Latin American studies (LAS) is an academic discipline dealing with the study of Latin America and Latin Americans.

Definition

Latin American studies critically examines the history, culture, politics, and experiences of Latin Americans in Latin America and often also elsewhere (such as Latinos/Hispanics in the United States).

Latin American studies is interdisciplinary from numerous disciplines such as sociology, history, literature, political science, geography, gender studies, and economics, Latin Americanists consider a variety of perspectives and employ diverse analytical tools in their work.

Though Latin America is a fluid (and sometimes contested) concept, with no fixed definition, Latin American studies is usually quite open and often includes or is closely associated with, for instance, Latino studies, Caribbean studies, and transatlantic studies. The Latin American Studies Association, for instance, has sections dealing with Europe and Latin America, Haiti, and Latino studies (among many others).[310407]

History

Latin America has been studied in one way or another ever since Columbus's "discovery" of 1492, and even before. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, scientist explorers such as Alexander von Humboldt published extensively about the region. Towards the end of the nineteenth century and at the turn of the twentieth, within the region itself writers such as José Martí and José Enrique Rodó encouraged a consciousness of regional identity. But "Latin Americanism" as a concept and an academic discipline emerges only later in the twentieth-century, and mostly in Europe and North America.

In the USA, Latin American Studies (like other area studies) was boosted by the passing of Title VI of the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958, which provided resources for Centers of Area and International Studies.[310408] In the UK, the 1965 "Parry Report" provided similar impetus for the establishment of Institutes and Centres of Latin American Studies (see Bulmer-Thomas).

Associations

• Brazilian Studies Association
• Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs
• Latin American Studies Association (USA, founded 1966)
• Mid-Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (USA, founded 1979)
• SALALM, the Seminar on the Acquisition of Latin American Library Materials
• Society for Irish Latin American Studies (Ireland, founded 2003)
• Society for Latin American Studies (UK, founded 1964)

Journals

• Bulletin of Latin American Research
• Colonial Latin American Review
• Hispanic American Historical Review
• Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies
• Journal of Latin American Studies
• Journal of Politics in Latin America
• Latin American Essays, MACLAS
• Latin American Research Review
• NACLA Report on the Americas
• of Latin America

Programs

• CELA, Mexico
• Institute for the Study of the Americas, London
• University of Florida Center for Latin American Studies
• Duke University's Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
• The University of Chicago Center for Latin American Studies
• Florida International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center
• Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Florida
• Georgetown University's Center for Latin American Studies
• George Washington University's Latin American and Hemispheric Studies
• Harvard University's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
• SUNY-Albany's Department of Latin American, Caribbean, & U.S. Latino Studies
• Tulane University's Roger Thayer Stone Center, the oldest LAS program in the United States
• University of California, Berkeley's Center for Latin American Studies
• University of North Carolina's Institute of Latin American Studies
• University of Texas at Austin's Long Institute, one of the largest LAS programs in the United States
• Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Connecticut
• University of Liverpool's Research Institute of Latin American Studies
• Ibero-American Center, Renvall Institute, University of Helsinki

Some Notable Latin Americanists

See also :Category:Latin Americanists

• Richard Adams
• Manuel Alcántara
• Victor Bulmer-Thomas
• Simon Collier
• Antonio Cornejo Polar
• Ariel Dorfman
• James Dunkerley
• Arturo Escobar
• Richard Fagen
• Albert Fishlow
• Jean Franco
• Néstor García Canclini
• Federico Gil
• Roberto González Echevarría
• Lewis Hanke
• Albert O. Hirschman
• Daniel James
• John J. Johnson
• George Kubler
• Neil Larsen
• Miguel León-Portilla
• John Lynch
• Sylvia Molloy
• Alberto Moreiras
• Richard McGee Morse
• June Nash
• Guillermo O'Donnell
• Gustavo Pérez Firmat
• James Petras
• Mary Louise Pratt
• Ángel Rama
• Darcy Ribeiro
• Nelly Richard
• Riordan Roett
• William Rowe
• Beatriz Sarlo
• Donald Shaw
• Thomas Skidmore
• Doris Sommer
• Osvaldo Sunkel
• Michael Taussig
• Alain Touraine
• Victor L. Urquidi
• Arturo Valenzuela
• Charles Wagley
• Henry Wells
• Ayonna Gray
• John Womack
• Peter Winn

See also

• Latino/a studies
• Chicano Studies
• Caribbeanist
• Latin America
• Criticism of the term Latino
• Latin American Network Information Center

References

• Victor Bulmer-Thomas, ed. Thirty Years of Latin American Studies in the United Kingdom 1965-1995. London: Institute of Latin American Studies, 1997.

Links

• Handbook of Latin American Studies
• Latin American Studies at the University of Texas's Latin American Network Information Center
• Latino Studies Resources
• Mid-Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies