LLAS 301 Gender and Sexuality in Colonial Latin America

This historiography seminar examines the sources, methodologies, and theoretical approaches that shape the history of women, gender, and sexuality in colonial and nineteenth-century Latin America. A variety of interdisciplinary approaches and concerns are considered from an historical perspective, especially in relation to the fields of Latin American History, Women's/Gender History, and Sexuality Studies. The readings represent ethnic, racial, and class-based distinctions among women in Latin America, and emphasize the importance of using diverse approaches in reconstructing gender history and culture, particularly for indigenous and African women. The course is organized to illustrate major trends in the historical scholarship on colonial Latin America, and highlight the shift over the last three decades from the study of women to gender and, most recently, sexuality and back to women again.

Historiography is the study of how historians write history and how the field has evolved over time. In this class our emphasis will be on how the historian came to his or her conclusions, not simply on the conclusions themselves. We will also consider each work in relation to other books in the field. Students will analyze both primary and secondary sources to understand how history is conceived and written.