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Fulfill your CIV Core in Latinx Chicago this spring quarter!

Learn more and apply today

Classes

Chicago Studies CIV

Spring 2025: Latin American/Latinx Chicago

APPLICATION IS NOW OPEN - APPLY TODAY!

INFO SESSION - Friday, January 24, 12:30-1:30 PM in 1155 E. 60th St. (Mansueto Institute Lounge - First Floor)

OVERVIEW:  Chicago Studies is excited to announce a new CIV Core offering that mirrors the University's Study Abroad programs right here in Chicago.  This 3-class Chicago CIV sequence takes place withinsingle quarter.

This immersive sequence, which will focus on a particular theme, will promote critical reflection with the city of Chicago while also encouraging civic literacy and cultural humility through contact, acculturation, and high-impact teaching and learning approaches. The Chicago CIV sequence will also utilize field trips, guest speakers, community engagement, and undergraduate research to enrich course readings and assignments. This sequence will serve not only as an introduction to Chicago but also to methodologies for urban studies in the social sciences and humanities. Students will be expected to carry out a project that traces through each of the courses and will result in a cumulative, final product that will be assessed at the end of the quarter.

Membership in each cohort is determined by application; accepted students will be enrolled in all three classes of the sequence.  (There is not an option to take only two of the three inter-related classes.)  In addition to fulfilling their CIV requirement, students who complete the Chicago Studies CIV sequence will also fulfill the course requirements for the College’s interdisciplinary Certificate in Chicago Studies and may apply for a research stipend to further study their sequence's themes during the summer.

SPRING 2025:  Latin American/Latinx Chicago

The three courses that comprise the Spring 2025 sequence will provide students with deep knowledge of how Latin(e/x) Americans have transformed and experienced Chicago. “Latin America in/at Chicago” examines hemispheric social, political, and intellectual connections in the city over the long twentieth century. “Immigrant Chicago” homes in on the specific experiences of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Venezuelans to convey the diversity of Latine/x Chicago and historicize the contemporary reality of immigration from different regions of the Americas. The final course in the bundle, “Latinx Arts in Chicago,” examines artistic production as creative responses to the lived realities of Latinx populations in the city.  

Classes will meet intensively on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons (see detailed course descriptions below), with Friday afternoons devoted to required experiential learning outings throughout Chicagoland.  Students who wish to take an additional class during the Spring 2025 term should only take other courses that meet M-Th before 2 PM and/or Friday before 12:30 PM. 

Latin American/Latinx Chicago (Spring 2025)