LACS 016 A-Z - (CC, IS) The Latin American Experience

Semester Hours: 3

This is a special topics course designed to immerse students in the social, political, economic, historical, cultural, religious, artistic, or diasporic experiences of peoples, communities and countries in the region. Taught from a multidisciplinary perspective, each time it is offered, the course will have a new, fresh focus and coverage, while always engaging with issues of race, gender, class, nation, and sovereignty.

Current Special Topics:

LACS 016C - (CC,IS) Immigration and the Law

At any given time, millions of people are leaving their homes to settle in a new place. In this course, we will explore five main questions related to the immigration process, with a particular focus on the US:

1) Why do people migrate?

2) Why does the immigration system in the US look the way that it does?

3) What is the impact of immigration on host societies?

4) What is the process by which immigrants become a part of the host society; and

5) what is the impact that policy has on the (ex)inclusion of immigrants?

Same as CRM 015 , SOC 139  

LACS 016I - (BJ,IS) Karl Marx and Crisis Today

This course welcomes those approaching Karl Marx for the first time as well as those with previous courses on Marx or Marxian economics.  The course is an exploration of contemporary macroeconomic and environmental issues using the analytical apparatus developed by Karl Marx in Volumes One, Two, and Three of Capital.  While the course will explore issues and applications on the frontier of Marxian economics, it will also provide beginners with sufficient preparation to tackle intermediate topics dealing with Vols. Two and Three of Capital, such as the theory of rent (and contemporary financialization), the theory of a falling rate of profit (and contemporary stagnation and policy ineffectiveness), the question of unequal exchange between the Global North and the Global South, and finally the causal relation between capitalism and climate change.  Students who complete the course will have gained a thoroughly grounded analysis of and explanation for the contemporary “polycrisis” and will therefore have the basis upon which to craft and evaluate proposed responses to the current exhaustion of capitalism.

Same as ECO 154B , LABR 155I  

LACS 016J - (CC,IS) Latin American Spanish in the U.S.

This course explores the presence of the Spanish language in the United States and its relationship to Latinx identity, culture, and literature. What does it mean to speak Spanish in the U.S.? Is there a distinctive U.S. Spanish variety? What is “Spanglish,” and what does bilingualism really entail? Through close readings of selected passages from two contemporary novels, we will examine the sociolinguistic, cultural, and literary dimensions of Spanish in contact with English. Students will analyze how language shapes questions of migration, belonging, ethnicity, and national identity, while also considering broader debates about linguistic diversity and cultural change in the United States.

Same as SPLT 050S . Taught in English.

LACS 016L - (CC,IS) Outsiders. Fiction and Change in Mexico

The international modernist cannon has a few Mexican writers in it, still widely read internationally. Octavio Paz and Juan Rulfo just had new English editions of their most significative books. Carlos Fuentes is still considered a modernist master. But an attentive reader can note that the true motor of change in Mexican literature were unconventional women writers, some of them marginal, some of them acclaimed, that could foresee how the fiction of the future would be. In this class we will review and discuss masterpieces written by Nellie Campobello, Helena Garro, Rosario Castellanos, and Amparo Dávila.

Same as SPLT 050R  

 

Prerequisite(s)/Course Notes:
As individual subjects are selected, each is assigned a letter (A-Z) and added to the course number. Any course may be taken a number of times so long as there is a different letter designation each time it is taken. Specific titles and course descriptions for special topics courses are available in the online class schedule. 

View Course Offering(s):

Fall 2026

January 2027

Spring 2027