Southwestern Studies Courses

An examination of the prehistory and early cultures of the Greater Southwest from the first arrival of humans as early as 20,000 years ago to the coming of the Spaniards in the 16th century. The course covers several mammoth kill sites at the end of the Pleistocene; the emergence of Archaic hunters and gatherers and the appearance of agriculture about two thousand years ago, leading to the three major cultures in the southwest-the Mogollon, the Hohokam and the Anasazi, the last in multistoried pueblos and cliff dwellings.

Can be taken as part of core curriculum

This course will present our current understanding of Texas archaeology. The environmental and social contexts of prehistoric, protohistoric, and historic records of Native American and Spanish occupations in Texas are discussed.

Prerequisites: Anthropology 2415 with a grade of "D" or better.

An examination of the history and culture of Mexican Americans with an emphasis on the analytical concepts of culture, race, class, and gender. Lectures, films, and selected readings (including chapters from anthropological and literary books and journals) will be used to portray the diversity of Mexican American experiences in this country. Topics include religion, politics, economy, identity politics, popular culture, sexuality, marriage and the family.

Can be taken as part of core curriculum

This course provides an introduction to American art and visual culture from ancient times to the 1950s.

This course explores the variegated ways that race, and, by implication, identity and difference, is figured and represented in a range of cultural productions, including art, film and visual culture.

A survey of films of the Southwest, emphasizing the history and cultural diversity of the region as represented on screen.

This course examines narratives by people of Mexican descent living in the United States.

Can be taken as part of core curriculum

The first of two courses in a broad interdisciplinary survey of geophysical, cultural, social, literary, and political history of the Southwest that emphasizes regional and ethnic expressions of culture in architecture, art, economics, law, literature, philosophy and politics.

Can be taken as part of core curriculum

The second of a two-course sequence in a broad interdisciplinary survey of geophysical, cultural, social, literary, and political history of the Southwest, emphasizing regional and ethnic expressions of culture in architecture, art, economics, law, literature, philosophy, politics, popular culture, religion, social science, and technology.

Can be taken as part of core curriculum

The literature of Texas and the surrounding territory; various types of non-fiction prose, fiction, and poetry.

A regional survey of the physical and cultural geography of Latin America.

A physical and cultural geography of Texas with special emphasis on human resources and economic activities.

Political geography concerns the interrelationship between political activities and spatial distributions. Topics include the concept of the state, international spheres of influence and confrontation, boundaries, contemporary world issues and problems, and geographic aspects of electoral politics.

Though primarily defined by aridity, the southwestern United States is extremely diverse in its environments and its people. This course explores how people have related to this land. This course also examines current issues and future trends in natural resources and cultural processes in the region.

Can be taken as part of core curriculum

Observation, description, and analysis of a geographical environment based upon offcampus study in that environment. May be repeated once, provided the second study is in a different region, for a total of 6 semester hours.

This course is a survey of the economic, social, political, intellectual, and cultural history of Mexican Americans/Chicanx to 1865. Topics the course addresses include: conquest and mestizaje; the rise and fall of native and African slavery, colonial Mexico’s relationship to other global economies, the development of New Spain’s/Mexico’s northern frontier, how gender and power shaped the emergence of Mexican identities, independence movements, mission secularization, Texas independence, the U.S.–Mexico wars, and U.S. expansion and civil war.

Can be taken as part of core curriculum

This course is a survey of the economic, social, political, intellectual, and cultural history of Mexican Americans/Chicanx since 1865. Topics the course addresses include: the making of borders and borderlands, the impact of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and uses gender to explain migration and citizenship and expulsion, nineteenth-century activism and displacement, industrialization and the making of a transnational Mexican working class, the Mexican Revolution, urbanization, WWII and organized advocacy, the Chicano Movement, changing identifications, globalization, and immigration restriction.

Can be taken as part of core curriculum

A study of the colonial period of Latin America from the early Spanish and Portuguese colonization to the beginning of the period of independence.

A survey of the history of the Spanish frontier in North America and its hinterlands from the earliest explorations to the end of Spanish rule in 1821.

