The Center for Latin American Studies

The Center for Latin American Studies, http://clas.uchicago.edu/, was established in January 1968 to develop and foster University interests in research and teaching on Latin America. In 1976, a Joint Center for Latin American Language and Area Studies was formed in cooperation with the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. With the support of the United States Department of Education's Title VI program, this consortium is one of 19 National Resource Centers for Language and Area Studies of Latin America in the U.S.

The center grants a master's degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. It is an interdepartmental and interdivisional program which promotes the study of the peoples and cultures of Latin America. The center's core faculty include representatives from the departments of Anthropology, Art History, Economics, History, Linguistics, Music, Political Science, Romance Languages & Literatures and Sociology, as well as from the Divinity School, the Graduate School of Business, the Law School, the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, and the School of Social Service Administration.

The center sponsors interdisciplinary workshops, seminars, and conferences, and invites outside scholars and speakers to the campus. It assists student and faculty research; subsidizes library acquisitions; and administers competitions for awards such as the Fulbright-Hays, the National Resource Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (FLAS) and a number of field research grant programs.

The center oversees a variety of ongoing programs. The Edward Larocque Tinker Visiting Professorship and the Rio Branco Visiting Professorship of Brazilian Studies bring several distinguished Latin American scholars from varied disciplines to teach at the University each year. The center also administers the Mexican Studies Program, through a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Through this program the center sponsors guest lectures, conferences, and workshops treating an array of subjects in the areas of Mexican politics and policy, and supports the research and professionalization of Mexicanists at the University through a travel grant competition.

In addition to its ongoing programs, the center is committed to the development of new academic initiatives that serve to strengthen the depth and scope of Latin American Studies research and teaching at the University. In addition to Mexican history, the center's affiliated faculty include distinguished figures researching issues of governance and democratization in Latin America; sustainable development in the Andes and Amazon; colonial societies and visual representation in the Andes; and Caribbean cultural history.

Admission to the Master's Program

Applicants for the Master of Arts in Latin American and Caribbean Studies are expected to meet the graduate admission requirements of the University and of the division to which they apply. Students are encouraged to enter the program in the autumn quarter. Although the program is designed for full-time students, applications from those who can attend only on a part-time basis will be considered.

Foreign students must produce evidence of an adequate command of English by achieving a satisfactory score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Candidates should submit TOEFL scores along with the official academic records of their previous educational experience and performance, including transcripts and degree certificates, accompanied by an official English translation.

Students may be admitted to the program in either the Division of the Social Sciences or the Humanities and will receive the degree from the division through which they have registered. Students applying for joint degrees must complete separate applications for each program.

Programs of Study

Master's Degree

The Master of Arts degree program in Latin American and Caribbean Studies offers training in the languages, culture, history, and contemporary social and political conditions of Latin America. The program attracts superior students able to profit from a broad interdisciplinary approach to the region. The curriculum allows students maximum flexibility to consult faculty and arrange study programs tailored to their individual academic interests.

Joint Degree Program

The Center for Latin American Studies participates in a joint A.M./M.B.A. program with the Graduate School of Business. The student is required to take an integrated program of fourteen courses in the business school and nine to fourteen in Latin American studies, depending on the student's level of language proficiency. Applicants submit a single application to the joint program through the Office of International Programs of the Graduate School of Business. (The business school accepts applications for autumn quarter only). Business School students may choose to apply to the joint program during their first quarter of residence. The two degrees can be attained in three years or less, depending on the student's previous training.

Students who wish to earn a Ph.D. degree should apply to a degree program in one of the graduate departments or committees in the Division of the Humanities or the Division of the Social Sciences.

Program Requirements

Upon entering, each student will be assigned an advisor, who will work with the student to develop a specific program of study. The basic components of the program are described below.

Languages

A fundamental requirement of this program is proficiency in one of the spoken languages (other than English) of Latin America and the Caribbean, equivalent to five quarters of study at the University of Chicago. This requirement normally will be met in Spanish or Portuguese. However, substitution of an Amerindian language (such as Aymara, Yucatec Maya or Nahuatl) or a language spoken in the Caribbean, such as French, is permissible with the approval of the program advisor. Petitions for substitution will be evaluated in light of the student's prior competency and curricular program and the adequacy of instructional resources in the substitute language. Placement examinations will be administered to allow entering students to be placed into the appropriate level of language instruction. Students may meet all or part of the language requirement through the placement examination.

Course Requirements

The standard course requirement is fourteen quarter courses, to be met as follows: five courses in Latin American and Caribbean Studies, four disciplinary elective courses, and five language courses. In consultation with the program advisor, the student will select a minimum of four elective courses suited to individual curricular interests. These courses may be selected from the offerings in the divisions and professional schools of the University. Non-degree graduate-level courses at the University completed prior to admission to the Master's Program in Latin American and Caribbean Studies may be used in fulfillment of elective requirements, upon approval of the program advisor. Credits towards the Master of Arts in Latin American and Caribbean Studies must be taken at the graduate level (courses designated as 30000 or above). However, certain lower-level courses may be accepted, at the discretion of the program advisor.

All course requirements can be met in five academic quarters or fewer. Students who place out of the language requirement may complete the remaining course requirements for the degree in three academic quarters.

The Master's Paper

IIn addition to the course requirements outlined above, every master's degree candidate is required to submit a master's paper. This paper is meant to demonstrate the student's ability to apply formal training in Latin American and Caribbean studies toward a specific research problem developed over the course of the program. The research and writing of this paper will be conducted under the guidance of a faculty advisor. A student may register for the course "Master's Paper Preparation," which is arranged on an individual basis with the faculty advisor for the project. This course, while optional, may be counted as one of the five required Latin American Studies core courses.

Courses

Courses pertinent to the Latin American area are offered through the individual departments and committees of the Divisions of the Social Sciences and the Humanities, and through the University's professional schools. Please refer to the listings in these Announcements and in the quarterly Time Schedules for specific offerings. Additionally, special courses are offered by senior visiting Latinamericanist faculty through the Center's Tinker Visiting Professorship and through the Rio Branco Visiting Professorship of Brazilian Studies. Each quarter the center compiles a comprehensive list of Latin American and Caribbean courses to be offered at the University.

This text was last revised on 2/27/2003.