Latin American Studies
Encyclopedia
Latin American studies is an academic discipline
dealing with the study of Latin America
and Latin Americans.
, culture
, politics
, and experiences of Latin Americans in Latin America
and often also elsewhere (such as Latinos/Hispanics in the United States).
Latin American studies is interdisciplinary
from numerous disciplines such as sociology
, history, literature
, political science
, geography
, gender studies
, and economics
, Latin Americanists consider a variety of perspectives and employ diverse analytical tools in their work.
Though Latin America is a fluid (and sometimes contested) concept, with no fixed definition, Latin American studies is usually quite open and often includes or is closely associated with, for instance, Latino studies, Caribbean studies, and transatlantic studies. The Latin American Studies Association
, for instance, has sections dealing with Europe
and Latin America, Haiti
, and Latino studies (among many others).http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/lasaSections.html
published extensively about the region. Towards the end of the nineteenth century and at the turn of the twentieth, within the region itself writers such as José Martí
and José Enrique Rodó
encouraged a consciousness of regional identity. But "Latin Americanism" as a concept and an academic discipline emerges only later in the twentieth-century, and mostly in Europe and North America.
In the USA, Latin American Studies (like other area studies
) was boosted by the passing of Title VI of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958, which provided resources for Centers of Area and International Studies.http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/iegps/history.html In the UK, the 1965 "Parry Report" provided similar impetus for the establishment of Institutes and Centres of Latin American Studies (see Bulmer-Thomas).
Academic discipline
An academic discipline, or field of study, is a branch of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined , and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to...
dealing with the study of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and Latin Americans.
Definition
Latin American studies critically examines the historyHistory
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
, and experiences of Latin Americans in Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
and often also elsewhere (such as Latinos/Hispanics in the United States).
Latin American studies is interdisciplinary
Interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity involves the combining of two or more academic fields into one single discipline. An interdisciplinary field crosses traditional boundaries between academic disciplines or schools of thought, as new needs and professions have emerged....
from numerous disciplines such as sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
, history, literature
Literary criticism
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of its methods and goals...
, political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
, geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
, gender studies
Gender studies
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study which analyses race, ethnicity, sexuality and location.Gender study has many different forms. One view exposed by the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir said: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one"...
, and economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, Latin Americanists consider a variety of perspectives and employ diverse analytical tools in their work.
Though Latin America is a fluid (and sometimes contested) concept, with no fixed definition, Latin American studies is usually quite open and often includes or is closely associated with, for instance, Latino studies, Caribbean studies, and transatlantic studies. The Latin American Studies Association
Latin American Studies Association
The Latin American Studies Association is the largest association for scholars of Latin American studies. Founded in 1966, it has over 6,000 members, forty-five percent of whom reside outside the United States, LASA brings together experts on Latin America from all disciplines and diverse...
, for instance, has sections dealing with Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Latin America, Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
, and Latino studies (among many others).http://lasa.international.pitt.edu/lasaSections.html
History
Latin America has been studied in one way or another ever since Columbus's "discovery" of 1492, and even before. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, scientist explorers such as Alexander von HumboldtAlexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Freiherr von Humboldt was a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt...
published extensively about the region. Towards the end of the nineteenth century and at the turn of the twentieth, within the region itself writers such as José Martí
José Martí
José Julián Martí Pérez was a Cuban national hero and an important figure in Latin American literature. In his short life he was a poet, an essayist, a journalist, a revolutionary philosopher, a translator, a professor, a publisher, and a political theorist. He was also a part of the Cuban...
and José Enrique Rodó
José Enrique Rodo
José Enrique Rodó Piñeyro was a Uruguayan essayist. He called for the youth of Latin America to reject materialism, to revert back to Greco-Roman habits of free thought and self enrichment, and to develop and concentrate on their culture.He cultivated an epistolary relationship with important...
encouraged a consciousness of regional identity. But "Latin Americanism" as a concept and an academic discipline emerges only later in the twentieth-century, and mostly in Europe and North America.
In the USA, Latin American Studies (like other area studies
Area studies
Area studies are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what are, in the practice of scholarship, many heterogeneous fields of research, encompassing...
) was boosted by the passing of Title VI of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958, which provided resources for Centers of Area and International Studies.http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/iegps/history.html In the UK, the 1965 "Parry Report" provided similar impetus for the establishment of Institutes and Centres of Latin American Studies (see Bulmer-Thomas).
Associations
- Brazilian Studies Association
- Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs
- Latin American Studies AssociationLatin American Studies AssociationThe Latin American Studies Association is the largest association for scholars of Latin American studies. Founded in 1966, it has over 6,000 members, forty-five percent of whom reside outside the United States, LASA brings together experts on Latin America from all disciplines and diverse...
