30 courses with the subject LAS, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
LAS 101Introduction to Latin American Studies
Instructor Gasparowicz LAS 101 is an interdisciplinary introduction to the study of Latin America. The class draws on expertise of Latin American studies experts from across the faulty. Important areas of study include theory, cultural production, history, and contemporary politics and society. Satisifies Cultural Diversity requirement. The course is a requirement for the Latin American Studies major and minor. Prerequisites & Notes (Spring)
Instructor Gonzalez Through a hemispheric approach, this course surveys the historical and contemporary forces that have shaped U.S. Latinx literature, culture, society, and politics. We will explore changing categories-such as Spanish, Chicano, Hispanic, Latina/o, Latinx, and Latine-and the production of contemporary U.S. Latinx identities. Course readings will include primary texts such as first-person narratives from mestiza women in the Spanish 18th century mission system, Chicano activist poetry from the 1960s, and contemporary performances like Bad Bunny’s 2026 Super Bowl halftime show. Secondary texts will include scholarly analyses of colonialism; race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality; migration and transnationalism; identity; language; and social movements and power. Coursework will include participation in a mix of faculty-led and small group discussions, with students engaging in small stakes assignments that test comprehension and develop discussion and critical thinking skills, such as quizzes, composing discussion questions, and mini-presentations. Satisfies Latin American Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
Instructor Castaneda From Mexico to Brazil and beyond, Africans and people of African descent have fought in wars of independence, forged mixed race national identities, and contributed politically and culturally to the making of the Americas. Even though Latin America imported ten times as many slaves as the United States, only recently have scholars begun to highlight the role blacks and other people of African descent played in Latin American history. This course will explore the experiences of Afro-Latin Americans from slavery to the present, with a particular focus on Haiti, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. In doing so, the course seeks to answer questions such as: What does it mean to be black in Latin America? Why has racism persisted in Latin America despite political revolutions claiming to eliminate discrimination? What are the links between blacks in Latin America and the United States? How have differing conceptions of “race” and “nation” caused the rise and decline of transnational black alliances between U.S. blacks and Afro-Latin Americans? All course readings will be in English and will include memoirs, films, and first-hand historical documents in additional to scholarly books and articles. Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean). Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major or minor. Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
Instructor Castaneda Brazil has the largest population of people of African descent outside of Africa. This course will employ an interdisciplinary approach to understand the historical and sociocultural experiences of people of the African diaspora in Brazil. Once heralded internationally as a “racial democracy” or racial paradise due to centuries of racial mixture and national narratives of mestiçagem, Brazil has been the subject of an ongoing critical re-evaluation that has revealed quite a disparity between the national ideal and the social reality. In this course, we will critically engage with these paradoxical discourses and realities, as well as with the histories, ideas, and movements that address and expand our notions of politics, pleasure, and autonomy. This course addresses these questions by focusing on a wide range of themes including social movements, popular music, religion, the arts, and culinary traditions. We will collaboratively read, view, and listen to a variety of sources and literature in order to analyze and write about blackness, Afro-Brazilian cultural expression, and the everyday lives of Black people in Brazil. Satisfies Africana Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Latin American Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
Instructor Cornejo Casares This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Latinx Studies. Through a hemispheric approach, this course examines the historical and contemporary forces that have shaped U.S. Latinx culture, society, and politics. Broadly, we first analyze the distinct intellectual mandate of Latinx Studies. Then, we identify and explore the political project of Latinx Studies. Central and guiding areas of inquiry include: colonialism; race, ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality; migration and transnationalism; identity; language; and social movements and power. This course will serve as a general introduction to the field of Latinx Studies and inform the more focused curriculum of specialized and upper-level courses. Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major and minor. Satisfies a requirement in the Anthropology major and minor. Satisfies a requirement in the Gender and Sexuality Studies major and minor. Satisfies a Social-Scientific Thought requirement. Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community graduation requirement.
