LAS 251 - Latinx Citizenship

Citizenship is an elusive invention. What does it mean to be a “citizen”? What is citizenship, and how do we define it-as legal status, rights, participation, identity, or something else? To what extent does the state mediate, control, or monopolize the meanings and practices of citizenship? How is political membership-a form of citizenship-lived, constructed, and contested by citizens and noncitizens alike?

Drawing on the histories and experiences of Latin American migrants, their descendants, and established communities in the U.S., this course examines and interrogates how the logic, rubric, and structure of citizenship designs, dominates, and destroys Latinx social life.

Integrating sociological and political theories, this course has two key areas: first, the normative, political, and social dilemmas of citizenship, membership, and belonging; and second, how Latinx groups have reaffirmed, subverted, and/or transformed these issues and dilemmas.

Satisfies Latin American Studies major and minor requirement.
Satisfies Sociology major requirement.
Satisfies Social-Scientific Thought requirement.
Satisfies Cultural Diversity requirement.