Topics in Latina and Latino Social and Political Issues (392-0-4)

Instructors

Nathaniel Rossi

Meeting Info

Helmerich Auditorium: Mon, Wed 10:00AM - 11:50AM

Overview of class

Who are immigrants? What role do film and media makers play in defining how the greater public understands the immigrant experience? How do immigrant creatives negotiate a sense of identity and belonging through the media-making process? This course seeks to explore these questions through a historical and cultural lens that examines how both Hollywood and Independent film have created images of immigration that reflect and critique popular sentiment of immigration in the U.S. Through engaging with the cultural production of immigrants we will consider various lens through which the immigrant experience is often understood, including diaspora, exile, and borderlands. Through interrogating these terms, we will cover concepts such as ethnic otherness/assimilation, the good/bad immigrant stereotype (and the model minority myth), social death, and cultural citizenship. We will also evaluate immigrant activist strategies and speculative border abolitionist futures. This course takes a relational approach that considers immigration narratives of the Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern, and African diasporas.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, students should be able to identify and analyze major theories used to understand the immigrant experience, such as diaspora, exile, and borderlands, as well as the scholarly conversation around these contested terms. Students will also be able to evaluate and analyze creative approaches to capturing and making meaning of immigration through cinema and other forms of media. Finally, they will be equipped to conduct a final paper/project that utilizes textual and discursive analysis of a chosen film or media text dealing with the immigrant experience in the U.S.

Teaching Method

Course consists of one weekly lecture/discussion period and one screening period.

Class Materials (Required)

All readings will be available through canvas.

Class Attributes

Social and Behavioral Science Foundational Discipl
Interdisciplinary Distro-rules apply
Social & Behavioral Sciences Distro Area
Ethics & Values Distro Area