Black Studies 282 - Black Mestizx Borderland

(Offered as SPAN 242, BLST 282 [CLA] and SWAG 248) Historically speaking, discourses of mestizaje or racial mixture in Latin America, the Philippines, and the US-Mexican borderlands have implicitly or explicitly used “blackness” as a monolithic signifier connoting a perversity and backwardness to be rehabilitated by civilizational uplift. Students in this class will explore queer and trans texts that challenge this tradition and problematize the connection of the transracial to the transgender. Some of the theorists and authors we will engage include: Cathy Cohen, Fernando Ortiz, CLR James, Sylvia Wynter, Jessica Hagedorn, and Junot Díaz. While some class materials will be in English, the course will be conducted in Spanish.

Requisite: SPAN 211 or consent of the instructor. Limited to 18 students. Fall semester. Professor Coráñez Bolton.