Instructor Stuartevant Throughout Latin America, social movements extend democratic participation far beyond the ballot box and transform political possibilities for those who had previously been excluded from power. In this course, we will examine how social movements convince national populations of their legitimacy, how they negotiate with and relate to national governments, and how they challenge the legitimacy of elected and unelected leaders. Satisfies a major requirement in Latin American Studies. Satisfies a minor requirement in Latin American Studies. Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement. Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
Instructor Sturtevant Race and ethnicity are among the principal concepts through which difference is explained and enacted throughout Latin America. Though they have no grounding in biological sciences, these socially constructed realities play an outsized role in how we envision national, regional, and temporal spaces. In Latin America these discourses often frame race in terms of blending (harmoniously or not) of African, Indigenous, and European peoples, and the construction of a new racial identity. This course will explore constructions of race and ethnicity in Latin America through a comparative approach, juxtaposing distinct constructions from particular contexts within Latin America to each other and examining their relationship to global discourses about race, ethnicity, and difference. Satisfies Latin American Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement. Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
Instructor Cornejo Casares Citizenship is an elusive invention. What does it mean to be a “citizen”? What is citizenship, and how do we define it-as legal status, rights, participation, identity, or something else? To what extent does the state mediate, control, or monopolize the meanings and practices of citizenship? How is political membership-a form of citizenship-lived, constructed, and contested by citizens and noncitizens alike? Drawing on the histories and experiences of Latin American migrants, their descendants, and established communities in the U.S., this course examines and interrogates how the logic, rubric, and structure of citizenship designs, dominates, and destroys Latinx social life. Integrating sociological and political theories, this course has two key areas: first, the normative, political, and social dilemmas of citizenship, membership, and belonging; and second, how Latinx groups have reaffirmed, subverted, and/or transformed these issues and dilemmas. Satisfies Latin American Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Sociology major requirement. Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement. Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement.
Instructor Castaneda This interdisciplinary course explores how gender and race are experienced, defined, challenged, and expressed through and in relation to food across the Americas. We will engage with literature from anthropology, feminist food studies, Black Studies and Latin American Studies and engage with topics such as: how appetites are marked by gender and race, how cooking has served as a medium of female oppression and empowerment, and how food has nurtured racial justice movements in ways that have been under-acknowledged. Satisfies Africana Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement.
Instructor Garcia Peacock In this course students will explore environmental themes in American visual culture. Taking the art related to the environmental justice movement as a point of departure, students will be exposed to a broad range of visual material that offers insight into how humans have advocated for a wide range of political opinions through their painting, sculpture, memorials, historical markers, roadside and yard installations, printmaking, murals, and the natural environment. Students will gain a strong sense of how this visual material not only has been used as important tools in inspiring political action but also how these materials also serve as important “texts” in documenting and preserving less well-known environmental perspectives. Satisfies the Humanities track of the Environmental Studies major and interdisciplinary minor. Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
One-time course offerings with themes related to the interdisciplinary study of Latin America. Typically taught at an introductory or intermediate level but with no prerequisites unless otherwise stated. Fall 2021 Latin American Nations and Nationalisms Instructor : Sturtevant This course will address political projects that strive to construct national identities and legitimize government authority throughout Latin America in the present day. We will explore how the privileges and obligations associated with citizenship within a national community are unequally distributed; how elite groups and marginalized communities deploy conceptions of national identity to achieve their political goals; and how racial and ethnic diversity transform and is transformed by these national identity projects. At the heart of this exploration is the difficult relationship between a people and a political authority: the “untenable hyphen” between nation and state. Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement
Instructor Garcia Peacock In this course, students will examine a broad range of Latinx environmental experiences across time and place in the United States. Taking the environment as a key category of analysis, students will explore the ways that the natural and built environments shape, and are shaped by, Latinx culture. Looking to important rural, urban, suburban, and wilderness sites across the United States, students will construct a nuanced “picture” of how Latinx environments have changes over time. With our methodology placed squarely in historical and visual analysis, we will frequently engage interdisciplinary approaches to enhance our understanding of key issues including: labor, migration, public health, community and neighborhood building, transportation networks, natural resource development, education, and tourism. Students will be exposed to a wide range of human expressions of place, such as art, literature, and activism, to gain a better understanding of how Latinxs have represented their environmental experiences. Satisfies the Humanities track of the Environmental Studies major and minor. Satisfies a requirement in the Latin American Studies major. Fulfills the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
