Courses

• See the Southwest Studies section of the course catalog for a summary of regular course offerings.

• See the course grid for a look at who is teaching which class in what block during the current academic year.

SW102: Place, Space and the Southwest

Survey of the Greater Southwest, the power of place and overlapping cultural geographies of indigenous and European cultures in shaping the history, geography and landscapes of the region. Covers the pre-1492 Southwest, the Spanish conquest and colonial era, and tracks through the Mexican and Anglo-American periods of the Southwest. Considers modern controversies such as land and water use, border issues, environmental challenges, and the maintenance of cultural heritage. Prepares participants for further work in Southwest Studies and affiliated interdisciplinary programs. Some outdoor fieldwork.

May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.

• Take a closer look at the Southwest Studies Major and Minor

SW200: Museums of the Southwest: Cultures and Communities

In this course students will examine the role of museums as institutions that preserve and present culture, and how they craft narratives about communities and cultures of the Southwest. They will interrogate what the role of a museum within society is and investigate how it replicates systems that are intertwined with colonialism. Through close viewings of objects, discussions with artists and museum professionals, and exploring alternative art spaces, we will unpack the history of art institutions in the region and consider how we can decolonize the traditional museum.

Meets EPUS requirement.

Savanah Penell

 SW200: Topics in Southwest Studies: The Political Economies of Resource Extraction

Explores the history and contemporary geographies of capitalism as a system of extraction. We will, of course focus on the mining of minerals, with a particular focus on the dilemmas of “green extractivism.”  Yet we will also broaden the concept of extraction to think about ways in which capitalism extracts labor, land, water, and many other aspects of human and natural experience to reproduce itself. What does a legacy of extraction leave behind? Case studies will draw from the Southwest, United States, and around the globe. 1-2 field trips in the Colorado area required.

Eric Perramond & John Gould

 SW200: Topics in Southwest Studies: Southwest Foodways

This course will explore the foodways of the Southwest, focusing on Indigenous, Chicanx, Hispano, and Mexican food history and practices. Students will examine how Native American agriculture and colonial and imperial forces have influenced food practices in the region. Field trips and food making will be included as part of the experiential learning component.

April Bojorquez

 SW211/EN253: Storytelling of the Self (in the Southwest)

This course combines literary, cultural, and historical analysis to examine how the U.S. Southwest has impacted and been represented in autobiographical representation (broadly defined). We will discuss the effects of place, race, class, and gender on self-narratives and examine the dynamics of what constitutes a Southwest identity.

Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement.

Karen Roybal 

 SW220/EV220: Environmental Justice in the Southwest

This course is designed to provide students with an interdisciplinary approach to understanding environmental issues through an environmental justice lens. During the course, you will gain a better understanding of the ways in which environmental justice is about the relationship between scholarship and theory, and about action, organizing, and raising awareness (in other words, non-scholarly activities). Field trip to New Mexico and southern Colorado.

Meets Critical Perspectives: G or S and Equity and Power: EPUS

WRITING INTENSIVE

Karen Roybal

 SW251: The Drug War

This course introduces students to the global and local impacts of the drug war, with a particular focus on Mexico and the US Southwest. Through an interdisciplinary analysis of drug policy, drug policing, drug trafficking, and drug abuse, students will interrogate the interconnectedness of these practices on everyday life.

Meets the Equity and Power: EPG and EPUS requirement

Santiago Guerra

 SW252: Marijuana Movement and Cannabis Culture

This course introduces students to the global and local impacts of the drug war, with a particular focus on Mexico and the US Southwest. Through an interdisciplinary analysis of drug policy, drug policing, drug trafficking, and drug abuse, students will interrogate the interconnectedness of these practices on everyday life.

Santiago Guerra 

 SW259: Ritual and Medicine of the Southwest

This course introduces students to the complex history of cannabis and aims to complicate common misconceptions about this “weed” / “medicine” / “menace.” The course traces the history of the criminalization of marijuana, as well as the move towards marijuana legalization for both medicinal and adult-use in the state of Colorado, the United States, and beyond.

Meets the Equity and Power: EPG and EPUS requirement

Santiago Guerra

 SW272: Cultural Landscapes of the Southwest

An introduction to the cultural landscapes of the Greater Southwest. Guides students with the concepts, terms, and approaches of cultural landscape studies, with a focus on socio-ecological challenges and material-cultural landscapes of the Southwest often perceived to be completely natural. Includes an independent project and may involve a multiple day off-campus excursion.

Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement.

Eric Perramond

 SW273: Art, Power, and Resistance

This course introduces interdisciplinary methods of analysis and interpretation in Southwestern art/cultural production/expressive culture, including, but not limited to visual arts, material culture, music, drama, and literature. Students gain a historical foundation that allows them to analyze and interpret early forms of Indigenous, Mexicana/o, and Hispano art, which we use to examine the relationship between art, identity, and power. As we move through the course, we examine how histories of colonialism and cultural mixing produce new identity categories and influence contemporary Southwestern art/cultural production/expressive culture created by Indigenous, Latinx/Chicanx, Hispana/o, and Mexicana/o artists, writers, performers, and musicians. We utilize the rich collections of Southwest art and material culture housed at the Fine Arts Center (FAC) at CC, along with visits to regional sites like museums, artist’s studios, and artist communities, to engage in discussions about art and identity, to address how art is a tool for decolonization, and to imagine the ways that artists (broadly speaking) have created narratives of resistance and accommodation through their work.

May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: AIM requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement.

Karen Roybal 

 SW310/HY304: Archives of Power

This course traces the development of “archive studies” and integrates regional archives as an empirically sound and “objective” forms of public history and record. Examines institutional, colonial, and heteronormative logics of archival and power dynamics that drive archive creation.

May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: HP requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement.

WRITING INTENSIVE

Karen Roybal

SW301: Political Ecology of the Southwest

Focuses on political ecology in a seminar setting for understanding political economy and ecological concerns. Highlights the struggles and genius of Southwest cultures under changing conditions. May have a multi-day-off-campus field trip.

Prerequisite: Any 100 or 200-level Southwest Studies course or EV145: Environment and Society, and Junior or Senior standing. Field course that will feature a longer overnight trip (up to 4 nights, 5 days, TBD).

May meet either the Critical Perspectives: Global Cultures or Social Inequality requirement. Meets the Critical Learning: SHB requirement. Meets the Equity and Power: EPUS requirement.

Eric Perramond

 SW322: Borders & Borderlands

This course offers a grounded understanding of borders and borderlands, specifically the U.S.-Mexico Border. Utilizing the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and its inhabitants as a case study, we will interrogate identity formation, cultural hybridity, exclusion, difference, biculturalism, social control, boundaries and “boundedness.”

Prerequisite: 1 SO/SW/AN course and 201 level Spanish.

Meets the Equity and Power: EPG and EPUS requirement.

Santiago Guerra  

 SW352/EV352: Waters of the Southwest

An introduction to western water laws, water management policies, and the legacy of water federalism. Particular attention is given to instream flow programs, Native waters, community ditches, water justice, and water conservation efforts in the Southwest.

Prerequisite: SW102 or EV128 or EV145 or COI. Filed course may have overnight filed trips, day trips for sure.

Eric Perramond