Understanding Decolonial Thought In this course we will read texts on decolonial theory to analyze cinema from the Americas (e.g. White Zombie, King Kong, Pelo malo, Get Out, Rhymes for Young Ghouls, The Milk of Sorrow, A Fantastic Woman, The Silent House, Too Late To Die Young, The Lost Daughter and Soldiers or Zombies, S1). Decolonizing requires the exposure of structures of oppression that remain in a society after colonization. We will therefore focus on coloniality of power (e.g. intersection of race and capitalism, biopolitics), coloniality of gender (abortion, the privilege of the phallus, hypersexualization, violence against female and trans bodies), coloniality of knowledge (education, privileging the Global North), coloniality of being (religious imaginaries, existential phenomenology), and visuality vs. countervisuality (what we are allowed to see vs. what is there to be seen). Among authors included: Quijano, Fanon, Mbembe, Lugones, Segato, hooks, Maldonado-Torres, Mierzoff, Coates, Wynter, and Ahmed.

Latin American Feminisms In this course we will explore feminist thought throughout Latin America through an interdisciplinary and decolonial lens. The goal is to understand how Latin American feminisms contribute to global debates on gender, race, colonialism, and ecology. We begin with the pan-Indigenous framework of Abya Yala—the Indigenous name for the American continent—to rethink the relationship between gender, coloniality, and power. Topics include the coloniality of gender; Indigenous Andean thought; epistemic violence; the nexus of race, empire, and extractivism; gore capitalism and economies of violence; body–territory as a site of struggle; and environmental justice. Theoretical and activist perspectives are placed in dialogue with contemporary visual art and cinema, offering students tools to analyze how feminist struggles are expressed across different media and contexts.

Decolonizing Zombies Zombies are generally depicted as metaphors that represent contemporary affects. In this course we will study a number of zombie movies with a focus on theories of race, gender, coloniality, iconoclasm, and queer temporality. With a strong emphasis on the American continent, the course will have a global approach, which will allow us to delve into issues of neoliberalism, cannibalism, genocide, diaspora, virus spread, and political criticism. The main goal is to expose colonial structures embedded in the representation of zombies, as well as in the making of the genre. Among films included are: White Zombie, The Night of the Living Dead, Savageland, World War Z (United States); Mangue negro (Brazil), Juan de los muertos (Cuba), El desierto (Argentina), El año del apocalipsis (Peru); Ladronas de almas, Halley (Mexico); Descendents (Chile), Rec (Spain), I’ll see You in my Dreams (Portugal), The Girl with All the Gifts (United Kingdom); Train to Busan (Korea); The Empire of Corpses, and Versus (Japan).   (Two 3XX courses or by waiver) (Previously SPAN 0381.)

Beginning Spanish I This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of grammar and focuses on the development of four skills in Spanish: comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Emphasis will be placed on active communication aimed at the development of oral and comprehension skills. This course is for students who have not previously studied Spanish. Students are expected to continue with SPAN 0104 after successful completion of SPAN 0101.

The Cannibal is You! In this course we will explore the cultural significance of cannibalism. Although the concept has existed since Antiquity, the term was invented during Colonial times precisely for purposes of otherization. We will read colonial sources, study images that circulated depicting Americans as cannibals, and consider anthropological and critical studies in order to understand the connections between cannibalism and concepts of race, gender, class, and disability. We will then be in a better position to delve into contemporary fiction (e.g., Bazterrica’s Cadáver exquisito), visual culture and cinema on cannibalism from Latin America and beyond. (e.g., Somos lo que hay, Ravenous, Estômago, American Carnage, Cerdita, Bones and All).

Decolonizing Porn: Circulating Desire between Europe and the Americas In this course we will use feminist, queer, critical race, and decolonial theories to analyze porn in Europe and the Americas. The goal is to give students the analytic tools they need to think deeply about the centrality of porn to our lives and to global capitalism, creating jobs in the “gig economy” as well as huge amounts of profit even as it extracts unpaid labor from trafficked bodies. We will consider pornographic photography, cinema, AI, and deep fakes. Texts will include Linda Williams’ Hard Core: Power, Pleasure, and the ‘Frenzy of the Visible,” Gayle Rubin’s “Thinking Sex,” Heather Berg, Porn Work and Jennifer Nash’s The Black Body in Ecstasy. In the SPAN section of the course, students will also be asked to participate in Spanish at least three times on the Spanish-language day of the class. All students will present their public-facing projects at the end of the class.

Patriarchy’s Toxic Imagination in Global Horror Cinema What is toxicity and how is this linked to patriarchy and contemporary horror cinema? In this course we will analyze a number of movies in order to understand how the construction of female bodies as monsters is linked to toxic imagination and patriarchal values. Approaching toxicity from Mel Y. Chen’s perspective and using affect theory (e.g. Ahmed), we will delve into issues such as reproductive horror, trans horror, posthumanism, environmentalism, and religious horror. Among movies included: Huesera: The Bone Woman, 2023; Woman of the Photographs, 2023; Crimes of the Future, 2022; Culpa, 2022; Madres, 2021; Titane, 2021; Coven: Akelarre, 2020; Impetigore, 2019; Saint Maude, 2019; Bit, 2019; Mesmeralda, 2019; La casa lobo 2018; The Autopsy of Jane Doe, 2016; Prevenge, 2016; Antibirth, 2016; and Madre, 2016.