LAS 300Major Thinkers in Africana Studies: Afro-Cuban Feminisms (=AFR 300)
Instructor Benson Black and mulata women have participated in constructing Cubanidad (Cuban nationalism) since the beginning of the Cuban republic in 1902. However, the largely male-dominated national narrative that has made Che Guevara’s “New Man” famous since 1959 frequently overshadows their interventions. Despite this public silence, Afro-Cubanas (Afro-Cuban women) have consistently challenged narratives of exclusion and contributed to antiracist and antisexist movements in Cuba. As theater critic, Inés María Martiatu Terry explained in 2011 one of the goals of the Afrocubanas movement is to “feminize negritude and to blacken feminism.” This course will analyze Afro-Cubana feminisms through a close reading of the work of four key black and mulata intellectuals and activists-Sara Gómez, Nancy Morejón, Daisy Rubiera, and Gloria Rolando. In doing so, it seeks to trace the legacy of the many black and mulata women who participated in revolutionary Cuba from the 1960s to the present. In particular, the course will examine how Afro-Cubanas have challenged negative stereotypes about black women, worked both inside and outside of Cuba’s state-sponsored women’s movement, and fought to create space for racial and sexual rights. All course readings will be in English and will include memoirs, films, and first-hand historical documents in additional to scholarly books and articles. The course can be repeated for credit given sufficiently distinct topics. Satisfies a major requirement in Africana Studies Satisfies a major requirement in Latin American Studies Satisfies the Histories and Genealogies major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies
Subject
LAS
Type
course
Repeatable
can be repeated for credit given sufficiently distinct topics.
Instructor Cornejo Casares This course is an introduction to research methodologies within, across, and between disciplines. Recognizing the potential and limits of disciplinary boundaries, this course aims to impart the significance of methodological pluralism, critical perspectives, and empirical familiarity with a range of methods available to interdisciplinary researchers. Students will explore a range of methods that could include: surveys, interviews, ethnography, content analysis, discourse analysis, historical and archival methods, and mixed methods. Students will learn how to design a research study-from intellectual curiosities to research plans. In addition to understanding the logic of inquiry, students will gain the practical tools for conducting research. At the end of the course, students will develop an original research proposal and project for possible grant submissions, thesis projects, and/or independent research. As research is a vehicle for social change, students will learn to become critical evaluators and producers of knowledge. Satisfies Latin American Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Gender and Sexuality Studies major requirement. Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
LAS 309Consuming Culture: Food & Identity Across the Afro-Americas (=AFR 309)
Instructor Castaneda This interdisciplinary course intends to examine an array of socio-cultural questions about Afro-Latin America and the role that food has had in constructing and imagining Afro-Latin American communities and subjectivities. By placing Afro-Latin America at the center as subjects and knowledge producers, this course commits to an intentional practice of learning from and of the Global South and decentering the United States, and the west more broadly, within the arena of political, intellectual, and cultural production. Beginning with Brazil, the country that has the largest Afro-descendent population outside of Africa and once heralded internationally as a “racial democracy,” we will examine the ways that food has served to both reinforce and disrupt socio-cultural assumptions and stereotypes related to race, gender, and class. We will examine food’s relationship to questions of gender norms, sexuality and labor and place these conceptualizations in dialogue with other countries and Afro-descendent populations across the Americas. We will end the course placing Afro-Latin America in dialogue with the Afro-Latinx diaspora and African Americans. Satisfies Africana Studies major and minor requirement Satisfies Latin American Studies major and minor requirement Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement
Instructor Sturtevant In recent years, indigenous movements have transformed national political landscapes throughout Latin America. They have challenged the position of indigenous peoples within the nation and within long-held ideologies of national identity based on race-mixing (mestizaje); reconfigured ideologies of citizenship and belonging; and upended longstanding hierarchies of inclusion and marginalization. In doing so, these movements have also produced shifting conceptions of what it means to be indigenous. This course will explore these changing conceptions of indigeneity and nationhood, alongside political projects that call for alternatives to national frameworks, including indigenous autonomies and cosmopolitical entanglements. Satisfies a Latin American Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement. Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
Instructor Cornejo Casares The media, organizations, pundits, and scholars alike have pointed to a fundamental demographic transformation: the “browning of America.” The U.S. Census Bureau projects that by the 2040s non-Hispanic whites will no longer be the majority. By 2060, the Latinx population- the largest ethnoracial group-will represent nearly a third of the U.S. population. This course examines the past, present, and future of this majority-minority and its Latinx ethnoracial politics. Drawing on sociological theories of race and racism, this course analyzes the sociohistorical, political, and discursive formation of Latinidad. Our focus will be nationally in the U.S., hemispherically across the Americas, and globally in the making of modernity. We explore the promise and limits of Latinidad as a signifier, category, and identity of Latinx subjectivities. Satisfies Latin American studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Sociology major requirement. Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement. Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
