Gender, Race and Nation in Modern Latin America

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

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

• How to analyse 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:

• Deliver better oral presentations
• Write more analytical essays
• Initially analyse how history shapes the present
• Use secondary historical sources more effectively
• Lead and participate in discussions

Cognitive Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Develop an initial analysis of the historical construction of gender, class and race
• Think about historical processes
• Evaluate different theories and how they affect our understanding of society

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Extract key analytical points from historical literature
• Summarise major contributions to historical debates
• Read, think and talk about historical literatures

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.

Case studies will include some of the following: the Mexican Revolution, the Zapatistas, Brazilian slavery and emancipation, the Brazilian Landless Workers’ Movement, the Cuban Revolution, Chile before and after Pinochet, the Sandinistas of Nicaragua, Guerrilla Warfare in Peru, Guatemalan Indians and the State, the Perons and the Dirty War in Argentina, Drugs and Violence in Colombia. Material studied will include primary and secondary sources.

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

• lectures
• seminars
• group discussion
• independent study

Learning activities include

• using and evaluating primary and secondary historical texts
• selecting and analysing historical materials for class presentation and essays
• presenting theoretical and historical analyses in class

Resources & Reading list

Textbooks

Elizabeth Dore and Maxine Molyneux, eds (2000). Hidden Histories of Gender and the State in Latin America. Duke University Press.

Peter Wade (2010). Race and Ethnicity in Latin America. Peter Wade.

Ada Ferrer (1999). Insurgent Cuba: Race, Nation and Revolution,1868-1898. University of North Carolina Press.

Daisy Rubiera Castillo (2000). Reyita. Latin American Books.

Assessment strategy

Assessments designed to provide informal, on-module feedback

• Guidance and feedback during group discussion

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 Information

Repeat type: Internal & External