WPI’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies program provides students with a wide array of course offerings and capstone project opportunities in the Humanities & Arts.
Courses in History (HI) and International and Global Studies (INTL) offer broad introductions to the region’s social and environmental conditions, cultural formations, economic circumstances, and political configurations. The also deal with transnational relations that individuals, groups, and institutions maintain with counterparts in other parts of the world. Specialized courses covering the environment, migration, and other topics areas allow students to learn about issues that are particularly important to the region and its peoples.
The Spanish program at WPI also provides students interested in Latin America and the Caribbean with opportunities to engage with the region’s cultural production in areas like literature and film. Opportunities for professional training are also available through courses in Spanish that deal with business and technology.
These courses serve as building blocks toward students’ completion of WPI’s Humanities & Arts requirement. Students can go on to earn a Minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies or a Minor in Spanish. They might also connect their training in Latin American and Caribbean Studies on campus to field work experiences they complete through WPI’s Global Projects Program.
Interested students may reach out to any LACS affiliated faculty for support with program advising.
Courses Offerings
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| INTL 1300 – Introduction to Latin America | This course reviews the past and present of South America, Central America and the Caribbean through an interdisciplinary approach. It examines historical and contemporary issues related to social mobilization, cultural innovation, political activism, economic development, and environmental sustainability through the critical analysis of books, films, and creative arts from and about the region. It also presents an overview of Latin American relations with other parts of the world through the region’s experiences with global culture, migration, imperialism, dependency, and entanglements with the United States. This course is especially appropriate for students who expect to complete their HUA, IQP, and/or MQP at WPI project centers in Latin America. No prior knowledge is expected. 1/3 Unit; Category I (offered every year) |
| INTL 2310 – Modern Latin America | This course uses interdisciplinary, thematic, and case study approaches in the examination of modern Latin America. It draws from the Latin America’s diversity to explore topics in the past and present that are critical for students’ development of a more advanced understanding of the region and its residents. The course may include the study of topics such as cultural production, nationalism, urban and rural development, migration, social and racial inequality, democracy, and social justice through the disciplines of history and global studies, literature and creative arts, social sciences, environmental studies, and others. Examples and case studies from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries will be drawn especially from locations in Latin America where WPI maintains Global Project Centers. Students may not receive credit for both INTL 22IX and INTL 2310. This course will be offered in 2022-23 and in alternating years thereafter. 1/3 Unit; Category II (offered at least every other year) |
| INTL 2320 – Environmental Justice in the Global Caribbean and Latin America | Latin America and the Caribbean are center stage in discussions about the inequalities and injustices of our current global ecological crisis. This course offers a two-fold approach. 1) It examines historical and contemporary processes producingand contestingenvironmental injustices in Latin America and the Caribbean Basin. 2) It analyzes the role of this region in the politics and policy of global environmental inequalities, including the regions relationship with the United States, China, and other major international actors in issues such as climate change and sustainable development. This course is especially appropriate for students interested in environment and sustainability issues and international/global affairs, and for students who expect to complete their HUA, IQP, and/or MQP at WPI Project centers in Latin America or the Caribbean. 1/3 Unit; Category II |
| HI 1345 – Atlantic Worlds | This introductory course reviews the history and legacies of Atlantic systems such a colonialism and migration that have connected Africa, the Americas, and Europe from the sixteenth century to the recent past. Taking a transregional approach to historical inquiry, the course places the Atlantic Ocean at its geographic center and explores the diverse people, cultures, ideologies, institutions, economies, and other phenomena that have traversed this ocean basin and connected the regions that line its shores. The course pays special attention to the technological, social, and political innovations, the systemic inequalities, and the heterogeneous notions of belonging that have emerged from transatlantic interactions and exchanges. The course can provide students with preparation for HUA depth in Global History and International and Global Studies as well as work at overseas project centers in regions often incorporated into Atlantic Worlds. No prior background is required. 1/3 Unit; Category I |
| HI 2345 – Welcome to Paradise: the U.S. and the Caribbean | The Caribbean has been globally imagined and described as an everlasting Garden of Eden where the land, bodies, and cultures of its inhabitants are open to be consumed in various ways and where visitors can satisfy all their desires. In addition, hurricanes and other natural disasters have made headlines around the world, casting the region as a space of inevitable doom. But there is more to the story. In fact, the relationship between the U.S. and the Caribbean reveals an even more complex narrative characterized by imperialism, racism, migrations, and geopolitical strife. Through case studies, this course will interrogate the impact of U.S. imperialist stance in the Caribbean, as well as Caribbean peoples’ responses to that stance. By mapping out the many ways in which the histories of the U.S. and the Caribbean intersect, we will shape our own understanding of this relationship and assess its significance today. 1/3 Unit; Category I |
| HI 2930 – Topics in Latin American History | This seminar course examines topics in the history of Latin America. It bases those topics on issues in the region that are of critical importance in the present, and it outlines the historical origins and interrogates the historical contexts of those issues. Topics and course materials may vary each year depending on the issues addressed. The broad themes with which these topics may engage include: science, technology, and development; energy, sustainability, and the environment; inequality and social justice; migration and mobility; U.S.-Latin American relations; democracy, populism and nationalism; the Cold War and the post-Cold War global order. Readings will include primary and secondary sources. No prior background is required. This course will be offered in 2021-22 and in alternating years thereafter. 1/3 Unit; Category II |
| HU 3900 – Latin America and the World | This seminar allows students to conduct research on topics that examine relationships between Latin America and other parts of the world. Based on their personal interests and experiences, or their work in prior HUA classes, students may choose subjects related to events and trends in the past or the present, or a combination of these. A variety of academic disciplines and research methods may be used. Topics may involve — but are not limited to — the study of economic relations and dependency, race and racism in transnational perspective, cross-border migration, Latin American contributions to global culture and sports, or the region’s place in international affairs. 1/3 Unit; Capstone HUA Inquiry Seminar |
| SP 3523 – Topics in Latin American Culture | An introduction to various aspects of life in Latin American countries from early times to the present. Focusing on the social and political development of Latin America, the course will reveal the unity and diversity that characterize contemporary Latin American culture. Typical topics for study include: the precolumbian civilizations and their cultural legacy; the conquistadores and the colonial period; the independence movements; the search for and the definition of an American identity; the twentieth-century dictatorships; and the move toward democracy. 1/3 Unit; Category II |
| SP 3524 – Spanish-American Literature in the Twentieth Century | This course, taught in the Spanish language, focuses on the major literary movements in Spanish America, from the “Modernista” movement at the turn of the century to the Latin American “Boom” of the 1960s to the political literature of the ‘70s and ‘80s. The work of representative authors, such as Ruben Dario, Julio Cortazar, Rosario Castellanos, Elena Poniatowska, will be discussed. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter. This course satisfies the Inquiry Practicum requirement. 1/3 Unit; Category II |
| SP 3526 – Comparative Business Environments | The basis of this course is a comparative study and analysis of specific Latin American and Caribbean business practices and environments, and the customs informing those practices. ID/SP 3526 focuses on countries such as Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica. The course’s main objective is to study communication strategies, business protocol, and negotiation practices in the countries mentioned above. Through oral presentations and written essays, students will have the opportunity to explore other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Taught in advanced level Spanish. May be used toward foreign language Minor, or Major. This course will be offered in 2022-23, and in alternating years thereafter. 1/3 Unit; Category II |
| SP 3529 – Caribbeanness: Voices of the Spanish Caribbean | A survey of Caribbean literature and arts that takes a multimedia approach to examining the different voices that resonate from the Spanish Caribbean and what appears to be a constant search for identity. By studying the works of major authors, films, music and the plastic arts, we will examine the socio-cultural context and traditions of this region in constant search for self-definition. Special attention will be given to the influential role ethnicity, colonialism, gender and socio-economic development play in the interpretation of works from Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Venezuela as well as those of the Caribbean diaspora. This course is taught in Spanish. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter. 1/3 Units; Category II |
| SP 3533 – Ecocrítica: Environmental Cultural Production in Latin America | This upper-level Spanish course explores the many ways in which Latin American authors, artists, filmmakers, photographers, and thinkers have responded to environmental concerns from colonial times to present day. Starting with Europeans’ first impressions of the New World, we will grapple with the interplay between local cultures and the expansion of global capitalism in Latin America by analyzing literary and cultural representations of, for instance, resource extraction of rubber, wood, and petroleum in the Amazon (Brazil, Perú, Ecuador); maquiladora contamination and environmental migration in the borderlands (U.S.- Mexico); water defenders and neoliberalism (Chile, Bolivia); indigenous social movements in defense of land & nature (Ecuador); eco-feminist parallels between oppression of women and nature (Honduras, Colombia); and natural disasters, especially in the age of the Anthropocene (Mexico, Puerto Rico). We will explore these issues and more to unearth the role of Latin American cultural production in bearing witness to and generating awareness of environmental crises. While always accounting for the region’s complex and interwoven history of coloniality, inequality, and dependency, we will look for environmental justice solutions proposed at the intersection of art and activism. Several questions will guide our interpretations, which will be grounded in ecocritical theory: what do the studied works aim to achieve by appealing to harmony between the human and the nonhuman? What similarities or differences exist across countries, contexts, and genres? And how does Latin America’s ecological consciousness differ from that of other peripheries and centers? This course would be especially beneficial to students interested in project work at WPI’s Project Centers in Latin America and the Caribbean and would count toward the HUA Requirement in Spanish, International and Global Studies, and Latin American & Caribbean Studies. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter. 1/3 Units; Category II |
| SP 3534 – Intersections of Science, Engineering, Art, Literature, and Film in Latin America and the Caribbean | This course explores past and present intersections between the arts and sciences in Latin America and the Caribbean through a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach. The purpose of this course is to examine areas or interaction between the arts, films, and literature with selected areas of knowledge related to STEM. In this manner, Latin America and the Caribbean are represented as in a creative and critical dialogue with aspects of Modernity and Modernization. This course is especially appropriate for students who expect to complete their IQP and MQP at WPI project centers in Latin America and the Caribbean. This course will be offered in 2021-22, and in alternating years thereafter. 1/3 Unit; Category II |