Human Rights Courses - Fall 2020

Undergraduate Courses

HMR 001 Human Wrongs & Human Rights
Prof. Keith Watenpaugh

HMR 134 Human Rights
Prof. Keith Watenpaugh

 

Graduate Courses

Soc. 295- COLLECTIVE TRAUMA AND COLLECTIVE MEMORY -Prof. Diane L. Wolf
THURSDAYS 11-2pm                                                                                                                 
Collective trauma and collective memory are tied to nationalism and the power to define what is remembered (or forgotten) and how it is remembered, be it from the perspective of the perpetrators, bystanders or victims.  In this course, we will analyze the very sociological concept of ‘collective memory’ and consider some of the ways it has been refined over time-- social memory, cultural memory, post-memory, multi-dimensional memory, and the like. How do we “remember” slavery, the Native American genocide, the Holocaust, the Vietnam War, Hiroshima, US internment camps during WWII, the Nakba and other traumatic events that we did not witness?  Indeed, how are such events recreated and produced such that we remember them in particular and differential ways?   And whose memories get acknowledged and remembered?

We live in a society that is said to have a “culture of trauma.”  Although trauma is usually brought up with regard to individual experiences of abuse and terror, it is important to understand and interrogate the meaning of trauma at the micro and macro levels, and its effects.   What is trauma and how did its conceptualization change over time such that it is has become part of our cultural discourse?

 We will explore different cases, both historical and more recent, to analyze how trauma and memory are represented in diverse forms, including personal testimonies, monuments, museums, memorials, and their resultant effects on identity.  We will consider questions such as how the memory of trauma might be classed, raced, and gendered, how it is performed, and how different narratives are used to reproduce certain memories.

I encourage students from a wide variety of backgrounds to take this course. It will be of interest to those drawn to the topics of power, nationalism, race, gender, immigration and detention, genocide, displacement, exile, and related topics.   While much of the literature we will read is sociological, the readings will also reflect the interdisciplinarity of this very global and fascinating field.  Please email me if you have questions, including whether you should take this course even if you don’t have any background in these topics!    dlwolf@ucdavis.edu

 

HIS 201I- Historiography of 20th-century Latin America -Prof. Marian Schlotterbeck                                                   
THURSDAYS 4:10-7:00 PM                                                                           

This reading intensive course introduces graduate students to the historiography about Latin America in the twentieth century. Topics include: modernization and industrialization; U.S Empire and sovereignty in the Caribbean; the Mexican Revolution; mass politics and populism; the Cuban Revolution; the national security state; Central American revolutions; gender and sexuality; identity, ethnicity and “race”; and the social and economic impact of neoliberalism. Much of the scholarship produced in the last three decades has taken up “old” questions (land, labor, politics, social relations, economic development, external pressures) but applied new conceptual frameworks (such as gender, race/ethnicity, subaltern studies, etc.) and/or methodological approaches (oral history, post-structural and discursive analysis, etc.) to produce works that question the conventional assumptions about periodization, agency, and interpretation. In addition to gaining a basic familiarity with the region’s historiography, students will begin identifying possible dissertation topics and locating their emerging research interests within the larger paradigms and turning points that have shaped Latin American history. 

Students from all disciplines are encouraged to enroll. This course is required for any graduate student completing a preliminary exam or minor field in 20th-century Latin America.

Learning Objectives and Outcomes:

  • Identify the major problems and debates in 20thcentury Latin American history by participating in class and writing weekly reading responses
  • Summarize and critically evaluate historical monographs in terms of sources, clarity of argument, interpretative framework and place in the historiography through oral presentations and written assignments
  • Demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of Latin American historiography by writing a final 15-page historiographical review essay that synthesizes the methodological, conceptual, and interpretive trends on a particular topic

     Reading List:
  1. Hollaway, Thomas H. A Companion to Latin American History. Wiley-Blackwell (2008). (E-Book)
  2. Joseph, Gilbert and Daniel Nugent, eds., Everyday Forms of State Formation: Revolution and the Negotiation of Rule in Modern Mexico. Durham: Duke University Press, 1994.
  3. Mallon, Florencia. Courage Tastes of Blood: The Mapuche Community of Nicolás Ailío and the Chilean State, 1906-2001. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.
  4. Gobat, Michel. Confronting the American Dream: Nicaragua under U.S. Imperial Rule. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.
  5. Ernesto Semán. Ambassadors of the Working Class: Argentina's International Labor Activists and Cold War Democracy in the Americas. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017.
  6. Chase, Michelle. Revolution within the Revolution: Women and Gender Politics in Cuba, 1952-1962. Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2015. (E-Book)
  7. Pensado, Jaime M. Rebel Mexico: Student Unrest and Authoritarian Political Culture During the Long Sixties. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013. (E-Book)
  8. Lina Britto, Marijuana Boom: The Rise and Fall of Colombia's First Drug Paradise. Oakland: UC Press, 2020.
  9. Grandin, Greg. The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin Americans in the Cold War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. (E-Book)
  10. Molly Todd, Beyond Displacement: Campesinos, Refugees, and Collective Action in the Salvadoran Civil War. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2010. (E-Book)
  11. Gould, Jeffrey. Solidarity Under Siege: The Salvadoran Labor Movement, 1970-1990. Cambridge, 2019. (E-Book)
  12. Ana Minian, Undocumented Lives: The Untold Story of Mexican Migration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2018.

Please email me if you have questions, including whether you should take this course even if you don’t have any background in these topics! mschlotterbeck@ucdavis.edu