The Honors Program will sponsor a Fall 2008 learning community designed for students with a strong interest in Latin American and/or Latino issues. All honors program students are eligible to participate.
In addition to a one-hour discussion (HNRS 492 #44318, 4-4:50pm T) led by Professor Anita Herzfeld, students will take the courses listed below (course descriptions below):
Please contact Mark Daly if you have questions.
Course Descriptions:
ANTH 562/LAA 302/602 – Mexamerica, Brentz Metz
Course #39810/44490/38860, 6:00-8:30PM W
It is impossible to understand Mexico and the U.S. without taking the other into account. Both nations define themselves in relation to the other. The objective is to introduce you to the recent history of Mexican-US political, economic, and cultural relations and explore how these relations have influenced cultural and identity transformations. The literature on Mexican-U.S. relations is so vast and varied, in fact, that we can only cover a few topics in depth, including cultural differences, imperialism, identity movements, imagery, sweat shops (maquilas), and migration.
LAA 333 – Language and Society in Latin America (Honors), Anita Herzfeld
Course #33860, 2:30-3:45 TR
The main objective of this course is to foster a greater appreciation of the contemporary cultural and linguistic diversity of Latin America and the Caribbean, through a series of videos and essays. These will cover such general themes on the region as history, politics, economics, education, problems of development and identity, migrations, the role of women, religion, and the cultural contributions made by artists and writers. The course will also examine the variety of ways in which language and society are related in Latin America. It will cover the range of languages in use in contemporary societies of Latin America: indigenous languages, colonial languages, and creoles; the systematic covariance of linguistic structure and social structure, and the different cultural assumptions which underlie communicative acts. As a result, through this course students should acquire both an awareness of the complexity of life in the region as well as the diversity of languages spoken in Latin America and the richness of their function in society.