Instructor Sturtevant This is a practice-based course. We will develop the skills to tell stories through audio documentaries (aka podcasts). We will use those skills to explore the variety and richness of Latinx experiences in North Carolina, focusing on the area around Davidson. Students will be encouraged to choose from a wide array of topics in their research, including culture and entertainment, sports, labor, race and racism, gendered perspectives, queer theory, business and commerce, and others. Satisfies a major requirement in Latin American Studies Satisfies a minor requirement in Latin American Studies Satisfies the Social-Scientific Thought requirement Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement
Instructor Sturtevant In this seminar, students will be placed with an organization that is engaged with (or involved in outreach efforts with) the Latinx community of Mecklenberg County and the surrounding region. Field placements will vary, but ideally, the student will be involved in carrying out a project for the host organization that will involve research. Examples might include, developing an outreach plan for an organization that aspires to engage with a Latinx community, or developing a set of resources that an organization for implementing their programs with Spanish-speaking populations. The learning will come not only from the practical experience of collaboration, but also from written reflections on that experience and readings on engaged, participant, and activist research. Satisfies a Latin American Studies major and minor requirement. Satisfies Social and Scientific Thought Ways of Knowing requirement. Satisfies the Cultural Diversity requirement.
LAS 360History of the Caribbean: Race, Nation, and Politics (= AFR 360, = HIS 360)
Instructor Benson This course explores the history of the Caribbean from pre-Colombian times to the present. The goal of the class is to trace the emergence of modern Caribbean nations beginning from their status as slave colonies of the not-so-distant past within an emphasis on the central role the Caribbean islands have played in global history. Particular emphasis is given to the maintenance of European and North American imperial enterprises and the elaboration of racial ideologies growing out of the diversity that has characterized the island populations. Issues to be addressed include colonialism, piracy, sugar revolution, slavery and emancipation, national independence, tourism, and Caribbean migrations. Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica will be the main areas under consideration, although texts from other islands such as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Martinique are included. Satisfies a requirement in the Africana Studies major (Geographic Region: Latin America/Caribbean). Satisfies a requirement in Latin American Studies major and minor. Satisfies a requirement in the History major or minor. Satisfies the Historical Thought requirement. Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.
One-time course offerings with themes related to the interdisciplinary study of Latin America. Typically taught at an advanced level but with no prerequisites unless otherwise stated. Spring 2026 LAS 380-A Cornejo Casares Who are you ? Who am I ? Who are we ? Who are they ? This seminar explores sociological theories of interaction processes and structures to examine the formation and career of the “self” through one of the quintessential “others” of our time: the “illegal alien.” Bridging microsociology and the sociology of immigration, we evaluate the link between self and society through undocumented immigrants’ social lives in the United States. Our microsociological approach to illegalized social life will focus on identity, emotions, boundaries, embodiment, and power. In addition to theoretical perspectives, we will read qualitative social science research and interpret immigrants’ cultural production, such as films and narratives. Students will thus analyze how society creates undocumented immigrants as a social being, and how undocumented immigrants reproduce society and its legal inequalities. Counts as an elective in Latin American Studies major and minor. Satisfies Justice, Equality and Community requirement. Satisfies Social Scientific Thought Requirement
One-time course offerings with themes related to the interdisciplinary study of Latin America. Typically taught at an advanced level but with no prerequisites unless otherwise stated. Fall 2025- Dreams and Disillusions: Exploring the Cuban Revolution Instructor - Willis, Angie “Dreams and Disillusions: the Cuban Revolution” examines historical and literary texts, films, art works and other cultural artifacts related to the 1959 Cuban Revolution. Visons of a utopian place have formed part of the Cuban imagination since long before 1959: Cuba has been part of the dialogue around notions of “Paradise lost” since Columbus first sailed for the New World; many of those same ideals would be later rewritten in the lofty dreams the Cuban Revolution. Taught in English, this class explores critical and literary works that expose the frustrations and social divisions that led up to Castro’s Revolution, both the elation and the regret of the early days of the Revolution, along with that uncover much about the resilience of the contemporary Cuban people. The majority of the works studied are from the 1940s through contemporary Cuba, with some earlier texts exposing the challenges faced by the former colony, first made wealthy by exploration and slavery. We will find how the struggles of the past still echo today Spring 2026- TBD Instructor: Gasparowicz Fulfills an elective in the Latin American Studies major and minor. Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement. Satisfies Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement. Prerequisites & Notes While not required, students are encouraged to take LAS 101 before taking this course.
