Flavio Risech-Ozeguera

Flavio Risech-Ozeguera, professor emeritus of law, holds a B.A. from the University of South Florida and a J.D. from Boston University, and was a Community Fellow in urban studies and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Formerly a practicing attorney representing low-income clients and community organizations, he has taught at Harvard and Northeastern law schools and at the University of Massachusetts and Wesleyan University. His interests include civil and human rights, transnational migrations, and Latino and Latin American studies with special focus on Cuba, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.

Recent and Upcoming Courses

Color of Law: Critical Race Theory
How do we explain the long history of treating people differently based on race in a nation formally committed to equality of "all persons"? Slavery, Indian "removal", Asian exclusion, Jim Crow laws, the illegalizing of Latino/a workers and today's disproportionate police killings of people of color suggest that the American legal system has hardly been color-blind. How has the judiciary participated in racializing the nation's "non-white" populations, and what ideological and material effects have its decisions produced? The course will help students develop answers to such questions through historical and legal analysis of judicial decisions purporting to determine the legal personhood of Native, African, Asian and Latino Americans. In addition to court decisions, readings in critical race theory, political theory and history will deepen our inquiry.
Border Matters: Mexico and the United States
The U.S.-Mexico border was described by Anzaldua as the "thin edge of barbwire...where the Third World grates against the First and bleeds." Nowhere else in the world is there such physical proximity of a post-industrial nation and a developing one. While NAFTA called for the free movement of capital, goods and managerial personnel across the border, its basic assumptions are under assault by the new US administration. The Mexican body has been criminalized, stripped of rights and targeted for detention and expulsion by various forms of policing by state and non-state actors. Deeply held notions of racial, ethnic and national boundaries mark the social terrain, yet are challenged by the long history of transborder circuits and communities and their recent explosive growth along the border and throughout the American heartland. Emphasizing historical analysis and contemporary theories of nationalism, governmentality, globalization, and transnationalism, the course will challenge students to rethink the meaning of the border, the place of Mexicans in the U.S., and the role of the U. S. in Mexico. The course will prepare students to deepen their border knowledge through participation in the two-week field course "Interrogating the US-Mexico Border" in late May 2019. Visit https://www.hampshire.edu/geo/interrogating-the-us-mexico-bo rder for more information.
Cuba: Nation, Race, and Revolution
This interdisciplinary course critically engages a range of frameworks (geopolitical, historical, literary) for a study of the complex and contested reality of Cuba. We will critique and decenter the stereotypical images of Cuba that circulate in US popular and official culture, and we will examine the constructions of race, gender, and sexuality that have defined the Cuban nation. We will also explore how Cuba should be understood in relation to the U.S., to its diaspora in Miami, and elsewhere. Students will write frequent short response essays and undertake a 12-15-page independent research paper that will include a proposal, draft, and revision. This course is open to all, though it is best suited to students beyond their first semester of study. The class will be conducted in English, with many readings available in Spanish and English. Papers may be submitted in either language. For students wishing to apply for the Hampshire in Havana spring semester program, this course will offer critical foundational knowledge and application support. (Concurrent enrollment in a Spanish language class is strongly recommended for non-fluent speakers considering the Hampshire in Havana program.)
Migrants and Refugees 101
Millions of people are moving across national borders every day. How easily they do so is critically dependent not only on their nationality (documented or not), but also on race, gender, religion and class. What does it mean to be called a migrant, an exile, a refugee or an illegal alien? How are these categories created and policed? How does migrant detention connect to other policies of mass incarceration? Students will be introduced to the alien management systems of several regions though in-depth case studies on the European Union, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, the US/Mexico border and others. Students can expect to engage in group and individual research projects and to lead class discussions of readings from time to time.