The Latin American, Carribean and Latinx minor will be interdisciplinary
A new area studies minor in Latin American, Carribean and Latinx studies was recently approved by the faculty senate, along with a new Latinx grand challenge class.
The minor is interdisciplinary and will include credits from different departments, with a focus on Latin American studies. Classes are offered in communication studies, economics, gender and women’s studies, history and more.
The minor is intended to educate students on a wide scope of current issues facing the Latin American community, such as discrimination and sustainability of Latin countries.
According to Ann Salzarulo-Mcguigan, a communication studies faculty member, a minor in Latin American studies can bring awareness and understanding to students about the wider world.
“I think we as faculty members are responsible for making [students] global citizens and I don’t think there are enough sources of good information about what is going on in the world,” said Salzarulo-Mcguigan. “This is a huge part of the world that gets such short shift in terms of attention, the media, and in some ways stigmatized. We want to break away all those stereotypes, and have students have this as part of their backgrounds and part of their resumes, so that they can be stronger global citizens in the future.”
One course for the minor, LAX 200G, will be a grand challenge course that will be offered in the upcoming spring semester. The class will focus on using ethical frameworks to approach issues in Latin America. Some of the topics that will be covered are immigration and the use of fossil fuels in Latin American countries.
Another large portion of LAX 200G will focus on Latinx identities. Latinx is an umbrella term that refers to people who come from different Latin regions, celebrate different religions and have different phenotypes.
Melissa Villa-Nicholas, an assistant professor in library and information studies, said that the “x” is used to push back again gender binaries that are set up by terms such as “Latino” and “Latina.”
According to Julie Keller, an assistant professor in sociology, the use of the term Latinx serves to include students of all Latin America backgrounds in the major.
“This campus has become more and more diverse over the years,” said Keller. “We wanted students who ethically identify as let’s say Dominican or Guatemalan to find a home in the curriculum, if they wanted to pursue some of those interests.”
Salzarulo-Mcguigan teaches a travel course to Peru that will count as credit towards the minor. Students who take this class will live in the highlands of Peru for several weeks within Quechua-speaking communities.
According to Salzarulo-Mcguigan, people in these communities have built sustainable model farms, which uses a low water use and high soil resistance method of agriculture. During their stay, students will help work in the community and tend to the farm.