Major Seminar

In this course, we cut across interdisciplinary lines while exploring the dynamic diversity of some of Spanish America's most complex and fascinating cities not only as "real" objects of study but also as myths, symbols, and metaphors: Buenos Aires, San Juan (paired with New York), Havana (paired with Miami), Lima, Mexico City, and Santiago de Chile. Students will be able to select other major cities (Quito, Caracas, Montevideo, Managua, Bogotá, Cartagena de Indias, among others) for an in-depth study, either individually or in collaborative teams. First, we will trace the genealogy of the Spanish American city back to the monumental sacred centers of Cuzco and Tenochtitlan. Next, we will concentrate on the representations of cities in literature, visual arts, and film, with special emphasis on topics such as class, race and gender relations; political upheaval, protest, repression, surveillance, punishment, incarceration; youth culture; poverty, marginality and labor; public health, contagion, epidemic/pandemic; migration; globalization, sustainability, and climate change; tourism; access, movement, disability; street culture; urban agriculture and design; public and private (domestic) spaces. We will also examine various research articles on the subject of the city, blending insights from anthropology, urban studies, sociology, economics, etc. This engagement with interdisciplinary approaches will encourage students to seek their own insights grounded in areas beyond literature, art or film, and to perceive cities as sites of diverse human experiences. PreReq: Completion of one Debating Cultures and one Researching Cultures Course. In Spanish.
Course Attributes: EN H; AS HUM; AS LCD; AS WI I; FA HUM; AR HUM

Major Seminar

SPANISH 405W

Section 01

Section 04

Section 02