Spanish 250AT - Concepts and Practices of Power: 'The Agency of Things: Material Culture of Latin America, Spain, and the U.S. Border'

Agency of Things

Fall
2020
01
4.00
Megan Saltzman
M 07:00PM-08:15PM;TTH 07:00PM-08:00PM;WF 07:00PM-08:45PM
Mount Holyoke College
112220
msaltzma@mtholyoke.edu
What is a thing? What is stuff? Water bottles, bread, trash, relics, photos, dirt, a broken printer, your favorite socks... Where do they come from and where are they going? In this course we'll gain an understanding of the political, historical, spatial, and affective agency of objects. We'll study how artists, writers, collectors, hoarders, migrants, and things of modern-day Latin America, Spain, and U.S.-border areas engage with the inanimate things around us. Our study will be enlightened by theoretical discussions on "Object Oriented Ontology," Environmental Humanities, the Anthropocene, everyday life, and automation. Students will also have a chance to decipher the meaning and trajectories of their own "stuff."
Prereq: SPAN-212.
Taught in Spanish
Permission is required for interchange registration during the add/drop period only.