Latin American Studies Approved Course List
LAS Approved Course List Spring 2025
List is subject to change. Please check the course schedule on Triton Link for the latest information.
The following are interdisciplinary courses available at UCSD that are approved to satisfy the requirements of the Latin American Studies Program. This list is dynamic and subject to on-going revisions. Courses not included in this list may be considered for credit based on content and must be petitioned.
Contact the LAS Student Affairs Coordinator with any questions on course offerings or petitioning courses.
Courses Offered by the Latin American Studies Program
Undergraduate
LATI 10. Reading North by South: Latin American Studies and the US Liberation Movements
The purpose of this class is to study the multilayered relations between Latin American studies and the US liberation movements, particularly Third World movements, the Chicano movement, the black liberation movement, the indigenous movement, human rights activism, and trans-border activism. Students may not receive credit for LATI 100 and LATI 10.
LATI 50. Introduction to Latin America
Interdisciplinary overview of society and culture in Latin America—including Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America: legacies of conquest, patterns of economic development, changing roles of women, expressions of popular culture, cycles of political change, and US-Latin American relations.
LATI 124. Ethnoracial Politics in Latin America
This course explores the significance of ethno-racial politics in Latin America. The core of the class is analyzing the effects of ethno-racial politics and policy implementation in the region. The goal is to understand how these policies, such as constitutional reforms recognizing indigenous and black populations, bicultural education, and affirmative action, foster social progress and elicit potential reactions.
LATI 130. Latinx Environmental Justice
This course will address environmental justice issues within Latinx communities within the United States and Latin America. The course introduces theoretical and methodological explanations to better understand environmental racism, environmental justice, and environmental problems.
LATI 130. Gender as a Border
This course explores the intersectionality between migration, gender, race, and class to better understand the migrant narratives of Central American, Mexican, and Latina women in the U.S. Key concepts on gender, critical race, migration, border, and queer theory will help us to analyze contemporary cultural productions portraying the exclusion, discrimination, exploitation, exceptions, and (in) visibility that women face due to their race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and gender identity.
LATI 140. Decolonial Thought and Practices in Latin America
The purpose of this course is to survey decolonial thought and practice in Latin America throughout the twentieth century. Course content will draw extensively from the writings and experiences of previously colonized peoples in Latin America. Course texts will match primary source documents with historiography in order to situate decolonial thought in its practical historical context.
LATI 150. Digital Oral History in Latin America
An introduction to the theory and practice of digital oral history in Latin America. Students will be exposed to the history of orality in the region as a hybrid genre between literature, history, and ethnography. This class will provide a strong theoretical background on oral history as a constant presence in the Latin American cultural scene from the colonial chronicles to the political testimony. Prerequisites: LATI 50; upper-division standing.
LATI 160. Latin American Third Cinema
The purpose of this class is to examine the Latin American film movement of Third Cinema. This course offers students the opportunity to explore representations of imperialism, urbanization, spatial exclusion, poverty, race, gender, labor, state terror, revolution, and neoliberalism. The class combines films with other forms of knowledge production from the region, such as art and literature.
LATI 165. Visual Culture in Latin America
This class explores visual production in contemporary Latin America, highlighting practices and subjects of visual representation tied to artistic, cultural, and historical processes.
LATI 166. Latin Food Culture: Culinary Ethnography of the Americas
This course explores the culture and political economy of Latin American food staples, from their colonial origin to their arrival in the United States. Students will conduct local ethnographic research in local Latin American diasporic communities by selecting a particular regional dish and documenting its history, culture, and contemporary production.
LATI 170. Social Science Research in Latin America
The objective of the course is to survey the important contributions of social science research in Latin America in understanding some of the most pressing issues facing our societies today. The class will synthesize the contributions of Latin American researchers and activists to social science research in visible complex issues related to socioeconomic inequality, citizenship, violence and insecurity, justice, and migration.
LATI 175. Participatory Action Research: Action and Knowledge
This course surveys the important tradition of Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Latin America as a tool for producing knowledge in solidarity with grassroots communities. Students will learn about techniques ranging from critical recovery of history to engaging experiential knowledge exploring alternative mediums for producing and diffusing knowledge. Then, they will develop their own proposal for a community-driven research project based on PAR principles and methods.
LATI 180. Special Topics in Latin American Studies
Readings and discussion of substantive issues and research in Latin American studies. Topics may include the study of a specific society or a particular issue in comparative cross-national perspective. Topics will vary from year to year. Prerequisites: LATI 50 or permission of instructor, upper-division standing.
