Race in the Americas: A Hemispheric Perspective

This junior seminar engages debates in Ethnic Studies, Latin American Studies, sociology and history regarding the role of race in the U.S. and Latin America. Problematizing the depiction of Latin America as a harmonious racially mixed society and the U.S. as racially divided nation, students will look beyond binary frameworks to examine how racial logics are constructed historically, situationally and relationally. Readings highlight the interconnected nature of racial logics across the region, facilitated by immigration and transnational social movements in the context of a shared European colonial past, U.S. imperialism and emergent nationhood.