Judaism is a 3,500-year-old tradition that has developed over time as Jewish communities all over the world creatively interacted with the different cultural and historical milieus in which they lived. This course explores the ways in which Judaism has sought to transform ordinary life into sacred life. What are the ways in which Judaism conceives of God, and what is the meaning of life? What roles do study, prayer, ethics, sex, marriage, family, rituals of the life cycle, and community play in Judaism?

Examines the confrontation, assimilation, and transformation of Amerindian, African, and European cultures in Latin America from the sixteenth century to the present. Focuses on the processes in which distinctive self-images emerged in the region and how these images have been challenged and changed over time. Uses films, literature, and folk traditions to complement scholarly analysis of the emergence of a New World mentality.

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.

This course considers the history of pardons and amnesty, from Royal acts of clemency in early modern Europe to contemporary Truth and Reconciliation commissions. Cases will draw from Europe, the U.S., Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. Readings will engage with a variety of themes while centering on questions concerning the relation between state and citizen.

This course offers transnational approaches to the theory and political practice of performance in the Americas with a focus on work by Latinas in the United States and women in Latin America. We will interrogate the ways in which race, sexuality, class, gender, indigenous and diasporic identities inform the methodological and aesthetic mandates of an array of artists from across disciplines.

An analysis of the modern Mexican nation-state organized around three major themes: the conflictive yet symbiotic relationship with the United States, from the war of the 1840s through NAFTA most recently; the succession of reformist and revolutionary upheavals in 1810-1821, 1856-1867, 1910-1917, the 1930s, and again today, seeking to resolve both problems of the colonial past and new conflicts traceable to the very reforms generated by earlier political and social struggles; and the meaning of Mexican nationality from different ethnic, gender, and class perspectives.

This seminar explores the diverse experiences of Central American nations in the twentieth century. From a common basis in an export-oriented agriculture, social and political alternatives ranging from social democracy to recurrent military rule, neofascist regimes, and revolutionary socialism have emerged in the isthmus. The course uses materials ranging from autobiography and literature to historical and anthropological studies to understand how this came to be.

The course examines U.S. deportation campaigns targeted at Latina/o workers, residents, and U.S.-born citizens. We will address the development of deportation policies and their deployment throughout the nation's history. The course will also examine the criminalization of Latina/o immigrants, police and military tactics of the federal government, and administrative and legal mechanisms and institutions that have been created to facilitate deportation. Ultimately, the course aims to provide students with a grounded knowledge of U.S.

This class examines commodities and their role in the history of Latin America. In tracing the economic, material, political, and cultural role of commodities, from mineral resources to agricultural commodities, the course emphasizes exchange and Latin America's dynamic position within an ever globalizing and commodified world.

This seminar offers an interrogation of the ways in which Latinas and Latinos are represented in the cinema. We will explore early portrayals of Latinas and Latinos in film history and then explore contemporary cinema with a focus on race, class, gender and sexuality in these representations. Employing multiple aesthetic and disciplinary approaches we will analyze commercial films alongside independent films with particular attention to the market-driven and political mandates of these projects.