Stretching from Texas to California, the U.S.-Mexico border brings together diverse cultural experiences and identities, along with a unique set of legal issues. This course will provide students with an opportunity to examine these issues from a historical perspective.
We will begin with the role of conquest – beginning with the Spanish conquest of indigenous peoples, and the subsequent annexation and conquest of the border territories by the United States.
We will then turn to the impact of nationality, national origin, class, ethnicity, race and language on the law affecting border communities, focusing on developments in U.S. immigration, labor and civil rights law, as well as the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
The course will end with an examination of major controversies currently affecting the border region, including the militarization of the border zone; the construction of a border “wall;” and the treatment of undocumented immigrants and their children.
There are no prerequisites. Each student will prepare and present weekly reaction papers, along with an independent research project.
Hansen, Patricia I