Spring 2026 Anthropology BC3243 section 001

Sin, Disease, Subversion and the Experie

Race in Latin America

Call Number 00892
Day & Time
Location
M 10:10am-12:00pm
To be announced
Points 4
Grading Mode Standard
Approvals Required None
Type SEMINAR
Course Description

Course Description This course provides an exploration of how race and racism are produced, reproduced, and resisted from a Latin American perspective. We will examine a conception of race that is often ambiguous, hybrid, and fluid, yet coexists with deeply entrenched forms of racism. We begin by tracing the origins of racial formations to the colonial period, focusing on how race and religion became intertwined. The course then investigates Latin America's role in the medicalization of racialized bodies, particularly in the context of nation-building projects. We will analyze how racism has operated during periods of political violence, authoritarian rule, and transitions to democracy. Given the region's vast heterogeneity, we will critically examine "Latin America" as a category and use representative case studies to explore how race is mediated through signifiers such as education, gender, geography, occupation, dress, language, and religion—while ultimately being inscribed on and through the body. Students will explore Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies, and reflect on how the legacies of colonial and state violence persist but are contested. The first half of this course provides an overview of historical events and theoretical debates around the study of race in Latin America. The second half is dedicated to reading ethnographic work on questions of race. The selected books present cases in Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Puerto Rico, and of immigrants in the United States.

Web Site Vergil
Department Anthropology @Barnard
Enrollment 0 students (15 max) as of 9:05PM Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Subject Anthropology
Number BC3243
Section 001
Division Barnard College
Section key 20261ANTH3243X001