Graduate Student: Macarena Gomez-Barris
Faculty Sponsor: Rosa Linda Fregoso
Hemispheric Dialogues 2, Curricular Innovation Proposal
February 10,2003
Prospectus

1. THEORETICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL RATIONALE
Territories, Mediascapes and Cultural Imaginaries of the Americas

"Media," "culture," and "citizenship" have been crucial concepts in the development of the field of Latina/o and Latina American cultural studies. Among media scholars in Latin/a America, the relationship between "democracy," "culture," and "citizenship" in the redefinition of public and private spheres have also been central to discussions of economic and social transformations. For these reasons we are planning to develop a course that will highlight these key concerns, especially the particular experiences of economic globalization created by new media, within and across the local, national, and transnational territories of the Americas, and the cultural imaginaries produced by this reorganization in contemporary society.

In many ways, Miami has increasingly become the productive center of what some refer to as globalized Latin culture, popularly represented by Sony Latin recording artist Shakira and Don Francisco's Sabados Gigantes. And, although global media conglomerates are dominant social and cultural forces articulating the homogenizing effects of economic globalization, 'national cultural industries' and local cultural practices continue to retain some of their specificity. Thus, even though there is a tension in studies of globalization between those that believe the effects of rapid world coordination of production leads to either homogeneity or heterogeneity, scholars are not neatly divided into two camps. As Gabriela Nouzeilles rightly says, there have been many cultural critics who point to the paradoxical homogenizing forces of globalization, concomitant weakening of the nation state, and proliferation of difference (2001). To some authors, 'the local' stands in as a kind of last site of resistance to the increased control of society and culture by the market. While acknowledging the risks of globalization, others celebrate its ability to loosen the grips of the nation state and other dominant institutions. Nestor Garcia Canclini, among other cultural theorists, has even gone as far as suggesting that consumption can provide a site for the expansion of citizenship (2001).

This class examines the debates of territories (and 'deterritorialization') through the lens of media, cultural production, cultural practices, and cultural imaginaries. Focusing on new media and culture, the class analyzes the degree to which globalization changes, erases, or redraws local and national media in Latin/a America. We will especially focus on how these processes produce new cultural imaginaries. While we're interested in looking at how economic and technological change create qualitatively different social and cultural experiences in the Americas, the course's theoretical and pedagogical focus is not economically, or, technologically driven. Instead, we turn to theories of media and culture that stimulate conceptual thinking about racial formation, social identities, cultural production, and notions of public space within heterogeneous territories and mediascapes. The goal of the class is to generate engagement with ideas about globalization, culture, and media, while also increasing students' practical knowledge and understanding of contemporary Latin/a America. The class does this by focusing on relevant case studies without losing theoretical engagement.

We expand on the work by social theorists on the distinct and overlapping temporalities simultaneously co-existing within Latin/a America, suggesting that media, cultural production, and practices can also be trans-temporal, where the 'old' and 'new' often become blurred. In terms of mediascapes, we emphasize both production and reception, thinking about the construction of media consumers and audiences as national and transnational, particularly in contemporary film and television. The transnational flow of people, goods, and images become central to a discussion of consumers and audiences. The class also puts the question of representation at the core of the exploration of cultural production. How do media conglomerates construct Latin/a American identities? How do the nation state and/or civil society respond to these constructions and produce different cultural imaginaries? What are the stakes involved? As a parallel organizing structure of the course, we develop the notion of public spheres and alternative public spheres, asking what these spaces look like in the contemporary period, and if they can offer possibilities for democratization.

Course topics include the following:

Transnational Television
National Film and Grassroots Video
Miami Cultural Globalization
Memorials (National and 'alternative public spaces')
Museums as Sites of National Patrimony
Media and Social Identities Across Borders
Border Violence and Representation
State Violence, Neoliberalism, and the Media

2. STATEMENT OF APPROACH TO TEACHING
Two elements guide the structure of this course: 1) engaging cultural production (i.e., film, television clips, and slides of cultural sites) and; 2) an in-depth research project, which would be organized around theoretical material and culminate in an eight to ten page research paper on a case study approved by the instructor. The purpose of the research project is to allow students the space to research their individualized interests of media and culture, while also theoretically thinking through the complexities of globalization. The course will be taught as a mixture of lectures and media work, where class discussion will be important to the course's overall effectiveness. Students will be required to view media both inside and outside of the classroom, drawing on the resources of the UC Santa Cruz media library. They will be evaluated by in-class participation, and will have to bring questions to class on the readings, serving as the basis for our discussions. Course participants will also be evaluated by a take-home midterm, which aims to enable familiarity with current conceptual and practical vocabularies, while also increasing analytical capacity about contemporary Latin/a America.
The theoretical and methodological orientation of this course, namely media studies, cultural studies, globalization studies, and Latino/a American Studies, are areas I'm trying to specialize in as I finish my dissertation and prepare to enter the academic job market. Working closely with Professor Fregoso this summer would allow me to further my knowledge of the literature on this topic, especially on media and culture, while also getting mentorship on how to teach media. Putting this knowledge into an innovative curricular format would allow me to further elaborate how Latin American Studies can inform Latin/a Studies and vice versa, as I develop my personal approach and contribution to inter-hemispheric scholarship.

