Blacks in Latin America Subject of Fall Course

April 22, 2014

In Fall 2014, Dr. Natasha Howard will teach "Blacks in Latin America," a course cross-listed as Africana Studies 388 and American Studies 350.

This course is designed to study the African diaspora in Latin America. This course will provide student with theoretical and conceptual tools for analyzing the history and contemporary struggles of Latin America's Black population. We will draw from a diversity of fields including, sociology, ethnic studies, women studies, and history. We will question how black bodies are situated in nations that are constructed as mestizo and how racial/ethnic and gender stratification is produced. Other themes we will explore include: the entanglement of racial and sexual exploitation, representation of African-descent people in the media and sports, Afro-Indigenous identity, the racial politics of public spaces-like national museums, Black Latina organizing, public and private discourse surrounding "blackening" and "whitening", race in pre/post-revolutionary societies-like Cuba, the legitimization of social hierarchy through tourism projects, Afro-Mexicans in the U.S. Chicano movement, and racial & ethnic identity patterns among Afro-Latino immigrants in the United States. This course is organized around dialogue, short weekly writing assignment and a final research project. In addition to the readings we will also review and analyze relevant documentary films.

For additional information, please contact Dr. Howard at nacosta@unm.edu or see the course flyer for reference.

Dr. Howard teaches courses on race, ethnicity and gender in Africana Studies. Her current research focuses on antiblack ideology, particularly in the context of multiracial/multicultural discourses. She has an MA in Latin American Studies focusing on modern Latin American history and women studies and a PhD in Educational Thought and Sociocultural Studies.