• 2008–2009 Course Descriptions (PDF: 2.60MB)
• Department Abbreviations and Course Prefixes
• Catalog Key

WS 247 : Women In Latin America

Credits: 3
Semester:
Prerequisites: None
Corequisites: None
Type: SEM

Women's political mobilization and its effects in Latin American countries. Explores how women in Latin America and the Caribbean have participated in the national movements, revolutions, rebellions, and social movements that have dominated Latin America's political, social, and economic development. Readings cover the incredible variety of women's participation by examining women's activism across time, space and political position. Women's struggles to improve the quality of their lives and the lives of others are a central component of the course. However, to avoid romanticizing women's activism, the course also discusses women's actions on behalf of political projects designed to uphold the interests of the elite and the status quo. Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, as elsewhere, live complicated lives, have complicated political goals and commitments, and have different access to political, social, and economic power depending upon their position within the class, racial, ethnic, religious, age, and gender hierarchies of their societies. Over the semester, we will analyze why women have been involved in political movements, the effects of women's activism on women's position within these societies, the changing relationship between men and women, contested understandings of gender relations, and the overall impact of these struggles on the Latin American and Caribbean countries.

Class Schedule: Fall 2009

Class Schedule: Spring 2010