Mar 29, 2024  
College Catalog 2023-2024 
    
College Catalog 2023-2024 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Latin American Studies Major


Major Requirements


The Latin American Studies major consists of 9 courses, as follows:

A. Introductory course - 1 course

One of the following courses taken during the first year or sophomore year (including First-Year Course versions of the courses):
ANTH 255 - Latin America in Motion  
GEOG 249 - Environment and Society in Latin America 
LATI 181 - Introduction to Latin America    
LATI 141 - Latin America Through Women’s Eyes  
LATI 151 - Caribbean Literature and Culture: Aesthetics of Resistance    

B. Latin American Electives - 3 courses

Three Latin-America focused courses taken at Macalester, including at least 1 Humanities and 1 Social Science course (see list below). No more than 1 course at the 100 level may be counted as an LAS elective, and at least 1 course must be at the 300 level. Spanish courses may count for LAS electives, only at level SPAN-305 and above; Portuguese courses may count for LAS electives, only at level PORT-331 and above.

Humanities
LATI 181 - Introduction to Latin America 
LATI 281 - The Andes: Landscape and Power 
LATI 282 - Latin America: Art and Nation  
LATI 283 - Amazon: A Cultural History 
LATI 285 - Cold War Latin America  
LATI 308 - Introduction to U.S. Latinx Studies 
LATI 316 - Mapping the New World: Exploration, Encounters, and Disasters  
PORT 331 - Journeys through Brazil 
SPAN 332 - Spanish in the United States   
PORT 341 - Voices from the Margins: Afro-Brazilian Women Writers  
SPAN 354 - Here and There: Superando Limites  
LATI 355 - Cultural Resistance and Survival: Indigenous and African Peoples in Early Spanish America   
SPAN 359 - “Neither Saints Nor Sinners”: Women Writers of the Early Modern Hispanic World  
SPAN 360 - One Hundred Years of Plenitude: Modern and Postmodern Hispanic Fiction  
SPAN 362 - Modern Hispanic Novel and the Visual Arts  
LATI 376 - Spanish Dialectology  
LATI 381 - Transnational Latin Americas  
SPAN 382 - Constructing the Nation  
LATI 385 - Frontera: The U.S. Mexican Border  
LATI 386 - Constructions of a Female Killer  
Social Sciences

LATI 141 - Latin America Through Women’s Eyes 
SOCI 220 - Sociology of Race/Ethnicity  
ECON 239 - Economics of Global Food Problems 
LATI 244 - Urban Latinx Power in the U.S. 
LATI 245 - Latin American Politics 
LATI 249 - Environment and Society in Latin America 
LATI 251 - Politics of Memory in Latin America  
LATI 255 - Latin America in Motion 
LATI 341 - Comparative Social Movements 
LATI 342 - Urban Politics of Latin America 
ECON 426 - International Economic Development Capstone  

C. Research Methods course  - 1 course

Students should choose a research methods course that will prepare them for their capstone project on their desired area of expertise. Select from 1 of the following courses:

ANTH 230 - Ethnographic Interviewing 
ECON 381 - Introduction to Econometrics  
GEOG 277 - Qualitative Research Methods in Geography  
HIST 290 - History: Then and Now  
SPAN 307 - Introduction to the Analysis of Hispanic Texts  
POLI 269 - Empirical Research Methods  
SOCI 269 - Social Science Inquiry  
SOCI 270 - Interpretive Social Research  
SOCI 275 - Comparative-Historical Methods for Social Science  

D. Study Away - 3 courses

Latin American Studies majors must complete 1 semester of full-time study away in a Latin American country, or a program approved by the Latin American Studies director. Up to 3 study off-campus courses will be counted. In case fewer than 3 study away courses are counted, a student must take additional approved course(s) to complete the major.

E. Capstone-1 course

Majors normally complete their capstone during Fall semester in LATI 488 - Senior Seminar. Occasionally, a student may be approved to complete their capstone via an independent project or another appropriate course. Students participating in the Honors program normally take LATI 488 - Senior Seminar   in the Fall and LATI 644 - Honors Independent  in the Spring of their senior year.

F. Language Proficiency Requirement

Option A: Spanish proficiency to the level of SPAN 305 - Advanced Oral and Written Expression , demonstrated by successfully completing SPAN 305 or a higher-level Spanish course at Macalester, and Portuguese proficiency to the level of PORT 111 - Accelerated Beginning Portuguese .

Option B: Portuguese proficiency to the level of PORT 331 - Journeys through Brazil , demonstrated by successfully completing PORT 331 or a higher-level Portuguese course at Macalester, and Spanish proficiency to the level of SPAN 110 - Accelerated Beginning Spanish  .