Cecilia Ballí

This course explores past and present anthropological representations of Latinos/as in the United States. How have ethnographers studied and depicted U.S. Latino/a communities in various historical moments and geographic regions? How have they interpreted their lived experiences through the analytical lens of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, health, language, politics, cultural identity, musical expression, and material consumption practices?  Students will ask how these representations rest on particular notions of culture and cultural difference, and examine the rise of “native” ethnography and its implications for the practice of anthropology of and by Latinos/as.  They will concurrently carry out their own ethnographic fieldwork within a Latino community or social space in Austin, forming the basis of a final class essay which they will develop using feedback from small peer groups.