What is Latina Feminism? How does it differ from and/or intersect with other feminisms? This interdisciplinary course explores Latina feminism in relation to methodology and epistemology through a historical lens. We will explore topics related to knowledge production, philosophies of the "self," positionality, the body, and representation. Our approach in this class will employ an interlocking analysis to feminist theory that understands the interconnectedness between multiple forms of oppression, including race, class, sexuality, and ability.

This course analyzes the concepts of race and racism from an interdisciplinary perspective. Students will be asked to bring a critical lens to the ubiquitous, yet frequently misunderstood concepts of race and racism. We will study the sociocultural, political, economic, and historical forces that collaborate and compete with one another in the production of racial categories. This approach will require us to draw connections between wide-scale processes and everyday interactions.

The course provides an overview of current and past social conditions of Latinas and Latinos within the U.S. We will address laws, policies and institutions that shape the complexity of Latinas'/os' social location and serve as critical sites of resistance. The course addresses legal constructions of race and citizenship, nomenclature, border politics, public health, education, and labor. We will consider the critical intersections of class, gender and sexuality as well as inequality in relation to other persons of color.

The medium of cinema has shown persistent concern with war and memory, and has constituted a heated battleground for rememberance and erasure of the past. Through cinema, in other words, we most clearly see both memories of war and subsequent wars among competing memories. The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), the repressive military regime of Francisco Franco (1939-1975), and recent attempts to "recuperate" memory all dramatize these dynamics and raise a number of larger questions. How do destruction and devastation register through the visual?

Study of this crucial and problematic relationship in modern novels, short stories, and films from Romance cultures. Exploration of the mother-daughter bond as literary theme, social institution, psychological dynamic, and metaphor for female creativity. Readings include Western myths and diverse theories of family arrangements (Rousseau, Freud, Rich, Walker, Benjamin, Irigaray, Juhasz, Giorgio, Mernissi, Nnaemeka).

This course will equip students of Spanish with a variety of skills that prepare them for upper-division courses. Specific areas of study will include introduction to literary genres and movements; practice in critical reading and writing; study of figures of speech, rhetoric, and style; presentation of oral reports; use of library resources. In addition, students acquire basic knowledge of the geography, history, and culture of the Hispanic world.

Emphasis on written expression in Spanish through frequent assignments emphasizing difficult grammatical structures or idiomatic usages, sentence and paragraph structure, making smooth transitions, writing the short essay, writing descriptions, engaging in personal or business correspondence, analyzing texts, doing library research, and drafting and completing research papers. Students will comment on each other's work in the classroom and/or via the use of email or Web sites and will practice techniques of self-editing and self-criticism.

Strives for mastery of complex grammatical structures and continues work on writing and reading skills. Frequent compositions, selected literary readings, class discussions, and debates on films and current events. Weekly conversation sessions with a native language assistant. May be taken without Spanish 199 to satisfy the language requirement.