Latin American Studies

Entry requirements

Applicants for this course should have achieved a UK High 2:1 Honours Degree.

A background in literary or cultural studies, anthropology, modern languages, area studies, history or economics, sociology, politics or development is useful but not essential. Evidence of interest in or commitment to Latin America is expected.

Months of entry

October

Course content

This course is designed to meet the needs of two groups: those who have developed an interest in Latin America through study or work and wish to develop this for personal or professional reasons, and those who intend to proceed to a doctorate, and possibly an academic career in the field. The course seeks to provide participants with a critical understanding of Latin America in all its complexity, and of the means and methods that have been devised to study and understand it better. This is achieved through the three main elements of the course:

• A core course, highlighting key critical issues in Latin American Studies and providing a forum for interdisciplinary debate;
• Modules in a range of different fields, of which each student selects four, providing some sense of contrasting disciplinary methods;
• A thesis of approximately 15,000 words, providing an opportunity to study a topic in depth.

The thesis is a very substantial element of the M.Phil. course, and the examination process and criteria for the assessment of the thesis are accordingly rather more stringent than on Master’s programmes at most other Universities, where (in the UK) the thesis typically represents only a quarter of the year’s work. In particular, there is a requirement for originality, which must be met either by research using primary sources (documents, interviews, official publications, or the like) or else by developing a distinctive approach to an existing debate or literature. This is consistent with the aim of the thesis, which is to develop advanced skills in research and expression.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will have:

• developed a critical view of the contribution made by the academic study of Latin America and of some of its specific disciplines to the humanities and the social sciences;
• developed an understanding of the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary approaches to research on Latin America;
• become familiar with some of the main themes of contemporary debate;
• presented their own ideas in a public forum;
• developed intellectual and practical research skills; and
• tested their ability to produce a piece of advanced scholarship in conformity with the research techniques, standards of argument and accepted style of presentation of an academic discipline.