A Socio-Cultural and Political Overview
Week 1
2/1 Synchronous Session
Course Overview
Music Video:
Hurray for the Riff Raff and Pedro Pietri.“Pa’lante.” YouTube. https://youtu.be/LilVDjLaZSE
2/3 Asynchronous Screening and Assignment
Documentary:
Yo Soy Boricua Pa’ Que Tú Lo Sepas/I’m Boricua Just so You Know. (Rosie Pérez, 2005)
Week 2
2/8 Synchronous Session
Essay:
Morales, Ed. “A Brief History of US Colonialism in Puerto Rico.” Fantasy Island Colonialism, Exploitation, and Betrayal of Puerto Rico. Bold Type Books, 2019. (Pages 19-36)
2/10 Asynchronous Assignment
Essay:
Morales, Ed. “A Brief History of US Colonialism in Puerto Rico.” Fantasy Island Colonialism, Exploitation, and Betrayal of Puerto Rico. Bold Type Books, 2019. (Pages 36-49)
Week 3
2/15 College Closed
2/17 Synchronous Session
Essay:
Bonilla, Yarimar, and Marisol LeBrón. “Introduction.” Aftershocks of Disaster. Haymarket Books, 2019.
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Oral presentation on the essay “Introduction” in Aftershocks of Disaster
Recommended Event (Extra-Credit with a 250-word response)
2/18 at 6:00pm ISLA at Baruch event: “Carnival/Carnaval! Celebrating the Great Afro-Latinx Tradition in the Americas”
Roots
Week 4
2/22 Synchronous Session
Essay:
Robiou Lamarche, Sebastián. “Tainos: Mythology and Cosmology.” Tainos and Caribs: The Aboriginal Cultures of the Antilles. Editorial Punto y coma. 2019.
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Oral presentation on the essay “Tainos: Mythology and Cosmology.”
2/24 Asynchronous Assignment
Essay:
Dávila, Arlene. “Local/Diasporic Tainos: Towards a Cultural Politics of Memory, Reality, and Imagery.” Taino Revival: Critical Perspectives on Puerto Rican Identity and Cultural Politics. Markus Wiener Publishers, 1999.
Recommended Event (Extra-Credit with a 250-word response)
Thursday, February 25, 1PM: A Conversation with Jessica Marie Johnson, Assistant Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and author of Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World.
Week 5
3/1 Synchronous Session
Essay:
Torres, Arlene. “The Great Puerto Rican Family is Really, Really Black.” Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean Volume II. Indiana University Press, 1998.
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Oral presentation on the essay “The Great Puerto Rican Family is Really, Really Black.”
3/3 Asynchronous Assignment
Essay:
Torres, Arlene. “The Great Puerto Rican Family is Really, Really Black.” Blackness in Latin America and the Caribbean Volume II. Indiana University Press, 1998.
Afro-Boricua Music
Week 6
3/8 Synchronous Session
Essay:
Rivera, Petra. “Cocolos Modernos: Salsa, Reggaetón, and Puerto Rico’s Cultural Politics of Blackness.” Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17442222.2013.768459
Podcast:
Afro-Pop Worldwide. “Reggaetón and Race.” npr.org. https://www.npr.org/podcasts/381444269/pri-afropop-worldwide
3/10
*Midterm Project Proposal is due.*
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One-on-one meetings
11:00-11:20 Cepeda,Liliana (Confirmed)
2:30- 2:50 Cancel,Caitlin
2:50-3:10 Claudio,Pedro O (Confirmed)
3:10-3:30 DaCosta,Alexander
3:30-3:50 Grechka,Inna V (Confirmed)
Week 7
3/15 Synchronous Session
Essay:
del Valle Schorske, Carina. “The World According to Bad Bunny.” nytimes.com. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/07/magazine/bad-bunny.html?searchResultPosition=5
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Oral presentation on the essay “The World According to Bad Bunny.”
3/17
One-on-one meetings
2:30- 2:45 Heeralall,Kelly (Confirmed)
2:45-3:00 Joachim,Taiya M (Confirmed)
3:00-3:15 Medina,Andree (Confirmed)
3:15-3:30 Morel,Ernesto (Confirmed)
3:30-3:45 Nazario,Bryanna Ivette (Confirmed)
Week 8
3/22
One-on-one meetings
3:15-3:30 Romero,Dante
3:30-3:45 Teruel,Emily
3/24
*Midterm is due*
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One-on-one meetings
2:15-3:30 Reisgerzog,Nicholas D
2:30- 2:45 Usher, Kirkland L (Confirmed)
2:45-3:00 Von Drathen-Ruiz, Olivia
3:15-3:30 Yan, Timothy
3:30-3:45 Reyes, Noelia (Confirmed)
3:45-4:00 Rodriguez Martinez,Anacaona Y (Confirmed)
4:00-4:15 Wright,Xavier (Confirmed)
Spring Recess
3/27-4/4
Diaspora and Identity
Week 9
4/5 Synchronous Session
Essay:
Morales, Ed. “Raza Interrupted. New Hybrid Nationalisms.” Latinx The New Force in American Politics and Culture. Verso, 2018. Pages 100-116
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Oral presentation on the essay “Raza Interrupted. New Hybrid Nationalisms.”
