LACS	Latin American & Caribbean Studies Program  International Institute, University of Michigan

This guide lists courses offered at the University of Michigan in Winter 2000 that will fulfill concentration requirements for the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Undergraduate Interdepartmental Concentration Program. (Click here for a list of Graduate Courses.) Fuller course descriptions and links to current time schedule and enrollment information can be found through the LS&A Online Course Guide. Past course guides are found in the archive.

For a LACS major, basic program requirements are: 30 credits at the 300 level or higher, including at least one course in each of these areas: Anthropology, History, Literature, and Politics, as well as a senior thesis or paper (LACS 399). Double majors are welcome; Study Abroad credits will in many cases count towards your LACS major. For more information, contact the LACS Undergraduate Advisor at 763-0553.

Anth. 458, Sec. 004. Mayan Languages. (3). General linguistics of Mayan languages, with focus on Yucatec Maya. Permission of instructor required. TTH 1-2:30, 2446 Mason (Berkley).

Anth. 458, Sec. 005. Mind, Culture and the Environment. (3). Explore the cognitive and behavioral strategies that different cultural groups use for sustaining interactions between people and their natural environments. (Professor has worked extensively in Guatemala and Belize.) TH 1-4, B844 East Hall (Atran).

Anth. 458, Sec. 006. Transitional Justice: New Perspectives on Human Rights. (3). Reflections on issues of truth, justice and reconciliation with several focused inquiries regarding trials, truth commissions, amnesty laws, reparations, and issues of memory and memorials all covered, to make sense of extreme political violence and gross violations. Permission of instructor required. TTH 4-5:30, ARR (Rothenberg).

Anth. 538. Occidentalism and Capitalism. (3). Links the critique of Eurocentrism to the reexamination of capitalism in the age of neoliberal globalization. Permission of instructor required. T 4-7, 2006 MLB (Coronil).

Hist. 477. Latin America: National Period. (4). The history of Latin America from the early 19th century to the present, with particular emphasis on social and political transformations. MW 10-11:30, 110 Dennison (Caulfield). Students enrolled in the Spanish discussion section of this course (section 4, Th 4-5:30, 2443 Mason) may also enroll in UC 490.001, Languages Across the Curriculum, for 1 additional credit.

CAAS 558, Sec. 003. Memory, History, and Subjectivity in Contemporary African American and Caribbean Literature. By permission of instructor only. MW 4-5:30, 4175 Angell (Keizer).

English 384/CAAS 384/Amer Cult 406. Contemporary Caribbean Diasporan Literature. Literature, music, and film produced by artists with roots in a variety of Caribbean sites. TTH 2:30-4, G429 Mason (Nwankwo).

Engl. 417, Sec. 003. An Experience of Black Literatures in the Americas. (4). Note the plurals in the course title. Readings from South and Central America, the Caribbean, and comparative works from the US. Senior concentrators in English only. TTH 10-11:30, 4199 Angell (Johnson).

French. 450, Sec. 001. Revisiting Negritude and Créolité. (3). Theorization of identities from the middle to the end of the 20th century by French-speaking African and Caribbean writers. MW 11:30-1, ARR (Ekotto).

RC Core 324, Sec. 001. The Family and Hispanic Drama. (4). Family structure, dynamics, (dys)function, and communication, as presented in Spanish and Latin American dramas. MWTh 1-2, 24 EQ (Cornejo-Krohn).

RC Hum 410, Sec. 002. The Forbidden Memory of Chile. (4). The purpose of this class is twofold: it will provide information and general background on the events within Chile that were caused by the arrest of General Pinochet; secondly it will focus on the narrative, poetry, film and video, visual art and music produced under the difficult circumstances of repression and censorship or exile. TTH 11-12:30, 12 Tyler (Moya-Raggio).

Spanish 320. Introduction to the Study of Literature. (3). A look at literature written in Spanish. Four sections (specific topics TBA). MWF 9-10, B117 MLB (Casa), MWF 10-11, 1650 Chem (Pollard), MW 1-2:30, 216 Dennison (Suarez), or MWF 3-4, B120 MLB (TBA).

Spanish 341. Introduction to Latin American Cultures. (3). Presents a panoramic view of Latin American cultural representations, dialogues and experiences. MWF 10-11, B101 MLB (Arroyo).

Spanish 373, Sec. 003. Latin American Popular Culture: Between the Local and the Global. (3). Making sense of the cultural hybridity that characterizes much of Latin American current cultural production (music, film, cultural criticism), as a product of globalization. TTH 11:30-1, 2402 MLB (Verdesio).

Spanish 440. Literatures and Cultures of the Borderlands: The Politics of Language. (3). This course analyzes the political, literary, and cultural discourses that have shaped Puerto Rican history throughout one hundred years of colonial experience. MWF 12-1, 205 Dennison (Arroyo).

Spanish 473. Colonial/Postcolonial Studies in Latin-American Cultures. (3). The power and limitations of Postcolonial theory as a tool to understand Latin American culture and society. TTH 1-2:30, 2011 MLB (Verdesio).

Spanish 475. Latin American Narrative of the Twentieth Century. (3). By reading key political and literary essays on 19th and 20th century Latin America, this course will discuss the development of political thought through techniques of literary analysis. TTH 11:30-1, 3512 Frieze (Sanjines).

American Culture 401, Sec. 1. Race and Racialization in the Americas. (3) This course will examine the development of categories of race, processes of racial classification, and the institutionalization of racism in Brazil, Puerto Rico, the U.S. and Mexico from an interdisciplinary perspective. We will pay critical attention to contemporary representations of ace including popular culture/music, debates about human intelligence, nd the multiple meanings of multiculturalism. MW 6-7:30 pm, 4633 Haven (Koreck)

CAAS 458, Sec. 006. Conflicts in Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism. (3) This course explores whether the Caribbean and Africa should have any place in U.S. Black nationalism and the debates surrounding the questions of whether African-Americans should just focus on struggles here or view their struggles here as part of an international Black struggle. TTH 11-12:30, 109 West Hall (Nwankwo).

Note: LACS accepts a variety of courses to fulfill the Politics concentration requirement.
Please contact the LACS Undergraduate Advisor for more information.

CAAS 380/ History of Art 360, Sec. 001. African Diaspora Arts. (3). This course explores African diaspora arts grounded in the many diverse aesthetic, philosophical, historical, political, and religious consciousness of peoples of African descent living in the Caribbean and the Americas (Haiti, Jamaica, Brazil, Surinam, and the United States). (II.4/V.4) MW 2:30-4, 180 Tappan (Rush)

LACS 399. Thesis-Writers' Seminar. (3) All LACS concentrators enroll in this course for their final term. Each works directly with a thesis adviser. The seminar meets only occasionally as a group; its main function is to provide a mechanism for consultation and support among thesis-writers and the concentration adviser. (Frye)

Academic Credit for Study Abroad programs, whether administered by U-M or by other universities, can in many cases be applied toward a LACS major. Application deadlines for Summer 1999 and academic year 1999-2000 programs generally are from January 1999 onward. For detailed information, please contact the Office of International Programs, G513 Michigan Union.