Radical Readings: Latin American/Latinx

Undergraduate / Graduate

Since the 1970s, writers, artists, activists, and cultural critics based in Latin America and in the United States have produced radical writings to respond to concrete social and political circumstances. These writings ring especially relevant today, in our current, turbulent times. The course studies the rich, transformative tradition of radical, contemporary Latin American and Latinx thought. It studies earlier interventions by the likes of Paulo Freire and traces and resonance of these earlier writings in contemporary interventions by critics like Suely Rolnik. We read writings by Freire, Rolnik, Roberto Jacoby, Gloria Anzaldúa, Cherríe Moraga, Ailton Krenak, Verónica Gago, and others, with an emphasis on 1) the context of production of each writing, 2) the form and shape each author gives to their written thought and, 3) the impact and resonance of these writings in our present moment. The course is also an experiment that seeks to confront the powers of engagement and understanding unleashed in long, uninterrupted stretches of reading.