Lusa-Hispanic Painting from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Eras The main goal of this course is to analyze art. Focusing on aesthetics, we will learn to appreciate the differences between Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque painting. Regarding formal elements we will work on the use of lines, colors, proportions, and perspective. Artistic appreciation will be complemented with readings on historical and theoretical issues regarding the intersection between imperial power and religion, race, and ethnicity (Casta painting), mythology, the use of the body as a metaphor, still lifes, and Vanitas painting. The course will also include a chapter on art by ‘forgotten’ women, as well as a chapter on architecture, including Brazilian colonial monuments. Students will compare artistic manifestations from Portugal, Spain and the New World, and will be able to trace connections with contemporary art. Among artists included: El Greco, Clara Peeters, Velázquez, Josefa de Óbidos, Goya, Illescas and The Quito School of Art, Villalpando, Correa, and Cabrera (México), Aleijadinho, Zapata, Master of Calamarca and many anonymous painters from the Cusco School (Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia).

Intermediate Spanish II A course for students seeking to perfect their academic writing skills in Spanish. The course is also an introduction to literary analysis and critical writing and will include reading and oral discussion of literary texts. The course will also include a thorough review of grammar at a fairly advanced level. This course may be used to fulfill the foreign languages distribution requirement.

Making Monsters: Global Visual Culture In this course we will trace a cultural history of the monster, focusing on the construction of monstrosity as an imaginary concept based on cultural ideas regarding power and its manipulation, deformed and reproductive bodies, witchcraft, sexuality, race, the intelligence of female subjects, transgression of heteronormativity, masculine fears, fears of the other, and fears of the unknown and the powerful. Monsters also have a biopolitical dimension and can manipulate our lives. Using a global perspective (e.g. the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa), we will study monsters as depicted in science, art, cinema, and popular culture. We will emphasize feminist, decolonial and horror theories, as well as post- and transhumanism. Resources may include: Divine images, mythological and folklore figures, representation of the Native Americans during colonization, freaks, ‘degenerate’ art, industrial and nuclear accident monsters, vampires, zombies, and mutants.

Decolonizing Zombies! Zombies are generally depicted as metaphors that represent contemporary affects. In this course we will study a number of zombie movies with a focus on theories of race, gender, coloniality, iconoclasm, and queer temporality. With a strong emphasis on the American continent, the course will have a global approach, which will allow us to delve into issues of neoliberalism, cannibalism, genocide, diaspora, virus spread, and political criticism. The main goal is to expose colonial structures embedded in the representation of zombies, as well as in the making of the genre. Among films included are: White Zombie, The Night of the Living Dead, Savageland, World War Z (United States); Mangue negro (Brazil), Juan de los muertos (Cuba), El desierto (Argentina), El año del apocalipsis (Peru); Ladronas de almas, Halley (Mexico); Descendents (Chile), Rec (Spain), I’ll see You in my Dreams (Portugal), The Girl with All the Gifts (United Kingdom); Train to Busan (Korea); The Empire of Corpses, and Versus (Japan).

Open Topic Research Seminar In this seminar students will develop a research project on a topic of their choice. At the beginning of the semester, the class will focus on research methodology, the discussion of different cultural theories, and their application. Students will be encouraged to focus on, or make comparisons with, contemporary cultural phenomena that they are passionate about so that they can explore how to discuss current issues from a theoretical perspective. The seminar will include a mixture of group and individual meetings; readings will be adjusted according to students’ interests.  At the end of the semester, students will present their final paper in a departmental venue. (Two Spanish courses numbered 0350 or above or by waiver) 3hrs. sem/disc

Patricia Saldarriaga

Reviews and ratings for Patricia Saldarriaga at Middlebury College.Patricia Saldarriaga teaches Decolonial Thought, Latin American Feminisms, Decolonizing Zombies and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Patricia Saldarriaga good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

This was a great class all around, she is very knowledgeable and is very passionate about this class. The movies are a little messed up but it was a great class environment, and all the students bought in. 

I really enjoyed this course, and I think that Patricia is such a brilliant professor and such a kind person. Her lectures are engaging and interesting, and she encourages participation a minimum of three times per class- thus, all the students are very engaged, and we always end up having interesting conversations that connect history, anthropology, feminism, and some of our other classes and personal experiences. Each week, there are a bunch of readings which are sometimes very long and dense, and usually a movie to watch, but it is somewhat easy to get away with not doing all the readings and still be able to participate in the discussion posts and class conversations. 

I was pretty disappointed with this class overall. I think the topic has so much potential to be an incredible language class at Midd, but it was just taught poorly. She put a million words and quotes on the screen, then would just talk at us the entire time. It wasnt well organized and for the entire second half of the semester every single class was student run. It was not engaging at all and I found myself counting down the minutes. She is a great human though and very sweet. Clearly passionate and knowledgable on subject, just not great at teaching it to students. 