The 1917 Bath Riots of El Paso, led by seventeen-year old Carmelita Torres, is a watershed moment in the history of ethnic Mexican women. Illustrating the intersection between the local and global, we learn how Mexicanas demanded their rights over their own bodies, and asserted dignity and respect in the backdrop of the la frontera and the Revolution of 1910. Through this course, we will comprehensively examine the history of ethnic Mexican women in the United States in the twentieth century. Beginning with the Mexican Revolution, which led to the first major migration of Mexicans to the United States, we will study the lives and roles of ethnic Mexican, (me)Xicanas, Chicanas, xicanindias, mestizas, indigenous, Mexican American, and brown women within the U.S., and along the U.S.-Mexican borderlands. We also will explore how gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, class, language, spirituality, and citizenship shaped their experiences, and how the writing of their history has changed in the last one hundred years.

Restricted to students accepted to the Mellon Mays Program. Seminar designed as an interdisciplinary primer to the exploration of research, writing, and professionalization in preparation for doctoral study. One lecture hour a week for one semester.
Prerequisite: Upper-division standing and consent of instructor.

Welcome to Latino Migration/Human Trafficking! The primary focus of this undergraduate seminar to critically examine the complexity of Latino migration and human trafficking from different perspectives at the global, regional, and local level. Extant laws, preventative strategies, and resources utilized by governmental and non-governmental institutions will also be explored. Approximately three (3) required textbooks will be utilized for this purpose, to be available for purchase at the University Co-op. An additional focus in our course is the completion of an original research project, to be determined in collaboration with your instructor/teaching assistant. Please begin thinking about a specific topic based on your own interests as early as possible in the semester. A third exciting component is the opportunity to engage in a service learning project related to the course content, in collaboration with local community organizations.

To accomplish these tasks, our class format will consist of in-class lectures, presentations, film, and small-large group discussion. Class time will also be devoted to completion of your research project and service learning project.

Legend tripping is the process by which individuals and groups visit and/or recreate legendary contexts, with the hopes of facilitating an encounter with the strange. This course will focus on narrative folklore and practice from diverse traditions across the U.S. based Latinx diaspora.  Legends, or folk narratives told as true share interpretations of the strange in everyday social life of tellers and audiences alike. Shared amongst peers and across generations, legends within Latinx communities have been used to influence the behaviors and beliefs of young women. Through reading, collecting, and analyzing legend texts such as La Llorona, Dancing with the Devil, La Lechuza among other stories of supernatural encounters as well as interrogating key figures, such as brujas, curanderas, hechiceras, students will engage with these texts the instrumentalization of a community logic of supernatural belief that impact the development of gender and sexuality identities across US Latinx communities. We will draw on materials from the fields of Folklore, Anthropology, Latina/o Studies, History and American Studies.

Please contact the academic advisor for permission to register for this course.