SPA 345 - Latinx Digital Cultures

This course introduces students to the shifting formations of Latinx culture by centering the question: How does thinking through the lens of the digital illuminate the past, present, and future of Latinx culture? The formulation “Latinx culture” includes cultures that communities and scholars have described using terms like Hispanic, Latino, Afro-Latino, Latina/o, Latin@, Chicana/o, and/or Xicana). Our first task will be to pool existing knowledge, among class members, of how different formations of Latinx culture have been understood and defined. Then, we will explore how digital tools enable the telling and re-telling of Latinx history, starting with the colonial period, and considering how the deterritorialization of indigenous peoples, settler colonialism, chattel slavery, white supremacist nationalist discourse, and language use (especially Spanish vs. English) set up the conditions and boundaries of what is considered “Latinx” today. Our foray into the nineteenth century will introduce a unit on “Testimonio and Technology” that will take us into the 20th century. Subsequent discussions of the role of media technology in the 1960s and 70s Chicano movement will culminate in an exploration of Chicanafuturism and Afrofuturism. In our final unit, we will explore how contemporary Latinx poets and cultural critics use social media to disseminate their decolonial, anti-racist work. We will analyze the role that language and code-switching plays in the dissemination of Latinx media online. The course focuses on the United States, but features significant forays into borderland and transnational areas of cultural encounter. Students will be asked to observe and reflect on how the digital projects and readings we study display the diverse methodologies of both cultural studies and the digital humanities. All course units center the analysis of the intersections of racialization, ethnicity, class, disability, gender, and sexuality. As part of their work for the course, students will either create a new digital artifact or contribute to an existing public-facing digital humanities project featuring Latinx culture. 

Pre-requisites: SPA 101 or the equivalent; students with Spanish proficiency will be encouraged to use their language skills in their project work.

Course will be conducted primarily in English, but some familiarity with Spanish is required.

Counts for the post-1800 course in Hispanic Studies; counts in the Literary and Cultural Representations Track of Gender & Sexuality Studies; counts as an elective for the Latin American Studies major; counts for the Digital and Screen Media CIS major under the “criticism, theory, or history” category; and counts as an elective toward the Digital Studies minor.

Satisfies Hispanic Studies-Post 1800 course requirement
Satisfies Latin American Studies major requirement.
Satisfies Gender and Sexuality Studies major in the Literary/Cultural Representations Track requirement.
Satisfies the Justice, Equality, and Community requirement