Latin American Studies

In this course, students analyze the dynamics between civil-military relations and the process of formulating security and defense policies in democratic states of law, with a focus on Latin America. In this way, at the end of the course, students are expected to understand, analyze and evaluate how the different levels of civil control over the military and structuring of the Armed Forces in a democracy impact the rationality and efficiency of national defense policies and strategies.

In the course, students will be able to answer the broad dilemma of how to understand Latin America today?, from an interdisciplinary analysis that emphasizes the connection between history, geography and political science in order to unravel and read the various dynamics and challenges of the region. Through methodologies such as lectures, case studies and debates, they will be able to understand the changes, continuities and cultural, social, economic and political projections of the region.

This course explores the origins, contemporary manifestations, strategies, impacts, and responses to extremism in Europe and the Americas, with a focus on right-wing examples. It examines the political, social, and cultural dimensions of these movements. The course also distinguishes extremism from related phenomena such as populism and nationalism, explores the motivations and ideologies behind extremism, and assesses the consequences for democracy and social cohesion in these regions. The course begins with a brief introduction to the definitions and distinctions surrounding extremism. In Section II, it takes a closer look at how extremism has developed in contemporary European and American contexts. Section III focuses on analyzing extremist ideologies and discourses, including propaganda and online strategies, through various case studies. Finally, in Section IV, it reflects on the social and political impacts of extremism, as well as the responses from governments and civil society. In terms of methodology, the course is taught through lectures, cross-sectional analysis, group discussions, and the use of primary and secondary sources alongside case studies. 

From a comparative and multidisciplinary perspective, this intermediate-level course takes a gendered perspective to discuss some of the most important political, economic, and social problems of contemporary societies in the Americas. The course is divided into two parts. In the first part, it assesses the quality of democracy from a gendered perspective, focusing on descriptive representation, elections, and voter behavior. In the second part, the course examines the gendered dimensions of public policy, with a focus on specific policy areas (e.g., poverty, healthcare, violence).

This interdisciplinary seminar explores the temporal and territorial entanglements in Brazil and Argentina since their consolidation as nation-states in the first third of the 19th century until contemporary times. Some of the materials worked with, in addition to theoretical texts, are films, short stories, political and aesthetic manifestos, and architectural and urban projects. The course analyzes and discusses political, social, aesthetical, and literary expressions that, in a variety of ways, address and/or develop what is one of the critical issues in the discursive construction around these countries: the apparent need to narratively connect the present moment to a colonial and pre-colonial past and a future to come, not rarely using fiction as a methodology. The comparative focus on these two countries, in addition to being widely used in the Humanities in specific studies on each country, is justified by the way in which the issues to be explored in the course occur in their similarities and differences, shedding light on the constructions of time and space in what are the two most extensive countries in South America, not only individually but in relation to each other. Furthermore, the methodological and theoretical foundation developed throughout the semester helps consider temporal and spatial issues in other contexts within Latin America and, generally, the Global South. An intermediate knowledge of Latin America's political and social contexts is recommended but not mandatory.

This course engages critically with the relationship between visual culture, written narratives and modern life in selected works produced in Latin America from the late 19th century to the 1930s. In order to create a dynamic space for critical debate, the primary bibliography features short pieces – short stories, chronicles, essays, poems – and various types of images such as illustrations from periodicals, paintings, photography, and cinema. The wide range of texts and images to be discussed includes representative works from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, and Uruguay.

Indigenous peoples are present in the economic participation and cultural wealth of their nations.  A variety of languages can still be heard and seen, and uprisings, such as those of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, can be observed.  This second semester course analyzes the cultural knowledge and original philosophies of each of the most important groups in Mexico: Nahuatl, Zapotec, Mixtec, Purépecha, and Quechua and Aymara of Peru and Bolivia, including a few other Mexican and Latin American philosophers.  

This course aims to read, understand and interpret poetry and prose from the so-called "colonial" period in regions where a way of life and expression was imposed on native societies and communities by viceroyalties. In addition, the very notions of "conquest" and "colonization" are discussed from the perspective of Latin American studies, focusing on the political, social and cultural processes of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and their impact on the communities and peoples that experienced colonial violence and subordination.