Can be taken as part of core curriculum

A general examination of the Trans-Mississippi West, its major cultural, economic, political, and social frontiers, and its development as a region and as a national component, from 1803 to the present.

A general examination of the region including Texas, California, and the states dominated geographically by the Great Basin, the Southern Rockies, and the Sonoran Desert, from the earliest European contacts to the present.

A survey of African-American history, 1619 to the present. Emphases include African and European backgrounds, hemispheric slavery, slavery in early America, the antislavery movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction, post-Reconstruction culture and society, and Civil Rights movement.

This class will explore Mexican American Music in all of its forms as it has developed in the American Southwest. The course will begin with an historical review of the region. It will then explore, from Islamic Spain to the contemporary Southwest, the development of musical language, styles and fusions.

This course surveys the changing functions, scale, and quality of urban society in the United States. Special emphasis will be placed upon urban politics, or how changing demographics, physical environments, public and private institutions, and economies both grew out of and gave rise to political tensions between Americans. 

A one-semester survey of Texas History which will emphasize political, economic and social development from prehistory to the twentieth century.

This course covers the history of feminist activism from 1960 to 2020 in the United States.

This course in religious history explores the theological, social, and political evolution of religions and the development of the leading trends in religious beliefs and practices in the United States from pre-European encounters to the present. 

This course examines the evolution of country music and how it reflects larger social, cultural, historical economic, political, ethnic, and demographic changes taking place within American society.

This course promotes understanding of the role played by the native peoples of North America in the history of the United States. Among the subjects to be covered through lectures and discussions: initial migrations and cultural development; impact of European conquest; adaptation; removal and reservation life; 20th century adjustments.

A survey of the political, economic, and social-cultural role of the Mexican-American in United States from the era of Spanish colonization to the present.

Emphasis will be on significant critical issues in Texas history. Topics will include: Mexican independence, Texas and U.S. expansion, the Texas Revolution and the Mexican War, the Civil War and Reconstruction, Spindletop, the Depression and WWII, and the rise of urban, high-tech Texas.

People of African ancestry have played a role in Texas history since Estebanico accompanied Cabeza de Vaca in exploring the region in the 1530s. As slaves, soldiers, and cowboys, Afro-Texans have participated in the state’s development while being at the center of controversies regarding rights, racemixing and economic opportunity.

Examination of the evolution of music in Texas and the American Southwest, emphasizing how music reflects the richly diverse ethnic and cultural heritage of the region. It also considers the importance of ethnic identity and other social, political, and economic factors in shaping the Southwest, its people, and its music.

This course is required for History majors not seeking teaching certification. In this course students refine skills and techniques essential to the historical profession. Students analyze primary and secondary sources, apply methods, and write a term paper. Prerequisite: 24 semester credit hours in History with a grade point average of at least 2.25 in those hours. 

Content related to the Southwest will vary depending on instructor.  

This course examines the lives and creative contributions of Texas women composers, performers, historians, and patrons, and their roles in the promotion and advancement of the arts, especially music, in Texas. This course will address topic-related issues of class, race, and identity formation.

This course examines the participation of Latinos in US politics. Both formal political participation in electoral politics and involvement in grassroots and social movements are considered. While all Latino groups will be considered, the course has a special emphasis on the Mexican/Chicano experience in Texas and the Southwest.

Prerequisite: PS 3300 or PS 3301

This undergraduate course focuses on knowledge and skills necessary for effective, ethical, and just practice, exploring interpersonal and institutional dynamics of racism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia, classism and other forms of oppression and their effects on providing social services to diverse populations.

This class will examine the impact that immigration and migration have on the growth of the Latino population as well as current debates surrounding immigration and its future in the U.S.

Can be taken as part of core curriculum

Students will study the Hispanic literature of the Southwest in order to have a better understanding of the cultural diversity of the region.

Prerequisite: SPAN 3309

This course explores Latinx theatre that addresses the highly contested and geopolitical border that separates the US from Latin America. It focuses on how Latinx theatre creates counternarratives within the country. Students will study the borderlands as a place of latinidades, the multiple community voices of the region. Throughout the semester they will read dramatic, theoretical, and historical texts and examine the work of various border-crossers in the western hemisphere.