Spring 2026
CHSTU 405 Advanced Chicano Studies in Social Science
Course Subtitle: Age matters: Children, Youth, Migration and the State
Professor: Carolyn Pinedo-Turnovsky, Associate Professor (info about meLinks to an external site.)
in American Ethnic Studies & Adjunct Associate Professor in Dept of Sociology
Meetings: Mon/Wed 9:30-11:20am in 231 Thomson Hall
Email: cpt4@uw.edu
Off Hours: TBA in A 517 Padelford; no appointment is necessary. You may email to set up an individual appointment outside of this office hour.
Description: Definitions of childhood have changed over time and across different countries, across cultures, even governments. What has changed for Latinx children and youth across the life stages in their experience of migration? What impact do laws and policies have on the meaning of age in the lives of Latinx migrant youth? Drawing on socio-legal studies, anthropology, migration studies, childhood studies, and critical race studies, students will explore how meanings about age shift over time, in different contexts (families, schools, courts, borders, to name a few). Consideration will be given to how ordinary documents like birth certificates, driver’s licenses, passports, and digital records become powerful immigration documents. We’ll give special attention to the experiences of youth who are undocumented, asylum-seeking, and members of mixed-status families with case studies from the United States and comparative international settings. This is an upper-division, discussion-based, in-person class.