LACA 1620B | Paleography Seminar: Black and Indigenous Cimarronaje in the Spanish Caribbean, 1492-1886

CLACS Visiting Assistant Professor Margarita Rosa

Mondays | 3:00-5:30 p.m.

This is an introductory course in Caribbean history with a focus on “cimarronaje,” or rebellion, resistance, and flight. Through guided transcription exercises, collaborative workshops, and independent archival research, students will gain practical experience using historical evidence to reconstruct the lives of Black, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities whose histories are preserved in colonial archives. In 1978, Afro-Colombian artist recorded his hit song ‘Rebelión,” including lines such as “esclavitud perpetua,” a reference to the 1455 Romanus Pontifex Papal Bull, and lines like “No le pegue a la negra.” This course, a paleography seminar, reveals the history of Black and Indigenous resistance. 

Advanced reading proficiency in Spanish is required.

LACA 1504W | The Political Economy of (Right-Wing) Populism: Latin America in Comparative Perspective

CLACS Cogut Visiting Professor Sebastián Etchemendy

Tuesdays | 4:00-6:30 p.m

This course examines populism as a defining, illiberal force in global politics, analyzing its theoretical foundations and diverse empirical manifestations. Students will explore the social bases and economic strategies of populist movements from the 19th century to the present, with a primary focus on Latin America and interregional comparisons with the United States and Russia. The curriculum progresses from classical social science theories to contemporary debates regarding the "Right-wing turn" of 2026, exploring the conceptual distinctions between populism, fascism, and authoritarianism. By investigating historical "classical" populism alongside the neoliberal reforms of the 1990s, the course culminates in an analysis of the modern hegemony of reactionary, exclusionary movements. Students will evaluate both demand-side economic drivers and supply-side institutional failures to understand why specific populist variants dominate the current Western political landscape.

LACA 1601A | Hispaniola: History of Haiti and the Dominican Republic

CLACS Visiting Assistant Professor Margarita Rosa

Tuesdays and Thursdays | 10:30 AM-11:50 a.m.

This course examines the history of Hispaniola, tracing the island's development from Indigenous societies before 1492 to the present. Throughout the semester, students will consider how Haiti and the Dominican Republic have been shaped by a shared colonial past, overlapping movements for liberation and emancipation, and competing national memories. Through cartography, archival documents, and historical articles, students will trace how Indigenous sovereignty, European conquest, African enslavement, maroonage, revolution, massacres, independence, and official national historiographies transformed the island across five centuries.

LACA 1504U | The Gender of Debt: The Circulation of Women in Amazonia

CLACS Cogut Visiting Professor Flávia Melo da Cunha

Wednesdays | 3:00-5:30 p.m.

This course offers a critical and interdisciplinary exploration of women’s circulation in Amazonia, inspired by Denise Ferreira da Silva’s The Unpayable Debt (2024) and Octavia E. Butler’s novel Kindred: Blood Ties (2019). We will examine how Black feminist poetics challenges linear notions of time, social hierarchies, and systems of exploitation. Using Verenilde Pereira’s novel Um Rio sem Fim (1998) as a central text, the course analyzes historical and contemporary displacements of indigenous and racialized women in the Amazon, connecting these issues to transnational feminist debates on care, indebtedness, and social repair.
The course will be taught in Portuguese.

LACA 1504V | Democracy, Authoritarianism, and the Politics of Accountability in Contemporary Latin America

CLACS Cogut Visiting Professor Manoel Gehrke

Thursdays | 4:00 - 6:30 p.m.

Latin America has long been a critical testing ground for democracy. This course explores major historical and contemporary threats to democratic rule and the conditions that help sustain and strengthen it. We examine military coups, electoral authoritarianism, and other forms of institutional erosion, alongside processes of democratization and democratic resilience. The course also highlights efforts to hold political leaders accountable for abuses of power, human rights violations, and corruption, asking when these efforts succeed, when they fall short, and how they shape the prospects for democracy grounded in the rule of law.

American Studies

AMST 1907L: Forming Latinx Literature - Ralph Rodriguez

Economics

ECON 1690: Latin American Economic History - Felipe Valencia

Ethnic Studies

ETHN 0090A:The Border/La Frontera - Evelyn Hu-Dehart

History of Art and Architecture

HIAA 0052: Copán: Art, Architecture, and Archaeology of an Ancient Maya City - Catherine Nuckols

Hispanic Studies

HISP 0750Z: Science (in) Fiction - Iris Montero

HISP 1371R: Detention and Freedom in the Americas - Esther Whitfield

HISP1331T: Nuestra parte de noche': Literatura latinoamericana de lo cruel, macabro y sobrenatural - Erica Durante

History

HIST 1956F: Brazilian Biomes: An Environmental History of Brazil - Neil Safier

HIST 0233: Colonial Latin America - Jeremy Mumford

HIST 1840: Popular Culture in the Americas - Jennifer Lambe

International and Public Affairs

IAPA 1401: Economic Development in Latin America -Veronica Ingham

IAPA 1701W: The Cold War in Latin America - Stephen Kinzer

Musicology

MUSC 0021F: Popular Music and Society in Latin America - Joshua Tucker

Portuguese and Brazilian Studies

POBS 0630I: Earch, Sea, City: Environmental Visions from the Lusophone World - Leila Lehnen

Theatre Arts and Performance Studies

TAPS 1670: Latinx Theatre + Performance - Ivan Ramos and Patricia Ybarra