Latin American Studies

Office: Room 1, Gildred Latin American Studies Building, Institute of the Americas Complex
http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/las

Professors

Courses

UCSD’s program in Latin American Studies has attained national and international distinction for its excellence in teaching, research, and public service. Each year its faculty offers approximately 100 Latin America-related courses in fourteen academic departments, and the Latin American Studies Program offers three interdisciplinary degrees:

  • bachelor of arts in Latin American Studies,
  • minor in Latin American Studies, and a
  • master of arts in Latin American Studies.

Latin American Studies at UCSD offers distinct advantages:

  • At the undergraduate level, students may take elective courses on Latin American topics or pursue a minor or a B.A. degree in Latin American Studies. At the graduate level, they can work on Latin America through interdisciplinary master’s programs or through doctoral programs in academic departments.
  • Latin American Studies integrates teaching, research, and policy analysis, encouraging students to develop interdisciplinary perspectives and to work actively with faculty on research projects and conferences.
  • Students participate in the activities of an outstanding array of research and teaching organizations, including the Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies, the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, and the Institute of the Americas. The Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS) sponsors multidisciplinary colloquia, conferences, projects, and publications. The center also awards fellowships and grants each year to promising graduate students.
  • Students are encouraged to interact with visiting Latin American scholars and to participate in Latin America-related internships, seminars, clubs, foreign exchange programs, and other extracurricular activities.
  • Students at UCSD have access to one of the largest and fastest-growing library collections on Latin America in the United States.

The Curricular Program

Degree programs in Latin American Studies are supervised by an interdisciplinary faculty group under the chairmanship of the director of Latin American Studies. Students in Latin American Studies are encouraged to participate in the Education Abroad Program (EAP) in Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, or Mexico; by petition, credits earned through EAP can fulfill UCSD’s degree requirements.

Undergraduate Major in Latin American Studies

The bachelor of arts in Latin American Studies blends coverage of methodological and theoretical approaches to the study of Latin America with a broad foundation in the humanities and social sciences. Students receiving this degree will be prepared for private and government employment or for graduate training; the major also provides a valuable supplement for those who subsequently pursue professional degrees in business, law, engineering, medicine, or other fields.

To satisfactorily complete the B.A. Degree, students must take a broad range of courses from at least three of UCSD’s humanities and social science departments. All students entering the major must enroll in LATI 50 “Introduction to Latin America,” an interdisciplinary course that prepares majors to build a coherent curriculum on Latin America from UCSD’s interdisciplinary offerings (see list of approved courses below). They must also demonstrate proficiency in Spanish.

During the senior year, all B.A. candidates are required to successfully complete LATI 190, a writing seminar. This course will culminate in the preparation of an interpretive paper based on the secondary analysis of existing scholarly research (approximately twenty to forty pages in length).

As part of the overall requirements, students are strongly encouraged to enroll in four credits of Individual Study (LATI 199) with a member of the Latin Americanist faculty, who will serve as the student’s principal adviser.

Study abroad can significantly enhance understanding of Latin America. Students are encouraged to study abroad through the Education Abroad Program before their senior year and may use a maximum of six upper-division courses to satisfy major requirements. These must be approved by the department (based on syllabi and course work) after they have been entered on the student’s official record at UCSD.

Students majoring in Latin American Studies are also urged to minor in a core discipline such as anthropology, economics, history, literature, political science, or sociology. In summary, the requirements for the bachelor of arts in Latin American Studies are:

Lower-Division Requirements
  1. The equivalent of at least two years of college-level language instruction in Spanish, comparable to satisfactory completion of Literature/Spanish 2C; students who satisfy this requirement by examination are strongly encouraged to study Portuguese.
  2. Latin American Studies 50.
Upper-Division Requirements
  1. Eleven upper-division courses selected, with the approval of the director of Latin American Studies, from a designated list of Latin American studies courses offered in the humanities or social sciences. Students must take course work in at least three departments; and they must take at least three courses, but no more than five, from one department. At least two of the eleven courses must concentrate exclusively on periods earlier than the twentieth century. The collection of courses should be structured so as to provide both depth in a special area of study and breadth across the broader field.
  2. Enrollment in the four-credit Senior Seminar (LATI 190), usually to be taken in the winter quarter of the senior year; satisfactory completion of a substantial paper is required of all graduating majors.
  3. With the sole exception of LATI 199, all courses must be taken for a letter grade.

Honors in Latin American Studies

Individuals who wish to pursue Honors in Latin American Studies, as distinct from the regular major, must complete nine upper-division courses from at least three departments, with no more than five courses from any single department and with at least two courses on material prior to the twentieth century. Honors students also take a three-quarter sequence during the senior year that will culminate in the presentation and defense of an original thesis based on primary research (usually between 50 and 100 pages in length), and they must maintain a minimum GPA in the major of 3.5.

In summary, to receive Honors, students must:

  1. satisfy all lower-division requirements of the major program;
  2. complete nine upper-division courses;
  3. complete a three-course sequence consisting of Individual Study, the Senior Seminar, and the Honors Seminar (LATI 199, 190, and 191, respectively);
  4. produce an original thesis based on primary research under the direction of a mentor selected from the Latin Americanist faculty, and defend this thesis during the spring quarter before an interdisciplinary faculty committee; and
  5. maintain a minimum GPA of 3.5 in the major.

Undergraduate Minor in Latin American Studies

The Latin American Studies minor allows students to explore interdisciplinary approaches to a significant world region while pursuing a major in an academic discipline. To complete the program, students take at least six Latin America-related courses in the humanities and social sciences all taken for a letter grade; five of these courses must be at the upper-division level. Students must also complete the equivalent of two years of college-level Spanish or Portuguese.

Master of Arts in Latin American Studies

The master of arts in Latin American Studies is designed for students who seek to integrate a broad range of disciplinary approaches to a world region of growing international significance. Upon graduation, most students pursue additional advanced degrees in academic or professional fields; others proceed to careers in the private sector, in international organizations, or in government.

To qualify for admission, students must have a B.A. with a grade-point average of at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale for the final two years of undergraduate study plus satisfactory scores on the Graduate Record Examination. To receive the master of arts in Latin American Studies, a student must:

  1. demonstrate foreign language competence in Spanish or Portuguese;
  2. complete forty units of course work (approximately ten courses) in at least three fields, with no more than sixteen units in any one department. Eight of those units must be taken in the Latin American Studies Core Seminar Sequence: Core Seminar on Interdisciplinary Research and Methodology in Latin American Studies (LATI 200) and Latin America: Library Resources and Research Methodology (LATI 210A and LATI 210B). Of the remaining thirty-two units, at least sixteen must be taken in graduate level courses, and up to sixteen units may be taken in upper division, undergraduate level courses. M.A. students have the option to upgrade upper-division, undergraduate level courses to graduate level courses (contact the Latin American Studies Student Affairs coordinator for information on requirements and procedures). Students are encouraged to include four units of independent research (LATI 299) for work on the master’s thesis.
  3. successfully complete either a comprehensive exam or master’s thesis.
Latin American Studies