Latin American Lives

This seminar explores how broad trends that shape contemporary Latin American societies intertwine with the specificities of people’s multilayered local realities. Through ethnographic narratives of the everyday lives of Latin Americans, we will learn how life histories and narrative accounts offer windows for understanding inequality and persistence in the face of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles of an unequal world. Themes covered include precarious work, migration and displacement, housing, racism and state violence, gender and family, health, environmental devastation, and social movements. Cases are drawn from across the Americas, including: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Nicaragua.