I am Nelson Maldonado-Torres and I teach in the Departments of Latino and Caribbean Studies
and in the program in Comparative Literature. In this initial course, Colorlines and Borderlands,
we explore the ways in which societies create different forms of differentiation and also,
how human beings, in a way excel beyond those differentiations and create new realities.
The name refers to color because one of the most brutal markers of difference in what
is called the Modern Age has been around color, codified by race. So the colorline is the
line between the normal and the abnormal, the human and the subhuman on the other side,
reflected in multiple areas. The concept of the colorline calls for a critical investigation
and reflection. Borderlands refers to the spaces in between those two sides of the division.
We want to investigate how those lines and forms of differentiation are created. The
students are exposed to concepts and issues that are very broad in the scope. They not
only refer to the U.S., but also to issues that people confront in other societies, in
other countries, globally. At Rutgers, what I've done is to increase that element, which
makes it even more of a signature course. The three core texts that we explore in Colorlines
and Borderlands are W. E. B. Du Bois, “The Souls of Black Folk,” Frantz Fanon, “Black
Skin White Masks,” and Gloria Azaldua, “Borderlands, La Frontera.” The three core texts open
up a path of reflection that we continue by looking at different forms of cultural production
and knowledge production. So this class allows the student to understand the patterns and
then to also look at the ways in which various artists, creators, and scholars have tried
to not only critique but also offer new ideas of what society and humanity should be about.
The students are also invited to not only reflect about all of this in the standard
academic manner, but also to be creative, to use the arts, to use music, to use poetry,
to use story-telling, to use painting, photography and to share it with the entire class. I take
advantage of the fabulous digital services that Rutgers provides, to create five different
forums where students can come in and participate and in those digital forums they can share
their creative work, even songs, performances, videos and reflections. Reflections on things
that are very much of their interest. The material that the students produce also becomes
part of the material that we use to reflect about colorlines and borderlands in the class.
The tools that students obtain in Colorlines and Borderlands allows them to make more sense
of their experience, so I hope that by the end of the class the students will be equipped
to always look critically at whatever looks or feels natural to them. Always try to discern
the way in which lines of differentiation are created and how all of us are trained
to live in this kind of world made by lines of humanization and dehumanization. In this
course, students will be able to learn how various theorists, scholars and artists have
attempted to understand the complexity of our modern societies. Colorlines and borderlands
are key concepts in order to do that and the students will be able to both obtain historical
depth, but also the tools to relate various forms of differentiation in the contemporary
world.