Professor Paulina Alberto and Professor Alejandro de la Fuente. This seminar studies contemporary struggles over citizenship and belonging by Afrodescendants in Latin America, situating these struggles within historical patterns of nation building, racial stratification, and political mobilization. Afrodescendants have been at the forefront of struggles typically associated with liberal values—equality, democracy, voting rights—since the colonial period. But Afrodescendant activists, thinkers, and artists have also articulated alternative visions of freedom and belonging that are frequently sidelined in the dominant narratives about rights and citizenship in Latin America. The seminar is conducted in conjunction with the Sawyer Seminar “Afrodescendant Citizenship in Latin America” funded by the Mellon Foundation. This will allow us to bring scholars, activists, artists and other practitioners involved in struggles for racial justice in Latin America to our class and our campus.

Undergraduate students who wish to take this class should get in touch with the instructors in advance. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. Students need to register under History or AAAS but not both for credit.

Professor Paulina Alberto and Professor Alejandro de la Fuente. This seminar studies contemporary struggles over citizenship and belonging by Afrodescendants in Latin America, situating these struggles within historical patterns of nation building, racial stratification, and political mobilization. Afrodescendants have been at the forefront of struggles typically associated with liberal values—equality, democracy, voting rights—since the colonial period. But Afrodescendant activists, thinkers, and artists have also articulated alternative visions of freedom and belonging that are frequently sidelined in the dominant narratives about rights and citizenship in Latin America. The seminar is conducted in conjunction with the Sawyer Seminar “Afrodescendant Citizenship in Latin America” funded by the Mellon Foundation. This will allow us to bring scholars, activists, artists and other practitioners involved in struggles for racial justice in Latin America to our class and our campus.

Undergraduate students who wish to take this class should get in touch with the instructors in advance. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. Students need to register under History or AAAS but not both for credit.

Professor Alejandro de la Fuente. “Race,” most social scientists and well-informed people agree, is a social construction with no basis in biology. It is an invention, a political instrument of power and subordination, deployed to naturalize social hierarchies. Yet “race” and racially based understandings of human difference continue to shape how we identify, classify, and group individuals. Scientific studies in various fields, from medicine to psychometric assessments of intelligence, continue to gather racial information for research purposes. Claiming strict adherence to data and the truth, some of these studies conclude that because of evolutionary and environmental influences, human groups are in fact different and that those differences are grounded in biology.

In order to engage this body of knowledge critically, it is indispensable to examine the central claims of this “science,” how such claims have evolved over time, and their policy implications. To start, should scientists even study “possible links between race, gender, and intelligence,” as a top scientific journal, Nature, asked in 2009?

Our seminar studies the development of “race science” from the 18th century to the present. Using a variety of primary and secondary sources, we examine the research questions pursued by these scientists, their possible merits, and policy implications. We will devote special attention to the emergence of eugenics, the science of “racial improvement,” in Europe and the United States, and its tragic development in Nazi Germany. The final segment of the seminar looks at scientific racism after World War II and to the possible connections between race and recent genomic research.

Professor Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof. This course assists students to develop an informed analysis of the current political debate through investigation of the legal history of immigration since founding of the republic. Students analyze the ways that histories of race, gender, sexuality, class and global politics have shaped and continue to shape the law and politics of immigration. Through structured in-class activities and challenges, students learn a range of legal history methods. They then have opportunities to use these methods to study competing claims about immigration in the current moment. Ideal for anyone considering a career in immigration law, policy, social activism or public service, but all are welcome.

Professor Tamar Herzog. This course is an introductory survey of European Early Modern history, from the fifteenth to the late eighteenth century. Organized chronologically and thematically, it examines developments from the late Middle Ages to the Age of Revolutions, including the passage from feudalism to urban institutions, the Renaissance, European Expansion overseas, the Protestant and the Catholic Reformations, the Scientific Revolution, the Rise of Absolutism, slavery, the Enlightenment, and Revolutions. Meetings will alternate between lecture and discussion of primary sources (available in English translation).

Professor Kirsten Weld. Surveys the complex, mutually constitutive, and often thorny relationship - characterized by suspicion and antagonism, but also by fascination and desire - between the United States and the diverse republics south of the Rio Grande. Examines public policy, US expansionism and empire, popular culture and consumption, competing economic development models, migration, tourism, the Cold War, sovereignty, dissent, and contrasting visions of democratic citizenship.

Professor Tamar Herzog. This course is an introductory survey of colonial Latin American history, spanning the sixteenth to the early nineteenth century. Organized chronologically and thematically, it will examine developments in Spanish and Portuguese America by reading both secondary and primary sources (available in English translation).

Professor Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof. This course offers student to put their social scientific research and writing skills to work on actual asylum cases.  Working in teams, students will collaborate with law students and professors at the Immigration and Asylum Clinic at Harvard Law School to draft documents helping to document conditions in the home countries of asylum applicants. Students will also have opportunities to build their understanding of asylum law, hone their historical and legal research skills, and reflect critically on the asylum system, the ethical practice of legal advocacy, and responsible depictions of violence and injustice in foreign cultures.  History *** Immigration Law is a prerequisite for participation in the Lab.

Professor Kirsten Weld. During the late 20th century, much of Latin America was engulfed by intense political conflict, the legacies of which still resonate. Focusing on Chile, Argentina, El Salvador, and Guatemala, this course comparatively examines these periods of dictatorship and violence, and then explores how these societies have reckoned with their powerful aftermath. Topics covered include peace processes, truth commissions, transitional justice, activism, law, and the politics of historical interpretation.

Professor Jesse Hoffnung-Garskof. This course is designed to help graduate and advanced undergraduate students acquire a basic grounding in key texts, events, periods, and debates in the history of Latina/o/x people in North America since European colonization.  The goal is not to provide coverage, but rather to explore this dynamic field through important recent publications that provide a window into key methods, debates, and comparisons.  The course will benefit students contemplating thesis or other research projects in Latinx history or adjacent fields.  It may also serve as a starting place for students who will develop examination fields in Latinx History.  All are welcome. 

Readings in Latinx History is paired with a lecture series that will bring the authors of some of the books we will read to campus for research presentations.  We will have the good fortune attend their public lectures and to welcome them to our seminar for discussions of their books and research trajectories.