L98 AMCS 220: Introduction to Latinx Studies
The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the Hispanic population will reach 111 million by 2060.
But who are Hispanics?
What does that label mean and how does it relate to the terms Latino/a/e and Latinx? Can those labels accurately reflect the various communities they seek to represent?
Returning to these questions through the semester, we will critically analyze the evolution of the term Hispanic and its impact on discussions of race, ethnicity, labor, and citizenship expectations in the United States.
We will engage ethnographic and historical analyses, legal perspectives, geographic studies, and aesthetic practices to understand Hispanic, Latino/a, Latine, and Latinx identity formation in cross-cultural as well as hemispheric contexts.
Professor Peña’s research centers around the study of borders, the study of religion, and the study of hemispheric Latinx performance.
Trained between Performance Studies and Cultural Anthropology, her work looks carefully at the production and transmission of knowledge from a range of vantage points—from the printed word to embodied practice to the built environment. She is the author of two acclaimed books Performing Piety: Making Space Sacred with the Virgin of Guadalupe (University of California Press, 2011) and ¡Viva George! Celebrating Washington’s Birthday at the U.S.-Mexico Border (University of Texas Press, 2020). She also edited Guillermo Gómez-Peña’s Ethno-techno: Writings on performance, activism, and pedagogy (Routledge, 2005) and contributed to Gómez-Peña Unplugged: Texts on Live Art, Social Practice and Imaginary Activism (2008-2020) (Routledge, 2020).
