AMST 227(S) Utopias and Americas (Same as Latina/o Studies 227 and Religion 227)

REL 227(S) Utopias and Americas (Same as American Studies 227 and Latina/o Studies 227)
This course considers the relationship between the imagination of utopias and the imagination of the lands and peoples in the Western hemisphere, though our main focus will be on the United States of America. We shall examine some significant utopian perspectives on the Americas, starting with Christopher Columbus' 1500 description of the "new world" and concluding with late twentieth-century utopias like Aztlán as employed by the Chicana/o student movement in 1969.
Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on class participation, short weekly writing assignments, a 5-page midterm paper, and a 10- to 15-page final research paper examining an American utopia.
No prerequisites. Enrollment: 19 (expected: 12).
Hour: HIDALGO