Spring 2025 NYU Consortium Classes

LACTC-GA – 2965-001 – Elementary Haitian Creole II
Day/Time: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 12:30pm – 1:15pm
Prof. Wynnie Lamour
Location: Silver, Room 409

These courses introduce students to the language of Haitian Kreyòl, also called Creole, and is
intended for students with little or no prior knowledge of the language. Haitian Kreyòl is spoken by Haiti’s population of nine million and by about one million Haitians in the U.S. Including over 190,000 in the New York City area. In fact, New York City has the second largest population of Kreyòl Speakers after Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. Through this course, you will develop introductory speaking, reading, and writing skills. We use a communicative approach, balanced with grammatical and phonetic techniques. Classroom and textbook materials are
complemented by work with film, radio, and especially music (konpa, rasin, twoubadou, rap, raga, levanjil, vodou tradisyonèl, etc.), as well as with resources from city museums and institutions related to Haiti.

LATC-GA 1017: Government and Politics of Latin America
Instructor: Patricio Navia
Date/time: Tuesday, 4:55pm - 7:25pm
Location: KJCC 404

This class explores the government and politics of Latin America from the 1990s to the present, with a focus on the degree to which countries in the region have succeeded in consolidating democracy since the end of the Cold War. In the 1990s, countries embraced—with different levels of enthusiasm—the Washington Consensus neo-liberal economic reforms, and electoral Democracy became the norm in the region. Many believed Latin America had finally left behind a past of political instability, military coups, populism, revolutionary movements and radical political change. However, consolidating democracy proved to be much more difficult than attaining electoral democracy. In the course we will see that, for the most part, Latin American countries have failed to develop strong institutions and a strong civil society, two characteristics that are often associated with consolidated democracies. The period from 2003 to 2012 (financial crisis notwithstanding) brought unprecedented levels of economic growth in Latin America. The terms of trade were overwhelmingly positive for developing nations. Yet, growth did not result in substantial reductions in poverty and inequality. Why is inequality so persistent in the region? If the good years did not help consolidate democracy, can we expect democracy to fare well in bad years? Although there were problems of democratic consolidation in Peru, Ecuador, and Argentina in the mid 1990s, the election of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela in 1998 seemed to signal broader obstacles and problems for insufficiently consolidated democracies in Latin America. After Chávez, different challenges to democratic consolidation have appeared in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Nicaragua, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico. Are there similarities among them? Are they radically different? Are there regional patterns that we can identify? Through discussion of Latin American history and democratic theory, we will explore different challenges to democratic consolidation in Latin America.

LATC-GA 1045: International Human Rights: Latin America
Date/Time: Thursdays, 5:00pm - 8:00pm
Instructor: Peter Lucas
Location: KJCC 404

In this graduate seminar, students will examine human rights case studies in Latin America, popular resistance and social movements in Latin America, the role of media and representation in reporting and promoting human rights, and educational initiatives for human rights. We will especially study the many choices society has after collective violence. Latin America remains a fascinating region to study human rights as the last two decades have stood out as a period of reckoning and bearing witness of past atrocities. In the wake of serious violence, countries continue to struggle with issues of justice, reconciliation, truth, remembering, and healing. Over the years there have been many different responses to collective violence in Latin America and these strategies continue to evolve and change. This course will study the range of these responses not only to reconcile human rights violations of the past but also to build a culture of human rights and peace in the future.

LATC-GA 2590: Critical Voices in Environmental & Racial Justice
Date/Time: Tuesday 2:00pm - 4:30pm
Instructor: Leo Douglas
Location: KJCC Room 404

These courses introduce students to the language of Haitian Kreyòl, also called Creole, and is
intended for students with little or no prior knowledge of the language. Haitian Kreyòl is spoken by Haiti’s population of nine million and by about one million Haitians in the U.S. Including over 190,000 in the New York City area. In fact, New York City has the second largest population of Kreyòl Speakers after Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital. Through this course, you will develop introductory speaking, reading, and writing skills. We use a communicative approach, balanced with grammatical and phonetic techniques. Classroom and textbook materials are complemented by work with film, radio, and especially music (konpa, rasin, twoubadou, rap, raga, levanjil, vodou tradisyonèl, etc.), as well as with resources from city museums and institutions related to Haiti.