3. SAMPLE READINGS
(This is a sample of the bibliography that will be used for the course. Chapters will be chosen and assigned where monographs are listed below).

Afritzer, Leonardo. 2002. Democracy and the Public Space in Latin America, Princeton University Press.

Appadurai, Arjun. 1999. "Globalization and the Research Imagination," International Social Science Journal, v. 51, n. 2.

Buere, Eva Paulina. 1999. Imagination Beyond Nation: Latin American Popular Culture, University of Pittsburgh Press: Pennsylvania.

Davila, Arlene. 2001. Latinos, Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People, University of California Press: Berkeley.

Fox, Elizabeth and Silvio Waisbord, Eds. 2002. Latin Politics, Global Media, University of Texas Press.

Garcia Canclini, Nestor. 2001. (Originally published in 1995). Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural Conflicts, University of Minnesota Press.

Gutman, Matthew, Felix Matos Rodrigues, Lynn Stephen and Patricia Zavella, Eds. 2003. Perspectivas on Las Americas: A Reader in Culture, History, and Representation, Global Perspective.

Masiello, Francine. 2001. The Art of Transition: Latin American Culture and the Neoliberal Crisis, Duke University Press.

Newman, Kathleen. 1993. "The National Cinema After Globalization," Eds. Johhn Kionk, Ana Lopez and Manuel Alvarado, Mediating Two Worlds: Cinematic Encounter in the Americas, BFI Publications: London.

Nouzeilles, Gabriela. 2001. "Apocalyptic Visions: National Tales and Cultural Analysis in a Global Argentina," Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, v. 10, n. 3.

Santiago, Silviano. 2002. The Space In-Between: Essays on Latin American Culture, Duke University Press.

Valdivia, Angharad N., 2000. A Latina in the Land of Hollywood and Other Essays on Media Culture, University of Arizona Press: Tucson.

Waxer, Lise A. 2002. The City of Musical Memory: Salsa, Record Grooves and Popular Culture in Cali, Colombia, Wesleyan University Press.

Zamora, Herlinda. May/June 2002. "Identity and Community: A Look at Four Latino Museums," Museum News, v. 81, n. 3.

4. SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS TEACHING
Though it is not yet secure, I have been asked to teach in Spring 2004 within the Latino and Latin American Studies Department. If this application is successful, I will propose to the department that I teach this course, which will be developed this summer with Professor Fregoso as my mentor. Currently I am teaching research methods and mentoring undergraduate students as they bridge towards graduate study, as the program coordinator for the Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program (URAP) of the Chicano/Latino Research Center.

Besides this yearlong experience, I have taught two courses during my graduate career. During Spring 2001 at UC Santa Cruz, I was the course instructor for "Cultures and Peoples in the Americas," a lower division course within the Latino and Latin American Studies Department (LALS 80A). In this course, we examined the five cultural regions of Latin/a America and key historical and contemporary processes through axis of inequality (race, sexuality, gender, and class). The second course was in the Humanities Department at San Francisco State University during Fall 2001, entitled "Humanities in the Americas." Through mass circulation and grassroots testimonials, film, video, art, music, and architecture we analyzed five broad topics: 'Conquest'/ Encounter, colonialism, US imperialism, and social movements. Throughout the course we asked: How do Latin/a Americans get represented and represent themselves in cultural narratives?

I have five years experience as a graduate assistant, mostly working in Latino and Latin American Studies Departments. While I obtained my Masters degree in Latin American Studies at UC Berkeley, I assistant taught for an introductory course in the same department (Fall 1996). At UC Santa Cruz, I've assisted with "Introduction to Latino and Latin American Studies" several times (Fall 1998, Winter 1999, Fall 1999, Fall 2000, Fall 2001) and "Cultural Theory in Latin/a America" once (Spring 1999). I've also been a T.A. for Sociology courses including: "Popular Culture" (Winter 2000), "Cultural Production of Crime" (Summer 2000), and "Contemporary American Society" (Winter 2001). In terms of additional teaching experience, I co-taught workshops on voting rights and human rights in El Salvador from 1992-1994. The workshops we created were based on Frei's approaches to popular education. I also worked at Mission and McAteer High Schools in San Francisco, teaching on issues of community participation and internalized oppression, again using a participatory model (1994-1996).