HIST 342
At the Crossroads of Race and Nation: Borders and Frontiers in Latin America and the Caribbean Spring 2024
Division II Difference, Power, and Equity

Class Details

When we think about the politics of borders and migration, we usually imagine the contentious U.S.-Mexico border. Seldom do we care to think about the numerous borders across Latin America and the Caribbean that are currently at the heart of our present refugee and migrant crises. This course will examine the history of borders and frontiers in Latin America and the Caribbean and how they were pivotal to Latin American racial and state formations and nation-building processes. This course will consider how borders and frontiers, as both a geographical demarcation and an imaginative conceptualization of difference, created overlapping and competing visions of race, racism, identity, belonging, and social marginalization. Beginning with the tumultuous Latin American independence movements of the nineteenth century and ending with Latin America in the twenty-first century, we will analyze the different creation of borders and frontiers to make sense of today’s migration and border control crises. This course will give particular attention to the themes of racial stratification, authoritarianism, nationalism, imperialism, and citizenship.
The Class: Format: lecture
Limit: 25
Expected: 15-20
Class#: 3867
Grading: yes pass/fail option, yes fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: Class participation, two short (3-4 page) papers, and a final (10-12 page) paper
Prerequisites: None
Enrollment Preferences: Preference to History majors and LATS concentrators
Distributions: Division II Difference, Power, and Equity
DPE Notes: This course centers on how categories of racial, cultural, linguistic, and phenotypical differences commanded modern projects of state formation and nation-building. Through readings, class discussions, and writing assignments, we reflect on how Latin American subjects living through the constructions of borders and frontiers negotiated categories of difference. Special attention will be paid to how anti-slavery, working-class rights and anti-racism approached the question of difference.
Attributes: HIST Group D Electives - Latin America + Caribbean

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