Class name: “Caribe Queer: Sexualities and Narratives from the Hispanic Caribbean”
Taught by: Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish Lina Martinez Hernandez
Here’s what she had to say about her class:
“Caribe Queer” is an invitation to think about queerness from different sites outside the U.S. In this class, we read a selection of authors, as well as speak of the work of film directors and artists, that belong to the Hispanic Caribbean. We understand this region to go beyond the insular Caribbean, to include continental and diasporic locations and experiences. As a facilitator for these conversations, I want students to use these materials to question their own experiences and what it is understood as queerness in their more familiar contexts. Seeing how queerness in the Caribbean may function as different lived experiences and methods of understanding aesthetics, desire, and life gives students tools to think critically about notions of identity and practice in their own settings.
I wanted to teach this class because, as a queer professor from Latin America, I felt a space to discuss queerness beyond the U.S. was necessary. I felt it was also a great opportunity to introduce the work of an amazing set of writers and artists that are not very well known here in the U.S., in the Caribbean, and in Latin America. I also felt this class could serve different communities within Haverford, particularly students who are thinking about queerness and ethnicity for their own lives in the present.
See what other courses the Department of Spanish is offering this semester.
Cool Classes is a series that highlights interesting, unusual, and unique courses that enrich the Haverford experience.
Photo of a class visit by Philadelphia Poet Laureate Raquel Salas Rivera by Holden Blanco ’17.