Current Course Offerings

Coures in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies explore an interdisciplinary field of study, providing students the tools that allow them to succeed in a global marketplace—the ability to think comparatively and critically and to engage with the largest demographic populations in the Western Hemisphere. These are courses that will be offered in 2026.

Summer 2026

LACX 2201: Sport and Culture in the Caribbean
MWTF 10:10-12:00
Professor Ruiz

Caribbean sport as a lens on culture, politics, and global economies. Through cricket, baseball, track, soccer, basketball, boxing, and more, students examine how empire, migration, gender, race, and globalization shape athletic life. Sport as a site of identity, inequality, activism, and cultural creativity. [3] (CORE C, E) (LE: SBS)

Fall 2026

LACX 1201: Introduction to Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies
M/W 8:40-9:55
Professor Ruiz

This introductory course examines Latin America as a foundational region in the making of the modern world. Students explore colonialism, slavery, revolution, migration, culture, and political economy to understand how Latin American histories shape global systems of race, labor, governance, and identity. The course introduces interdisciplinary approaches from history, anthropology, law, and cultural studies to analyze how power, resistance, and belonging operate across the hemisphere. (CORE C, E) (LE: P)

LACX: Diasporic Remittances: Latinx Markets and the Global Supply Chain
T/Th 1:15-2:30
Professor Selcke

This course examines the challenges and successes of emerging logistics hubs like Miami, Santo Domingo, San Juan, and Havana. Intersections between supply chain management, trade policies, and remittances, both material and cultural. Available for credit in the Business minor. [3] (CORE D, E) (LE: SBS)

CORE 2500: A Campus as a Garden Classroom
T/Th 11:00-12:15
Professor Dickins de Girón

This Core 2500 course centers on student engagement with the CLACX Ethnobotanical Garden. Located on the west side of campus, the garden houses forty species of plants native to the Americas and serves as a unique educational resource for Vanderbilt students, local K-12 teachers and students, and the Nashville community. Using the garden as our classroom, the course explores how plants shape the development of human cultural values and social organization, uses of plants in medicinal and culinary traditions, and the role of human migrations in the global distribution of plants. Class discussions and reading assignments providing perspectives from anthropology, history, ethnobotany and pharmacology provide students with a foundational knowledge of specific plants and contextualize them within unit themes. Students who are interested in gardening and learning about culture, trade, and history through plants will enjoy this class. [3] (CORE A, C). Available for elective credit in the Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies major/minor.