HIST 2441: Cities and Citizenship in Latin American History

From your course syllabus:

This course surveys Latin American cities in the 19th and 20th centuries, exploring how cities have constituted spaces of inclusion and exclusion for non-elite groups. At its heart is a simple question: Why have millions of people migrated into cities characterized by inequality, poverty, and political oppression? Are cities pregnant with promises of emancipation and progress, as modernization ideologues believed? Or are Latin American cities a “human dump,” at least for the destitute majority, as radical scholar Mike Davis argues? In what terms—such as material conditions, inclusion into the nation (citizenship), emancipation from “traditional” norms, or the recognition of a repertoire of rights—can we assess Latin America’s cities?

In addition to its thematic content, this course will introduce students to the craft of historical research and writing: crafting an argument, conducting research, analyzing primary sources, and writing a research paper of approximately 8-15 pages that follows the guidelines of the discipline of history. To write this paper, students will complete a series of scaffolded assignments: choosing a research topic or question, compiling an annotated bibliography, analyzing a primary source, and writing a paper that makes a historical argument backed by evidence.