Postgraduate Course: Latin America in Interdisciplinary Perspective (PGSP11632)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course considers Latin America from a global and interdisciplinary perspective. It situates the region historically, as a social and material, colonial construct and problematises notions of Latin America as a homogenous entity. The course enables students to situate Latin America in a web of connections and multi-directional flows and to consider the strengths and limitations of interdisciplinarity. Students will examine key historical, social, political, ecological, cultural, and aesthetic developments that contribute to the formation and shape of what is now known as Latin America. |
| Course description |
This interdisciplinary course considers Latin America from a global perspective. It situates the region historically, as a social and material, colonial construct, while provincialising the Global North. Countering the tendency of so called area studies to exoticise and marginalise the periphery, this course enables students to situate Latin America in a web of connections and multi-directional flows. The course problematises notions of Latin America as a homogenous entity. It also explores the contribution of the region's effervescence to thinking through wider global contexts. It critically examines key historical, social, political, ecological, cultural, and aesthetic developments that contribute to the formation of what is now known as Latin America.
The course is delivered through seminars led by a team of colleagues in the humanities, the social sciences, and the arts. The topics and areas of Latin America covered in the course may vary from year to year. An indicative list includes: literature, cinema, language and identity, visual arts, aesthetics, politics, intellectual history, colonial and postcolonial history, social theory, popular culture, protest, religion, racialisation, art restitution, environmental justice, and the climate crisis in Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. By the end of the course students will have critical understanding of the strengths and limitations of interdisciplinarity for the study of specific aspects of history, culture, and society in Latin America.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate a critical understanding of key historical, social, cultural, and aesthetic developments contributing to the formation and current shape of what is known as Latin America
- develop a critical understanding of how researchers from the social sciences and the humanities conceptualise and investigate history, culture, and society in Latin America
- apply concepts and approaches from the social sciences and the humanities to examine a range of topics related to Latin America
- valuate critically and reflexively the strengths and limitations of interdisciplinarity for the study of specifics aspects of history, culture and society in Latin America
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Reading List
Álvarez, Lina & Brendan Coolsaet (2018): Decolonizing Environmental Justice Studies: A Latin American Perspective, Capitalism Nature Socialism, DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2018.1558272
Durston, Alan, & Mannheim, Bruce. (Eds.). (2018). Indigenous Languages, Politics, and Authority in Latin America: Historical and Ethnographic Perspectives. University of Notre Dame Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvpj7f3c
Escobar, Arturo. "Worlds and knowledges otherwise: The Latin American modernity/coloniality research program." Cultural studies 21.2-3 (2007): 179-210.
Rivera Cusicanqui, S. (2012) Chixinakax utxiwa: A Reflection on the Practices and Discourses of Decolonization, The South Atlantic Quarterly, 111(1): 95-109
Sábato, Hilda. (2018) Republics of the New World: The Revolutionary Political Experiment in 19th Century Latin America (Princeton University Press)
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
1. Demonstrate critical understanding of interdisciplinary approaches
2. Apply specialised knowledge to the formulation and research of problems
3. Think and research critically and creatively
4. Cultivate close reading practices on original and secondary sources
5. Develop group and inter-personal skills in working cooperatively with peers, developing collective strategies and sharing ideas and competencies
6. Individual skills and ability in planning and executing a larger piece of individual work
7. Make effective use of oral, written and visual means to critique, negotiate, create and communicate understanding
8. Develop communication skills as a means of collaborating and relating to others
9. Acquire active listening skills, especially to support critical reflexivity and responsiveness to peers
10. Have the confidence to make decisions based on their understandings and their personal and intellectual autonomy
11. Transfer their knowledge, learning, skills and abilities from one context to another
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| Keywords | Latin America,interdisciplinarity,coloniality,history,culture,society,art |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Angelica Thumala
Tel: (0131 6)50 6631
Email: Angelica.Thumala@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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