Cross-listed: History
This course is a survey of the social, political, and intellectual history of Latin America from the independence period until the transition to democratic regimes in South America in the 1980's. We will begin with a consideration of nationhood and citizenship projects in the early independence period, examine the causes of political instability and civil wars in the 19^th century, and then move to an assessment of interventionist attempts by the U.S. and European powers. We will then focus on the recurrent problems of a never-ending transition to "modernity" from the late 19^th century onwards: social and economic inequality, conflicts between native peoples and the state, the tensions between popular Christianity and secular nationhood projects, and populist and nationalist movements. The course will also emphasize the transition from rural to urban and industrial modes of production, revolution and armed insurrection movements, and the emergence of militaristic and socialist regimes during the latter half of the 20^th century. Lectures and readings will be complemented with a selection of films.

Cross-listed: Anthropology
This course proposes a historical, linguistic, and ethnographic survey of pictorial and alphabetical textual genres produced by native authors in the cultural region of Mesoamerica (which encompassed various regions in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras) from the pre-conquest period to the present. Departing from an examination of pictographic and ideographic writing systems and oral genres in use before the conquest, we will explore the appropriation of alphabetical writing by preexisting historical and ritual genres, trace the emergence of novel colonial genres-legal records, annals, devotional writings, etc.-investigate native rhetoric and poetics, and examine the rapports between native historical consciousness and textual production. Through an inquiry into writing and reading practices, this course will address the intellectual and ethnographic context of production and the dynamics of reception of these texts. This course ends with a brief consideration of current works produced by contemporary indigenous authors. Readings will focus on recent translations of select works in Nahuatl, Yucatec, Quiché, and Zapotec.

Cross-listed: History
From an outsider's perspective, Mexico's national identity has traditionally been regarded as the rather exotic product of an epochal clash between European and indigenous cultures. From an insider's perspective, the diverse local and ethnic identities in what is now called Mexico have alternatively resisted and embraced centralized nation-building projects and interpretations of their collective past, generating an existential (and at times schizophrenic) confusion that has informed military, sociopolitical, and symbolic conflicts. This course will examine the development of political and sociocultural notions of collective identity in Mexico from late colonial times until the present through an interrogation of the symbols and pageants of nationhood, nation-building projects, blueprints for citizenship, and versions of history and national identity enshrined in textbooks, public rituals, and intellectual debates. Course requirements include a research paper and a presentation.

ANTH 241 Gender & Development

ARTH 339 Topics in 20^th Cent. Latin American Art

LIT 2304 Women Writing the Americas

PS 214 US - Latin American Relations

PS 317 Latin American Political Economy

HIST 142 Religion in 16^th Century Europe