasis on major writers: Pales Matos, Corretjer, Marquez, Gonzalez, Soto, Diaz, Valcarcel, Sanchez, and Blanco.

Not open to first year students.

Historical and contemporary formation and experience of Latino cultural, political symbolic, and geographic communities in comparative perspective. Participation of Latinos and Latin American migrants in broader communities.

Not open to first year students.

Importance of transnationalism to the Dominican Republic from the "first encounter" with Europeans to contemporary migration and cultural patterns.

Open to third and fourth year students only.

Analysis of the relationship between political and economic development in the twentieth century; the changing nature of U.S./Puerto Rican relations; formation of the colonial state; and the statehood and independence movements.

Origins and processes of international migration by people from Mexico to, from and within the United States.  Economic, political, social and cultural histories of Mexico, including the effects of U.S. foreign policy and economic power; assimilation and incorporation of first and second generation Mexicans and transnational links. Impact on gender, class, and racial formation.

Not open to first year students.

Art, visual culture, and cultural history, with emphasis on the 20th century.  Modernism, muralism, varied “minor” mediums and artists, post-revolutionary art, Mexican-American/Chicano Civil Rights Movement art, visual production and politics.

Not open to first year students.

Interaction of work and family in Latinas' migration to U.S. Focus on reasons for migration, incorporation into U.S.society, and questions of continuity and change.

Social development and political economy of the Caribbean in the context of its integration and membership in the capitalists world system. Interimperialist conflict and rivalry and their impact on the development of West Indian societies. The Caribbean as a microcosm of the third world.

Political organization of Latino communities in the northeastern U.S. since World War II. Role of Latinos in shaping U.S. domestic and foreign policy, the impact of immigration and language polices on political organization.

Examination of the history and role of the diverse religious components of the Caribbean basin from Indigenous practices to Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism and the emergence and development of African belief systems and practices such as Vodou, Santeria and Rastafarianism from the 18th century to the present.

Political development of Haiti in a comparative historical perspective.Emphasizes the interplay of domestic and international political forces
in shaping modern Haiti.

An examination of Dominican politics, economy, and society from the start of the Trujillo era (1930) to the present. The course will focus on the authoritarian legacy of the Trujillo dictatorship, relations with the U.S., electoral politics in the post-Trujillo period, and recurring trends of caudilloism, militarism, clientelism, and personalism in Dominican society.

Examination from pre-Columbian time to present. Focus on Spanish colonial policy, slavery and land tenure systems, emergence of national identity, U.S. invasion and rapid economic changes and population control and migration.

From French invasion of Hispaniola to present. Role in Spanish empire, U.S. control in transition to sugar economy, Trujillismo, U.S. invasion in 1965 and impact of migration on society.

A study of Cuba from pre- Columbian times to the present day. Deals with the long battle for freedom during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Analysis of the capitalist mode of production in Latin America. Class struggles and state structures in the historical formation of Latin American societies.

Special seminar on advanced and specialized research themes on the Caribbean and Latinos in the US.

Open to fourth year students only. Prerequisite: Non Majors/Minors by permission of Instructor.

Prerequisite: Permission of instructor.

Analysis of contemporary or historical topic leading to student's independent research and writing a substantial paper. Critical thinking and discussion emphasized.