LAS 394Latinx Sexual Dissidence and Guerrilla Translation (=GSS 394)
Please email Melissa Gonzalez ( megonzalez@davidson.edu ) if you are interested in this course. Instructor González Despite local differences and sociocultural contexts, there are also remarkable convergences in subcultural minority activisms focused on liberation from intersecting oppressions related to sexuality, race, gender, ability, citizenship status, and class in North and South America. In this upper-level bilingual seminar, students will translate guerilla-style-functionally and in a non-literary fashion-texts by activists and cultural producers focused on intersectional sexual dissidence. Working in teams, students will have the opportunity to consult with some of their target texts’ authors, and the course’s final product will be an online archive of English and Spanish translations of texts related to intersectional, feminist, and queer Latinx American activisms and cultural productions. First, students will study the rhetorics and aesthetic strategies of feminist and queer activist collectives focused on social issues such as immigration, transgender rights, anti-racism, economic equality, anti-speciesim, body positivity, and prison abolition with a pro-pleasure, leftist perspective. Second, students in the course and I will elaborate a list of the principles and goals informing our functional, guerrilla translations. In the third unit, students will work exclusively on the translation projects they have been developing throughout the semester. They will have the opportunities to interview at least one of the authors whose work they are translating. Collectives, authors, and artists from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the U.S. that we will study include: Colectivo Lemebel; Colectivo Universitario de la Disidencia Sexual (CUDS); TransLatina Coalition; Biblioteca Fragmentada; Lino Arruda; Constanzx Alvarez Castillo; Jorge Díaz; Valeria Flores; Daisy Hernández; Jennicet Gutiérrez; Claudia Rodríguez; Ignacio Rivera; Julio Salgado; and Susy Shock. Satisfies a major requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Satisfies a minor requirement in Gender and Sexuality Studies. Satisfies a major requirement in Latin American Studies. Satisfies an interdisciplinary minor requirement in Latin American Studies. Satisfies the Justice, Equality and Community requirement. Satisfies the Literary Thought, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement. Prerequisites & Notes Requires permission from the instructor.
Instructor Cornejo Casares Undocumented immigration is one of the most misunderstood enduring social problems. This course thus focuses on two broad areas: the construction and experience of “migrant illegality.” We first investigate how immigration became “illegal.” Beginning in the late 19th century, and proceeding chronologically, students will explore the multiple productions of illegalized movement. Initially prioritizing the state’s perspective, the course then shifts and centers on undocumented immigrants in the latter half. We focus on how immigrants experience and live the condition of illegality across numerous dimensions and institutions of social life. Finally, moving beyond the categories of “migrant” and “state,” the course concludes by analyzing the transnational, intergenerational, and long-term consequences of migrant illegality. As a research seminar, students will have the opportunity to develop individual creative projects on a select issue relating to undocumented immigration. This course will draw on various migrant-sending countries in Latin America and interdisciplinary perspectives to juxtapose and analyze how undocumented immigration has fundamentally transformed U.S. society. Satisfies Latin American Studies major and minor requirement. Satusfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement. Satisfies Justice, Equality, and Community requirement.
Instructor Crandall B Capstone course for Latin American Studies majors. Students will study one theme from an interdisciplinary perspective and prepare a related major research paper. Prerequisites & Notes Spring
Instructor Staff Independent study dedicated to research and writing the honors thesis: Grade will be noted as NG after the first semester and the final grade will be applied in the spring semester at the completion of the thesis. The final grade for the thesis will be determined by the thesis committee following a spring defense of the thesis.
