The course offers an interdisciplinary overview of society, culture, and politics in Latin America. Its aim is to cover the basic interpretive frameworks that have been employed to analyze the complex evolution of Latin American societies from colonial times to our days and to outline the main contemporary challenges in the continent.
The course is intended both for students that are approaching Latin America for the first time and for those who have previous academic or personal knowledge of the area. Although it could be advantageous to have familiarity with some political science concepts and terminology, no previous specific knowledge is required.
The course is divided into two main parts. The first part (weeks 2 to 7) is chronological and will cover the historical developments in Latin America from the European conquest to the present days. In this brief journey across time, selected national cases are going to be used either to exemplify more general trends or to underline, when is the case, particularly significant peculiarities. The second part (weeks 9 to 13) is topical and will deepen into the some of the crucial problems that have characterized the history of the continent and that are key to understand the current developments. Topics include: cycles of political change between authoritarianism, democracy, populism and revolution; economic development and inequality; culture and society, international relations.