(USA, founded 1966) - Mid-Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS)Mid-Atlantic Council of Latin American StudiesThe Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies is a learned society of Mid-Atlantic region scholars, researchers, teachers students and interested professionals in all disciplines and pursuits. This region comprises Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West...
(USA, founded 1979) - SALALM, the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials
- Society for Irish Latin American StudiesSociety for Irish Latin American StudiesThe Society for Irish Latin American Studies was created in 2003 to study Ireland's role in Latin America.-History:It was founded on 1 July 2003 to promote the study of relations between Ireland and Latin American countries...
(Ireland, founded 2003) - Society for Latin American Studies (UK, founded 1964)
Journals
- Latin America Database
- Bulletin of Latin American ResearchBulletin of Latin American ResearchBulletin of Latin American Research is the journal of the Society for Latin American Studies, one of the leading Latin American studies organizations in Europe. It is published by Blackwell Publishing, Limited, and comes out four times a year. BLAR publishes original research on Latin America,...
- Colonial Latin American Review
- Hispanic American Historical Review
- Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies
- Journal of Latin American StudiesJournal of Latin American StudiesThe Journal of Latin American Studies is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press. It was established in 1969.- Notable articles :...
- Journal of Politics in Latin America (JPLA)Journal of Politics in Latin America (JPLA)The Journal of Politics in Latin America is a peer-reviewed academic research journal focussing on the politics of Latin America. It is an Open-Access publication.- Editors :...
- Latin American Essays, MACLAS
- Latin American Research Review
- NACLA Report on the AmericasNACLA Report on the AmericasNACLA Report on the Americas is a bimonthly political magazine published by the North American Congress on Latin America.-History:The North American Congress on Latin America was founded on November 1966 by leaders of the New Left movement to analyze the mainstream media coverage of the Johnson...
- Problems of Latin America
Programs
- CELACentro de Estudios LatinoamericanosThe Center of Latin-American Studies is a division of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. It is responsible for teaching and research in social sciences in the Latin American area. It was founded in 1960 by Pablo González Casanova...
, Mexico - Institute for the Study of the AmericasInstitute for the Study of the AmericasThe Institute for the Study of the Americas was founded in August 2004 through a merger of the Institute of Latin American Studies with the Institute of United States Studies , both of which had been founded in 1965 at 31 Tavistock Square...
, London - Center for Latin American Studies at the University of PittsburghCenter for Latin American Studies – University of PittsburghThe University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Latin American Studies, commonly known as CLAS, is a National Resource Center on Latin America. The Center, founded in 1964 as part of the university's Center for International Studies, offers undergraduate and graduate students multidisciplinary training...
- Latin American Studies at the University of New Mexico
- University of Florida Center for Latin American StudiesUniversity of Florida Center for Latin American StudiesThe University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies is one of the largest centers in the United States for the study of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies...
- Duke University's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
- The University of Chicago Center for Latin American Studies
- Florida International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center
- Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida
- Georgetown University's Center for Latin American Studies
- George Washington University's Latin American and Hemispheric Studies
- Grand Valley State UniversityGrand Valley State UniversityGrand Valley State University is a public liberal arts university located in Allendale, Michigan, United States. The university was established in 1960, and its main campus is situated on approximately west of Grand Rapids...
http://gvsu.edu/las/ - Harvard University's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
- SUNY-Albany's Department of Latin American, Caribbean, & U.S. Latino Studies
- Tulane University's Roger Thayer Stone Center
- University of California, Berkeley's Center for Latin American Studies
- University of North Carolina's Institute of Latin American Studies
- University of Texas at Austin's Teresa Lozano Long Institute
- Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Connecticut
- University of Liverpool's Research Institute of Latin American Studies
- University of Helsinki, Latin American Studies
Some Notable Latin Americanists
See also :Category:Latin Americanists- Richard Adams
- Manuel Alcántara
- Victor Bulmer-ThomasVictor Bulmer-ThomasVictor Bulmer-Thomas is a British academic who has specialised in Latin America and the Caribbean. Born in London, his first experience of the Americas was as a V.S.O. in Belize , where he taught several of the current leaders of the country....
- Simon Collier
- Antonio Cornejo PolarAntonio Cornejo PolarAntonio Cornejo-Polar was a Peruvian-born academic, teacher, literature and cultural critic, known particularly for his theorization of the concept of "heterogeneity."-Biography:Cornejo Polar was born December 23, 1936 in Arequipa, Peru...
