This course explores gender, power, and the creation of identities in Latin America. We will examine how gender relations are socially constructed, maintained, and challenged in the realm of the economic, cultural, and political. Readings, lecture, and in-class discussion pay particular attention to the interdependency between ideologies of gender and those of class and race. These scholarly concerns will take us into the household, work place, and civil society. The course will touch on important moments and themes in Latin American gender history, beginning during the colonial period and extending to migration across the Americas today. Students will also learn of important women in Latin American history including La Malinche, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Magda Portal, Flora Tristán, Julia de Burgos, and others.

Integral to the course is a continued discussion of how a gendered perspective has shaped our understanding of history. This will lead us to explore: developments in historiography; the cultural context within which academic knowledge is produced; how to read primary sources utilizing the insights of feminist research; and, central issues in Latin American historical studies. Students will work extensively with historical documents, film, fiction, and scholarly research.