Making Sense of And Resisting Violence in Latin America

This course addresses the question of violence in the context of contemporary Latin America. We will use the tools of sociology--and the social sciences more broadly--to better understand the kinds of violence that have arisen, how people make sense of them at different degrees of proximity, and how communities have resisted them. The course will focus on three Latin American contexts: Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina. We will analyze forms of police, military, and insurgent violence in the region, as well as the organizational infrastructure of Human Rights and state branches that respond to and help make sense of violence, alongside community forms of resistance. Academic readings, books, and movies will inform our class-based discussions. Students will walk out of the course with a deeper understanding of how violence looks and feels, and a conceptual map of the forms of resistance that have emerged across the region.