- Ariel DorfmanAriel DorfmanVladimiro Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina since 1985.-Personal...
- James DunkerleyJames DunkerleyJames Chadwick Dunkerley OBE is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary, University of London, and the current Director of the Institute for the Study of the Americas...
- Arturo Escobar
- Richard Fagen
- Albert FishlowAlbert FishlowAlbert Fishlow is the director of the Columbia Institute of Latin American Studies and director of the Center for the Study of Brazil at Columbia. He was previously the Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council of Foreign Relations.Dr...
- Jean FrancoJean FrancoJean Franco is a British-born academic and literary critic known for her pioneering work on Latin American literature. Educated at Manchester and London, she has taught at London, Essex , and Stanford, and is currently professor emerita at Columbia University.-Research:Jean Franco's research is...
- Néstor García CancliniNéstor García CancliniNéstor García Canclini is an Argentine-born academic and anthropologist, known for his theorization of the concept of "hybridity." He currently works at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City and is the director of its programme of studies in urban culture...
- Federico GilFederico GilFederico Gil was a political scientist and founder and president of the Latin American Studies Association and a recipient of its Kalman Silvert Award for outstanding lifetime service to Latin American studies. from the University of North Carolina....
- Roberto González EchevarríaRoberto González EchevarríaRoberto González Echevarría is a Cuban-born critic of Latin American literature and culture. He is currently the Sterling Professor of Hispanic and Comparative Literature at Yale University....
- Lewis HankeLewis HankeLewis Hanke is a preeminent North American historian of colonial Latin America, and is best known for his writings on the Spanish conquest of Latin America. Hanke, along with two others, Irving A. Leonard and John T...
- Albert O. HirschmanAlbert O. HirschmanAlbert Otto Hirschman is an influential economist who has authored several books on political economy and political ideology. His first major contribution was in the area of development economics. Here he emphasized the need for unbalanced growth...
- Daniel JamesDaniel James (historian)Daniel James is a British historian educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, where he received his doctorate in 1979. He is an expert in Peronism and the working class in Argentina. Dr. James is renowned in Argentina as a result of his expertise, interpretation and...
- John J. Johnson
- George KublerGeorge KublerGeorge Alexander Kubler was an American art historian and among the foremost scholars on the art of Pre-Columbian America and Ibero-American Art....
- Neil Larsen
- Miguel León-PortillaMiguel León-PortillaMiguel León-Portilla is a Mexican anthropologist and historian, and a prime authority on Nahuatl thought and literature.He wrote a doctoral thesis on Nahua philosophy under the tutelage of Fr...
- John LynchJohn Lynch (historian)John Lynch is Emeritus Professor of Latin American History at the University of London. He spent most of his academic career at University College, and then from 1974 to 1987 as Director of the Institute of Latin American Studies...
- Kevin Middlebrook
- Sylvia MolloySylvia MolloySylvia Clark Molloy M.A., , was a British Realist and Impressionist artist and teacher.A graduate of Durham University, she lived abroad for much of her life - including many years in South Africa -returning to England in the mid 1960s.Her many paintings and sketches of the peoples of South Africa...
- Alberto MoreirasAlberto MoreirasAlberto Moreiras is a Spanish-born academic and cultural theorist who currently works at Texas A&M University. Previously he taught at Duke University and at the Centre for Modern Thought at the University of Aberdeen....
- Richard McGee MorseRichard McGee MorseRichard "Dick" McGee Morse, Ph.D. was a Latin Americanist scholar and professor at Columbia University, University of Puerto Rico, Yale University and Stanford University before finishing his career at the Wilson Center in Washington DC.Morse was born in Summit, New Jersey, United States, but...
- June Nash
- Guillermo O'DonnellGuillermo O'DonnellGuillermo O'Donnell was a prominent Argentine political scientist, named the Helen Kellogg Professor of Government and International Studies at the University of Notre Dame in the United States. His brother, Pacho O'Donnell, is a well-known politician and writer.-Biography:O'Donnell was born in...
- Gustavo Pérez FirmatGustavo Pérez Firmat- Early life :Pérez Firmat was born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Miami, Florida. He was educated at Miami-Dade Community College, The University of Miami, and The University of Michigan, where he earned a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature...
- James PetrasJames PetrasJames Petras is a retired Bartle Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York and adjunct professor at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada who has published prolifically on Latin American and Middle Eastern political issues.-Academic and...
- Mary Louise PrattMary Louise PrattMary Louise Pratt is a Silver Professor and Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures at New York University.Her first book, Toward a Speech Act Theory of Literary Discourse, made an important contribution to critical theory by demonstrating that the foundation of written...
