Latino/Latina Studies Program — Requirements

Academic Requirements and Curriculum Organization

The program asks students to distribute their studies among four thematic curriculum areas where their study will provide a basic grounding in contemporary Latino/Latina studies scholarship, research, and policy issues. The six courses or competencies required to complete the program include three required courses or competencies, a capstone that can be chosen from among several alternatives, and two free electives. Non-CPCS students may include no more than two courses offered through CPCS. The Latino/Latina Studies program is open to undergraduate students in any of the university’s colleges.

Curriculum Areas

1. History and Development of Latino Communities in the United States

a. Required:

AMST 201/LATCTR220 (Latinos in the US) This course sketches the development of people of Hispanic descent in the United States, and aims to understand how this history intersects important junctures in US history. The course explores the following themes: 1. Who are the Latino groups; 2. Important historical junctures in US and Latino history; 3. Emigration, migration and settlement; 4. The impact of Latinos in US cultural landscapes; and 5. Issues surrounding the development of pan-ethnic identities. These five areas are explored in greater depth in other courses in the Latino Studies concentration.

b. Electives:

ANTH 273 /LATCTR 273 (Peoples and Cultures of Mesoamerica) A survey of Mesoamerican ethnology, including an introduction to cultural and linguistic regions through comparisons of ethnographic materials. Emphasis is given to acculturation, during the colonial period, among indigenous and Spanish-speaking populations, and in the contemporary period, on social change among rural and urban sectors.
ANTH 274 /LATCTR 274(Caribbean Cultures) An ethnographic and historical overview of the Caribbean, examining the impact of external forces on local economic organization, domestic life, religion, and migration, with attention to the importance of transnational communities and migrations that link the islands with the North American mainland.
LATAM 101 (Culture and Society in Contemporary Latin America) An introduction to contemporary Latin American society and culture, including a description and analysis of major social, political, and religious institutions, as they are manifested on local, regional, and national levels.

2. Latino Community: Migration and Settlement

a. Required:

Either:

SOCIOL L322 / LATCTR 332 (Latino Boston: Immigrant Adaptation and Community Formation in an Urban Context) Concepts in the sociology of immigrant community formation are presented through the lens of the formation of Boston’s Latino community. Themes include the role of immigrant networks in early community formation; the processes of social and economic incorporation of immigrants; the role of geographic concentration of urban space; the role of community organizations; and racial/ethnic identity formation.

LATAM 301 (Hispanics in Urban America) This course examines the Puerto Rican, Mexican, Cuban and Dominican migrations to the North American mainland. A preliminary overview of the historical and cultural backgrounds of these migrations will be followed by a more focused analysis of organizational, occupational, educational, medical and housing patterns within the Spanish-speaking population of Boston.

Electives:

ANTH 252 /LATCTR 252 (Urban Anthropology) This course offers a comparative study of the form and quality of urban life in the contemporary US and in selected non-Western cultures. Through an examination of selected case studies, the course assesses the varying theories, methodological strategies, and research techniques that have been employed in anthropological analysis of cities, and considers their significance in the broader field of urban studies. Case materials used in the course focus mainly on Latino and Latin American examples.
LATCTR 313 (The Political Economy of the Latino Community) This course applies theories of political economy—traditionally based on a class analysis of society—to assess the causes and consequences of Latino poverty in Massachusetts. We will introduce notions of race and gender to further our political economic analysis. Issues addressed: economy of the “barrio,” workforce development, community economic development, and anti-poverty strategies.

3. Latino Community: Identity and Cultural Process

a. Required:

Either

AFRSTY/AMST L350 /LATCTR 350 (Race, Class, and Gender: Issues in US Diversity) This course deals with the interrelationship of race, class and gender, exploring how they have shaped the experiences of all people in the United States. The course examines both the commonalities and the differences that different historical experiences have generated.

or

PHIL 232 /LATCTR 232 (Philosophy and Multiculturalism) The course explores the philosophical dimension of three or four of the following issues central to current debates concerning multiculturalism in society: cultural respect; ethnic and racial identities; speech codes; cultural and moral relativism; multiculturalism, separatism, and unity.

b. Electives:

LATCTR 120 (Reading Life Histories: Latino Narratives) Latino literature today forms one of the most powerful and provocative bodies of literature, yet this is an area of literature that has been relatively ignored and excluded. This course/ competency concentrates on the Latino narrative so as to trace and reconstruct our own histories, our own social realities. The class focuses on the autobiography because it is predicated on the relation between a sense of self and community, between the historical past and the present, between understanding ourselves and losing ourselves
SOCIOL 480-1/LATCTR 334 (Cuban Culture, Religion and Music) This course looks at the development of Afro-Cuban culture within the context of Cuban history and race relations in society. It examines the key religions of African origin practiced in Cuba today: Yoruba (Santería), Dahomean (Arara), Congo (Palo), and Abakua. Because music is so integral to the practice of Afro-Cuban religions, it is of equal importance to examine it and see the place it occupies in its social context.
AMST 353 /LATCTR 353 (Border Cultures) An introduction to the field of border studies, this course investigates the linguistic, cultural and historical meanings of the concept of “border” for several Latino/a groups, particularly Puerto Ricans, Mexican Americans, and Cuban Americans. While attending to the distinct histories of the groups in question, the course also looks for cultural and artistic links which connect Latino people.
WOST 225 /LATCTR 225 (Latinas in the United States) This course provides an overview of the experiences of Latina women in the United States, focusing on the three themes of migration, the settlement process, and the question of identity. The course explores the contexts of family, employment, community organizing, and gender roles.
PHIL Z281 /LATCTR 281 (Latina Politics and Women). This course addresses some of the political, social and economic issues facing Latinas in the US, tackling questions about how to define and understand Latina identity and the political role that identity has on Latinas’ lives and political struggles.
SPAN 367 (Literature of Hispanic People in the US) This course examines how shifting cultural identities of Hispanic/Latino writers in the United States are represented in literature. Topics include migration as literary representation, the role of the media; gender tensions; translation in literature, and issues of national and racial origins.
SPAN 468 (The Caribbean: Cultural Fabulations) This course examines the literary and cultural production in the Hispanic Caribbean: Cuba, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Through the analysis of various cultural artifacts, the class will formulate the basic components of a Caribbean cultural discourse. Topics include literary modernity, neo-primitivism and negrismo.

4. Research and Critical Thinking: Writing and Working Toward the Capstone

Students choose an appropriate capstone experience—in the social sciences, the humanities, or policy studies—that builds on their major program of study and reflects their goals for career and further education. The heart of each capstone is close mentoring of students by Latino/Latina Studies faculty, with a focus on the development of research and policy analysis skills. Students choose from among the following:

Policy research internship through the Gastón Institute (including LLOP), or

Community-focused research under the mentorship of Latino/Latina Studies faculty and associates, using a variety of vehicles in any college and in any department—e.g., departmental honors courses, faculty research projects, independent studies, internship courses, and research methods courses that entail completion of a research project.

A research project in cultural studies (literary studies, film, gender studies, etc.). Examples may include AMST 405 (Immigrant Experience) or AMST 435 (American music and literature, with a Latino music/literature component)