CWL 204

Credit: 3 hours.

Exploration of the cultures, experiences, and conditions of people living on and around the borders of the United States. The syllabus will place particular emphasis on the US-Mexico borderlands, a space of interaction, exchange, and confrontation between diverse communities that traverse national, racial, and linguistic borders. We will examine this dynamic space through a varied array of cultural texts, including literature, film, journalism, and scholarship. Through these texts, students will gain a deepened understanding and appreciation of the Latinx and indigenous communities that live along, around, and across today’s US-Mexico border. At the end of the semester, we will turn our attention briefly to the US-Canada border – and, in particular, to the political and cultural life of indigenous peoples living along and across the present-day US-Canada border.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2022 for: