Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies

Overview

The mission of the graduate program is to provide an interdisciplinary foundation for the study of Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, and Portugal. The University of Wisconsin Madison is nationally recognized for excellence in research and teaching on these regions. 

The Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies program includes a core faculty of more than 130 members and course offerings in 41 disciplines and professional schools, including agricultural and applied economics, anthropology, business, community and environmental sociology, comparative literature, environmental studies, gender and women's studies, geography, history, law, music, political science, population health, Quechua, Yucatec Maya, sociology, and Spanish and Portuguese.

Faculty research interests include development and labor economics; Andean ethnohistory and ethnology; African Diaspora art; conservation of the neotropics; cultural geography; social history of Latin America; democratic consolidation; Brazilian social stratification; comparative social movements; Luso-Brazilian literature and culture; colonial and modern Latin American literature, film, and culture; Spanish literature from the medieval to the modern period; and political economy.

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate an understanding of the principal historical, societal, scientific and humanist concerns that are rooted in the realities of the broader Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian regions. 

• Within students' more specific area of interest, they should be able to articulate key theoretical and empirical concerns and identify appropriate theoretical approaches to the problem of interest and identify empirical sources that can help to answer that question or problem.

• Students should demonstrate proficiency, and preferably advanced language ability, in either Spanish or Portuguese. Additional indigenous language learning, such as Kichwa, Quechua, Quichua and Nahuatil, are also encouraged.

• Demonstrate the ability to conduct interdisciplinary research that: includes a critical literature review; selects appropriate research methodologies; proposes an appropriate research design to collect, analyze, interpret, and present findings; successfully carries out this research plan.