- Ángel RamaÁngel RamaÁngel Rama was a Uruguayan writer, academic, and literary critic, known for his work on modernismo and for his theorization of the concept of "transculturation."-Biography:...
- Darcy RibeiroDarcy RibeiroDarcy Ribeiro was a Brazilian anthropologist, author and politician. Darcy Ribeiro's ideas of Latin American identity have influenced several later scholars of Latin American studies...
- Nelly RichardNelly RichardNelly Richard is a French-born cultural theorist now based in Chile and editor of the Revista de crítica cultural. Among her books are The Insubordination of Signs and Cultural Residues....
- Riordan RoettRiordan RoettRiordan Roett, is an American political scientist specializing in Latin America. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in Political Science and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...
- William RoweWilliam RoweWilliam Rowe may refer to:*William L. Rowe , American philosopher of religion*William Earl Rowe , politician in Ontario, Canada*William B...
- Beatriz SarloBeatriz SarloBeatriz Sarlo is an Argentine literary and cultural critic. She was also founding editor of the cultural journal Punto de Vista ....
- Donald Shaw
- Thomas SkidmoreThomas SkidmoreThomas Elliot Skidmore is a noted historian and scholar specialized in Brazilian history.-Biography:Skidmore graduated in political science and philosophy in 1954 from Denison University. He received a Fulbright Fellowship to study philosophy at Oxford University where he met his wife Felicity. He...
- Doris Sommer
- Osvaldo Sunkel
- Michael TaussigMichael TaussigMichael Taussig earned a medical degree from the University of Sydney, received his PhD. in anthropology from the London School of Economics and is a professor at Columbia University and European Graduate School...
- Alain TouraineAlain TouraineAlain Touraine is a French sociologist born in Hermanville-sur-Mer. He is research director at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, where he founded the Centre d'étude des mouvements sociaux . He is best known for being the originator of the term "post-industrial society"...
- Victor L. Urquidi
- Arturo Valenzuela
- Willy van Ryckeghem
- Charles WagleyCharles WagleyCharles Wagley was an American anthropologist and leading pioneer in the development of Brazilian anthropology. Wagley began graduate work in the 1930s at Columbia University, where he fell under the spell of Franz Boas and what later became known as the "historical particularist” mode of...
- Henry WellsHenry Wells (author)Henry Wells was an American author, professor and leading expert on Latin America politics. Wells helped to draft the Constitution of Puerto Rico and advised the Dominican Republic on proper election procedures for the Organization of American States...
- Ayonna Gray
- John WomackJohn WomackJohn Womack Jr. is an historian of Latin America, particularly of Mexico, the Mexican Revolution and Emiliano Zapata. In June 2009 he retired from his post as the Robert Woods Bliss Professor of Latin American History and Economics at Harvard University.Womack was born in Norman, Oklahoma, in...
- Peter WinnPeter WinnPeter Winn is a professor of history at Tufts University specialising in Latin America. He has written several books, including Americas, which he developed while serving as academic director for the 1993 PBS series of the same name....
See also
- Latino/a studiesLatino/a StudiesLatino studies is an academic discipline which studies the experience of people of Hispanic ancestry in the United States. Closely related to other ethnic studies disciplines such as African American studies, Asian American studies, and Native American studies, Latino studies critically examines...
- Chicano Studies
- CaribbeanistCaribbeanistA Caribbeanist is a scholar who specializes in the study of the Caribbean region of the Americas -- its literature, culture, politics, society, ecology and so forth. In some academic disciplines Caribbean studies are seen as a branch of the larger field of Latin American studies....
- Latin AmericaLatin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
- Criticism of the term Latino
- LatinobarómetroLatinobarómetroLatinobarómetro Corporation is a private non-profit organization, based in Providencia, Chile. It is responsible for carrying out Latinobarómetro, an annual public opinion survey that involves some 19,000 interviews in 18 Latin American countries, representing more than 400 million people...
- Latin American Network Information CenterLatin American Network Information CenterThe Latin American Network Information Center is a free internet portal on Latin American studies. It is affiliated with the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.-Mission:...
Further reading
- Delpar, Helen. Looking South: The Evolution of Latin Americanist Scholarship in the United States, 1850-1975 (2008) online review
- Victor Bulmer-ThomasVictor Bulmer-ThomasVictor Bulmer-Thomas is a British academic who has specialised in Latin America and the Caribbean. Born in London, his first experience of the Americas was as a V.S.O. in Belize , where he taught several of the current leaders of the country....
, ed. Thirty Years of Latin American Studies in the United Kingdom 1965-1995. London: Institute of Latin American Studies, 1997.