Sample List of Prospective Courses
1. Latin American and Caribbean Thought (undergraduate survey)
This course focuses on the central questions asked in Latin America and the Caribbean regarding the history and character of the region: What is Latin America, what does it mean to be Latin American (and or Caribbean!) and therefore what is the form and content of Latin American and Caribbean thought?
2. Liberation Philosophy: History, Ethics, Politics, and Aesthetics (graduate seminar)
This seminar is an overview of the Latin American philosophical tradition known as “liberation philosophy”. While inclusive of thinkers such as Juan C. Scannone, Rodolfo Kusch, Horacio Cerutti, Hugo Assmann, among others, this seminar will focus primarily on the philosophical production of the main exponent of liberation philosophy: Enrique Dussel. We will trace the origins of liberation philosophy, its main interlocutors (phenomenology, German idealism and Marxism, liberation theology, the Frankfurt School, and decolonial thinking), as well as its principal contributions to current debates in philosophy and related disciplines. We will conclude with an overview of the main criticism that liberation philosophy has gathered over the last five decades.
3. Women of Color, Transnational, and Decolonial Feminisms (undergraduate seminar)
This course seeks to engage critical approaches to feminism within North America and parts of the Global South. The course focuses on theorizations made by women of color, often times in critical dialogue with mainstream feminist discourses. We will study the many ways in which oppression and resistance are conceptualized by these women, focusing on the intersections of gender, race, class, and sexuality. The student will leave the course with a critical language to analyze experiences of oppression across all levels of our social fabric.
Courses Taught
1. Spring 2018: Latino Literature and Culture (200 level undergraduate survey)
This course proposes a definition of Latinx literature and culture by reviewing some of the canonical texts produced by 20th and 21st century Latin American and Hispanic Caribbean diasporic writers. Class discussion will address various topics including: borders and diaspora; identity formation; race, racialization and white supremacy; ethnicity and nationality; gender, sexuality, and masculinities; resistance and assimilation, religion and spirituality; and the role of literary modes and genres (i.e. autobiography, poetry, novel, short story, film, etc.).
2. Fall 2017: Intro to World Literature – Border Crossers (100 level undergraduate survey)
This course will analyze the experiences of border crossers, whether these borders are national, racial, cultural, social, political, personal, sexual, or psychic. We will focus on contemporary novelists that attempt to give voice to historical subjects that have been largely silenced from mainstream accounts of migration and cultural representation in the Americas: Junot Diaz, hailing from New Jersey and accounting for a part of the Dominican-American diasporic experience; Yuri Herrera, from Mexico, who offers a nuanced representation of Mexican migration to the United States; and Christina García, from New York, recounting the porous and complicated character of the Chinese diaspora in the Americas.
3. Spring 2017: Intro to Mythology – The Myth(s) of Modernity (200 level undergraduate survey)
This course will analyze the project of modernity as a myth, focusing on the experiences of racialized populations in the United States and marginalized subjects in postcolonial India, imperial Japan, and postcolonial Algeria. The course will begin with a theoretical exposition of the myth of modernity according to the Latin American philosopher Enrique Dussel. Subsequently, we will analyze fictional short stories from authors such as Junot Díaz, Hisaye Yamamoto, Sherman Alexie, Alice Walker, Sandra Cisneros, Mahasweta Devi, Ikemiyagi Sekiho, and Assia Djebar.
4. Fall 2016: Short Fiction – Global Colonialities in Relation (100 level undergraduate survey)
In this course, we will read short stories that explore the contemporary legacies of colonialism in (North) America, (largely North) Africa, and (East and South) Asia. We will read stories that address the power relations at work in social contexts where subjects are marginalized or oppressed across markers of culture, nation, class, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and religion. Some authors to be discussed will include: Junot Díaz, Sandra Cisneros, Ikemiyagi Sekiho, Kang Kyong-ae, Sherman Alexie, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, Sonallah Ibrahim, Assia Djebar, Mahasweta Devi, Hisaye Yamamoto, and Bharati Mukherjee. Secondary critical readings will also be discussed by authors such as Max Horkheimer, Sylvia Wynter, Cherríe Moraga, Audre Lorde, Edward Said, and Carl Schmitt. Films will also be assigned to watch at home and will be incorporated into class discussions.
