Latina/o Studies Minor

The Latina/o Studies* minor is one of four minors that the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity was mandated to develop through a curricular focus on traditionally marginalized, under-represented, or misrepresented groups in the U.S.  The point of such a focus is to prepare students to meet the increasingly complex demands of living in a multiracial, multiethnic, and poly-cultural world.

The courses will cover a broad range of issues, from the historically constructed and contested nature of identity to issues of cultural representation and social justice.  

• study the Self in relationship to the Other,
• use historical and comparative methodologies for developing a contextual understanding of the issues being studied,
• combine epistemological /theoretical concerns with an analysis of "real-life" problems as a way to understand the relationship between theory and practice,
• develop a critical approach to the processes of knowledge construction; and
• explore the linkages between U.S. and global politics, economics, culture, etc.

Students are required to take a total of six courses (18 credit hours), at least one from each of the five categories.  The two courses in Conceptual Frameworks are required. 

Required Courses:

Conceptual Frameworks:

CSCR-10700  Intro to Latina/o Studies                 
POLT-14500 Politics of Identity                      

Electives:  

Policy and Praxis:
Select 3 credits from the following

HPS-20500 Critical Health Issues                  

Culture and History:
Select 3 credits from the following

CSCR– 23700 History and U.S.-Mexico Borderlands     
HIST-20900 Ethnic US since the Civil War            
SPAN – 38000 Latino/a Culture through Lit         

Power and Liberation:
Select 3 credits from the following

CSCR – 37400 Latino/a Social Movements
POLT-14100 Power: Sex, Class and Race
POLT-34200 Liberalism and Marxism                                    

Comparative and International
Select 3 credits from the following

CSCR – 47800 Las Américas:  Globalizing Latina/o Studies
ARTH – 26500 Latin American Art 
ENGL – 47000  Adolescence in Multicult Lit 
POLT – 40100 Cuba and Haiti     
POLT- 40100 Race in the Americas

All courses are 3 credits, unless otherwise noted.

*By Latinos and Latinas we mean U.S.-based “minorities” who are descendants of people in Latin America and whose primary identity formation has occurred as a result of living in the U.S.  We realize, of course, that identities are  not insular, which is why our courses explore both sides of the border and the concept of border itself.