Objectives
-introduce students to key areas of debate in the theory and practice of Latin American Cultural Studies, whilst allowing them to study aspects of the subject to a specialist level. -encourage the study and analysis of culture and cultural theory in Latin America as an interdisciplinary medium across a range of normally separate disciplines. -Through reading, research, the writing of essays, case studies, and seminar presentation and discussion, foster students' skills in analysis, argument, and effective written self-expression. -To provide students with a thorough training in research methods. -equip students with a range of transferable skills relating to various forms and definitions of culture, such as the ability to comprehend and deploy skills in narrative analysis, and to deploy a range of cultural and critical theories in their own work.
Course description
Course description
This exciting interdisciplinary course, unique in the UK, is offered by Manchester's Centre for Latin American Cultural Studies. The Centre brings together specialists from the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, and from other areas of the University such as Social Anthropology, Economics and Government. In so doing, it provides a focal point for the work of over twenty world-class researchers in this increasingly influential field of study. It also fosters and co-ordinates research projects across disciplinary, institutional, and national boundaries, providing a fuller understanding of Latin America within a global context and giving postgraduates the opportunity to work at the cutting edge of the field.
Latin American Cultural Studies is a new, dynamic and rapidly expanding interdisciplinary approach which combines and transforms two more traditional disciplines, Cultural Studies and Latin American Studies. It recognizes that a region such as Latin America cannot be considered in isolation, whether in a linguistic, a cultural or a political sense. Latin America has long been a testing ground for theories of culture and society, but also provides a foretaste of the challenges of contemporary globalisation.
The Centre for Latin American Cultural Studies explores these issues by combining research in the humanities and in the social sciences. Its members' individual and collective research addresses a broad range of themes, across the whole range of Latin American countries from Mexico to the Southern Cone. Particular clusters of interest and expertise are: music, cinema, and visual arts; gender and sexuality; politics, power, and culture. The Centre's regular activities include a seminar series and an annual conference, as well as the "Conversations with/in Latin American Cultural Studies" series, in which prominent academics from outside the field are invited to Manchester for workshops and a public "conversation".
Module details
The structure of the MA consists of two compulsory core course units (60 credits), four optional course units (totalling 60 credits) and a dissertation (60 credits).
Research Methods in Latin American Cultural Studies (30 credits)
Issues and Approaches in Latin American Cultural Studies (30 credits)
Up to four further course units (depending on whether 15 or 30 credits)
Dissertation (60 credits)
Total = 180 credits
This structure offers students considerable flexibility. Within the limits of the range of course units on offer, you can construct a course suited to your own needs and interests. In your selection you may want to investigate further some area that attracted you during your undergraduate studies, or broaden your knowledge by taking up an area of study which you were unable to pursue at undergraduate level. Where these interests are not represented in course units offered, but where relevant staff expertise exists, tailor-made Directed Reading course units can be designed (limited to 15 credits).
Optional course units available typically include:
-Brazil: Grand Narratives and Counter-Discourses
-Spanish as a Pluricentric Language
-Woman at the Crossroads: Sor Juana and Nueva España
-An Anthropology of Science, Magic and Expertise Anthropology, Globalization, and Development Methods
-Themes and Approaches in Latin American History
-Is America postcolonial?
-Spectres and Inspirations: The Age of Revolution in the Americas and Europe
-Priestess at the Crossroads: Mythologies of Race and Gender in Latin American Women's Culture
-Black Identity and Culture in Latin America
