About

Latin American Studies

Latin America’s fate has been intertwined with that of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the United States for more than half a millennium. The influences have been deep and mutual, yet also troubling and uneven. The study of Latin America thus challenges ethnocentric attitudes and encourages students to grapple with questions such as: the historical dimensions of encounter, conquest, resistance, negotiation and hybridity; the differential impacts of globalization and the multiple connections between different world regions; and the importance of race/ethnicity, religion, class, and gender in the shaping of historical and contemporary Latin America.

This interdisciplinary program is composed of courses in the Social Sciences and the Humanities. It brings together different methods of inquiry in order to better understand the cultures and societies of Latin America. The fields of Anthropology, Economics, Environmental Studies, History, Politics, and Spanish contribute to the major. Bates offers students courses focusing on a range of aspects of this large and diverse region that includes Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Multiple faculty members from various departments and programs offer courses focusing on the history, culture, language and politics of Latin America and the Caribbean from initial European encounters to the present.