BLS/LTS 4900 Seminar in Black and Latino Studies (Fall 2023)

Instructor: Dr. Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana (she/her/hers) 

Office: 4-284 (VC)

Student Hours: Wednesday 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM, Friday 2:00 PM – 3 PM and by appointment  

Email: [email protected]   

“Byproduct of Imperialism“ by Javier Salazar (@deportedartist)  

“People of color are denied access to art for the fear that if they get their hands on it, they’ll write their own stories and understand the value of their lives.”  

– bell hooks and Amalia Mesa-Bains, Homegrown: Engaged Cultural Criticism (2018)

*selection of course syllabus* 

Course Description

This course explores the construction of migrant children who arrive in the US and their life experiences as portrayed in children’s picture books. We will consider how those constructions mirror and counter migration research. Through diverse literary works, students will analyze themes of identity, displacement, family separation, deportation, and social and cultural adaptation processes.   

We will immerse ourselves in children’s literature as we explore how “migrant childhood” is textually and pictorially conceptualized and the ideological messages embedded within those conceptions. To explore the impact of Black and Latinx migrant children’s literature, we will focus on contemporary texts. The course aims to foster critical thinking, cultural awareness of migrant arrivals to the US, and and understanding of the unique challenges faced by migrant children.  

This capstone course offers advanced approaches to Black and Latino Studies. While course themes vary by instructor, students will practice interdisciplinary analysis, communication, and research methods. Skills may include archival work, literary and cultural theory, economics, data, and other forms of analysis that offer both qualitative and quantitative approaches to problem-solving. Coursework includes intersectional approaches to race and ethnic studies that foster complex, creative, and critical thinking about race and racism, power, sex, and gender equality, as well as class, nation, colonialism, religions, cultural identities, and freedom. (Students will receive credit for only one of the following courses: BLS 4900; HSP 4900; or LTS 4900. The F-replacement policy may be applied only if the same topic is repeated.) 

Required Textbooks 

The following are the required texts for the course:  

  • Drawing Deportation: Art and Resistance among Immigrant Children (2023), by Silvia Rodriguez Vega, NYU Press  
  • Taking Children: A History of American Terror (2020), by Laura Briggs, University of California Press  

You can find the links for these via the Bearcat Bookstore.  

Cultural materials, readings, and resources included in this syllabus center BIPOC scholars, knowledge creators, artists, poets, activists, and critics engaging the world. Readings to prepare for class will be posted in the class DropBox.

Grade Breakdown

  • Discussion questions (5) 15% – 2 questions per group presentation on Taking Children (2020)
  • Group presentation 15% – Taking Children (2020)
  • Midterm 25% – Children’s Book Proposal and Story Sample  
  • Final 30% – Public Presentation/Reading of Children’s Book, Updated Children’s Book Proposal & Classmates Book Blurbs  

Course Schedule

  • Week 0 – Introduction  
  • Week 1 – Children and Migration  
  • Week 2 – Black Children Narratives  
  • Week 3 – No Classes Scheduled: September 15-17 (Baruch Calendar)
  • Week 4 – Native Children Narratives & Adoption Experiences  
  • Week 5 – Latin American & Caribbean Migrant Children Voices
  • Week 6 –  Workshop  
  • Week 7 – The Criminalization of Families of Color in the US & Children Refugees and the Production of the ‘Border’  
  • Week 8 – Narrative and Art as Resistance   
  • Week 9 – Midterm Week   
  • Week 10 – Emotionality in Storytelling  
  • Week 11 – Migrant Children’s Art as Testimonio  
  • Week 12 – Possibilities of Migrant Children’s Art and Resilience 
  • No classes: November 23-26 
  • Week 13 – Migrant Children’s Stories and Art as Care  
  • Week 14 – Reading Day and Course Reflections
  • Final Due: Friday, December 15, 3pm

Engage with student final projects: CLICK HERE

© 2023. The work included in this site is openly licensed via CC BY-NC-ND.