Migrant Childhoods & Adolescence

In this course we will examine Latinx and Latin American migrant childhoods and adolescence through literature, cultural production, and interdisciplinary scholarship. While children are often seen as innocent and in need of protection, the racialized and migrant child is represented in more complex ways. We will analyze how childhood and adolescence function in narratives of identity, belonging, and migration, focusing on tensions between vulnerability, protection, and agency. Beyond literature, we will consider film, media, and art to explore how representations of youth intersect with histories of displacement, borders, and globalization. By historicizing ideas of childhood and adolescence, we will study them as social constructions shaped by political economies, international law, migration, and cultural memory, emphasizing ongoing processes of “becoming.” (Any 2 SPAN courses at the 0300-level.)