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 within a single 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)
This course explores the city of Chicago’s Latin American and Caribbean roots by considering hemispheric connections, both in the city at large and at the University of Chicago. Students will analyze 1) the ways Latin(e/x) American actors have participated in and shaped Chicago’s political economy, 2) how Latine/xs on both sides of the US-Mexico border have impacted and been impacted by social thought at the University of Chicago, 3) the collection and display of Latin American material culture in several of the city’s museums, and 4) Latin(e/x) American civil and human rights activism in the city. The course will move through the city chronologically as well as geographically over the long twentieth century.
Some specific events and themes we will cover include: the Latin American & Caribbean presence at the 1893 Columbian Exposition and the 1933 Century of Progress; early 20th-century Mexican community development and organizing around South Chicago’s steel industry; the Chicago School of Sociology’s fascination with Mexican migrants and Chicago Anthropology’s enchantment with Mesoamerica and Indigenous modernity; the Field Museum and Newberry Libraries as sites of Latin American “collection”; the Chicago School of Economics’ exportation of neoliberal reforms in Chile during the 1970s; and broader Latine transnational and civil rights activism during the late 20th century including the Young Lords, Chilean exiles in the 1970s, and sanctuary politics.
Since the early 1900’s, thousands of Latin Americans have made Chicago their home. Today, approximately one-third of Chicagoans trace their roots to Latin America. These significant demographic flows raise critical questions: Why have Latin Americans moved to Chicago? How have they adapted to the city? How have they influenced it? This course will expose students to the latest social science research on contemporary immigration with a strong focus on Latinos in Chicago. We will explore its origins, adaptation patterns, and long-term effects on our city.
To explore the Latino experience in Chicago, the course will focus on three communities: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and Venezuelans. These three groups migrated to Chicago during distinct periods, with Mexicans arriving in the early 1900s, Puerto Ricans in the 1940s, and Venezuelans in 2023. This temporal variation will enable us to investigate how the evolving social, economic, and political conditions in Chicago have influenced immigrants' experiences.
The ongoing arrival of thousands of immigrants from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and other South American nations to Chicago since the summer of 2023 has heightened the urgency of addressing these issues. In recent months, Professor Flores has collaborated with various city and civic organizations to facilitate the settlement of these immigrants. He will utilize his experiences working with these groups to provide context to this ongoing crisis. Guest speakers, including immigrants, activists, and city officials, will be part of the class.
This course is an overview of the Latinx arts in Chicago. It explores artworks and artmaking as documents and critical fictions created in response to the social realities of urban Latinx populations in the U.S. and in Chicago in particular. It challenges students to think about (Latinx) art and the humanities under two modalities: as privileged arenas for understanding experience and exploring the values that guide a society, and as economic engines and instruments of political intervention.
The course pursues these objectives though the study of the Latinx arts in Chicago, and through immersive engagements with local institutions where Latinx art operates (as historical object, as tool for social change, as fruit and seed of creative process, as instrument for economic development).
Using the work of Latinx artists, curators, filmmakers, and other cultural brokers based in Chicago, the course studies artworks in the context of the social realities that gave rise to these works.