This course explores the contemporary societies of Latin America and the main features in the development of the economies, politics, and cultures of the region. A transdisciplinary approach, which combines the use of different methodologies from the humanities and the social sciences, will allow us to map out the historical, ethnic, social, and political processes that have shaped diverse geo-cultural formations in the region. Although the course follows a loosely historical trajectory of the 20th Century, it is organized around the unfolding of geopolitically overdetermined geo-cultural areas. Each module will focus on selected political and/or cultural topics of social and historical relevance.

Through this journey, we will understand the complex dialectics between change and continuity, the emergent and the residual, modernity and traditions, as well as the articulation between regional cultures and local practices, nation states and global actors, high culture and popular culture, folklore and pop, political agents and civil society, subcultures and countercultures, ethnicity and class, gender and age. Students will be encouraged to address topics relevant to their major(s) in an interdisciplinary manner.  

Fulfills GEN Social and Behavioral Sciences requirement