Gender, Race and Nation in Modern Latin America

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• apply knowledge, understanding and critical analysis to the histories of race, class, gender and nation in Latin America
• formulate and clarify critical questions relating to nation formation in Latin America

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the historical construction of gender, class and race
• theories of gender, race, class and nation-state formation
• Modern Latin American history, politics and society

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• produce academic writing to required conventions
• set and monitor goals, reflecting on your own learning and learning from feedback
• communicate effectively and confidently both orally and in writing
• work with a range of sources, taking accurate notes and keeping records

In this course you will study the past in order to understand the present. The course examines major turning points in Spanish and Portuguese America from the middle nineteenth century to the present, with a focus on how these upheavals affected and reflected the politics of class, gender and race. We will investigate how nation- states endeavoured to forge class, gender and race relations of a particular type, and how different sectors in society struggled with or against the state.We examine the role of outside actors, particularly the U.S. and Great Britain, and assess their impact on Latin American politics and society. The course introduces you to theoretical debates on gender, race, class and the nation-state; we analyse how race and gender are historically constituted, and how different theoretical approaches to history mould our understanding of the past and present.

An indicative list of topics that may be covered is as follows : the Myth of racial democracy in Brazil and Cuba, Mestizaje and the Mexican Revolution, the Zapatistas, the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement, Chile before and after Pinochet, the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, Guatemalan Indians and the State, the Perons and the Dirty War in Argentina, Drugs and Violence in Colombia, extractivism. Material studied will include primary and secondary sources.

Teaching methods include:

Lectures introducing the key topics

Small group seminars to discuss primary sources and secondary readings

Individual essay tutorials

Learning activities include:

Close analysis of using and evaluating primary and secondary historical texts

Extensive reading of secondary and theoretical literature

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.