4/7 Asynchronous Assignment
Essay:
Morales, Ed. “Raza Interrupted. New Hybrid Nationalisms.” Latinx The New Force in American Politics and Culture. Verso, 2018. Pages 123-132
4/8
Yarimar Bonilla’s Aftershock of Disaster Event (Extra-Credit)
Thursday, April 8, 1pm
Aftershocks of Disaster: Puerto Rico Before and After the Storm
Dr. Yarimar Bonilla in conversation with Professor Rojo Robles Mejias
Video, color, sound, 35:29, 2019
Register here
Week 10
4/12 Synchronous Session
Essay:
Figueroa, Yomaira. “Afro-Boricua Archives: Paperless People and Photo/Poetics as Resistance.” post45.org. https://post45.org/2020/01/afro-boricua-archives-paperless-people-and-photo-poetics-as-resistance/
Poem:
Girmay, Aracelis. “You Are Who I Love.” poets.org. https://poets.org/poem/you-are-who-i-love
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Oral presentation on the essay “Afro-Boricua Archives” OR the poem “You Are Who I Love.”
4/14 Asynchronous Assignment
Essay:
Figueroa, Yomaira. “Afro-Boricua Archives: Paperless People and Photo/Poetics as Resistance.” post45.org. https://post45.org/2020/01/afro-boricua-archives-paperless-people-and-photo-poetics-as-resistance/
Poem:
Girmay, Aracelis. “You Are Who I Love.” poets.org. https://poets.org/poem/you-are-who-i-love
Thursday, April 15, 1PM: A Conversation with Yomaira Figueroa, associate professor of English at Michigan State University, a scholar of U.S. Latinx Caribbean, Afro-Latinx, and Afro-Hispanic literature and culture, and author of Decolonizing Diasporas: Radical Mappings of Afro-Atlantic Literature.
Community Building, Street Codes, and Social Uplift
Week 11
4/19 Synchronous Session
Novel:
Quiñonez, Ernesto. “Because Men Who Built This Country Were Men from the Streets.” Bodega Dreams. Vintage Books, 2020. (Pages 1-42)
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Oral presentation on the novel Bodega Dreams.
4/21 Asynchronous Assignment
Novel:
Quiñonez, Ernesto. “Because Men Who Built This Country Were Men from the Streets.” Bodega Dreams. Vintage Books, 2020. (Pages 43-82)
Week 12
4/26 Synchronous Session
Novel:
Quiñonez, Ernesto. “Because A Single Lawyer Can Steal More Money Than a Hundred Men with Guns.” Bodega Dreams. Vintage Books, 2020. (Pages 83-127)
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Oral presentation on the novel Bodega Dreams.
4/28 Asynchronous Assignment
Novel:
Quiñonez, Ernesto. “Because A Single Lawyer Can Steal More Money Than a Hundred Men with Guns.” Bodega Dreams. Vintage Books, 2020. (Pages 127-157)
Week 13
5/3 Synchronous Session
Novel:
Quiñonez, Ernesto. “Because A Single Lawyer Can Steal More Money Than a Hundred Men with Guns.” Bodega Dreams. Vintage Books, 2020. (Pages 158-200)
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Oral presentation on the novel Bodega Dreams
5/5 Asynchronous Assignment
Novel:
Quiñonez, Ernesto. “A New Language Being Born” Bodega Dreams. Vintage Books, 2020. (Pages 201-213)
Week 14
5/10 Synchronous Session
Essay:
Figueroa, Yomaira. “Reparations.” Decolonizing Diasporas Radical Mappings of Afro-Atlantic Literature. Northwestern University Press, 2020. (Pages 117-135; 145-6)
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Oral presentation on “Reparations” (Pages 117-135; 145-6) by Yomaira Figueroa
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Wrapping- Up
5/12 Synchronous Consultations by Appointment
Week 15
5/17 Synchronous Consultations by Appointment
Final
5/19
*Via email*
5/28 Final Grade Submission Deadline