LATI 184. Special Topics in Latin America and the Global South
Readings and discussion of substantive issues and research in Global South studies with a focus on Latin America. Topics may include the study of a specific society or a particular issue in comparative cross-national perspective.
LATI 191. Honors Seminar
Independent reading and research under direction of a member of the faculty group in Latin American Studies; goal is to provide honors students with an opportunity to complete senior research thesis (to be defended before three-person interdisciplinary faculty committee). Prerequisites: successful completion of LATI 50, working knowledge of Spanish; minimum GPA of 3.5 in the major.
LATI 199. Individual Study
Guided and supervised reading of the literature on Latin America in the interdisciplinary areas of anthropology, communications, economics, history, literature, political science, and sociology. For students majoring in Latin American Studies, reading will focus around potential topics for senior papers; for honors students in Latin American Studies, reading will culminate in formulation of a prospectus for the research thesis. Prerequisites: LATI 50 and working knowledge of Spanish.
Courses Offered by our Affiliated Departments
Anthropology
ANAR 100. Special Topics in Anthropological Archaeology (when Latin American content)
ANAR 105. The Archaeology of Literate Societies in Mesoamerica
ANAR 153. The Mysterious Maya
ANAR 154. Aztecs and Their Ancestors
ANAR 155. Study Abroad: Ancient Mesoamerica
ANAR 156. The Archaeology of South America
ANAR 156-XL. The Archaeology of South America (FLD)
ANAR 157. Early Empires of the Andes: The Middle Horizon
ANAR 157S. Early Empires of the Andes: The Middle Horizon
ANAR 157-XL. The Andean Middle Horizon (FLD)
ANAR 158. The Inca: Empire of the Andes
ANAR 159. Pre-Hispanic Societies of the Caribbean Archipelago
ANAR 160. Ancient Maya: Archaeological Problems and Perspectives
ANSC 100. Special Topics in Socio-Cultural Anthropology
ANSC 104. The US-Mexico Border
ANSC 106. Global Health: Indigenous Medicines in Latin America
ANSC 110. Societies and Cultures of the Caribbean
ANSC 116. Languages of the Americans: Mayan
ANSC 125. Gender, Sexuality, and Society
ANSC 135. Indigenous Peoples of Latin America
ANSC 142. Anthropology of Latin America
ANSC 144. Immigrant and Refugee Health
ANSC 151. US-Mexico Border Ethnographies
ANSC 169. Culture and Environment: Research Seminar and Practicum
ANSC 171. Multimodal Methods in Ethnography
ANSC 194. Language, Migration, Borders
ANTH 105. Climate Change, Race, and Inequality
ANTH 108. Indigenous Peoples, Extractive Development, and Climate Change
Critical Gender Studies
CGS 127. Feminist Border Studies
CGS 137. Latina Issues and Cultural Production
CGS 187. Latinx Sexualities
Communication
COMM 104G. Comparative Media Systems: Latin America and the Caribbean
COMM 111B. CCP: Global Borders: Communication and Conflict
COMM 129. Race, Nation, and Violence in Multicultural California
COMM 140. Cinema in Latin America
COMM 155. Latino Space, Place, and Culture
COMM 183. Global Economy and Consumer Culture
Education Studies
EDS 108GS. Culture, Cognition, and Schooling in the Americas
EDS 113. Chicanas/os and Latinos in Education: Policy, Practice, and Challenges to Equity
EDS 117GS. Language, Culture, and Education
ESD 119. First and Second Language Learning: From Childhood through Adolescence
EDS 125. History, Politics, and Theory of Bilingual Education
Economics
ECON 102. Globalization
ECON 106. International Economic Agreement
ECON 162. Economics of Mexico
Ethnic Studies
ETHN 107. Fieldwork in Racial and Ethnic Communities
ETHN 116. The United States-Mexico Border in Comparative Perspective
ETHN 117. Organic Social Movements
ETHN 118. Contemporary Immigration Issues
ETHN 119. Race in the Americas
ETHN 129. Asian and Latina Immigrant Workers in the Global Economy
ETHN 130. Social and Economic History of the Southwest I
ETHN 131. Social and Economic History of the Southwest II
ETHN 132. Chicano Dramatic Literature
ETHN 133. Hispanic American Dramatic Literature
ETHN 134. Immigration and Ethnicity in Modern American Society
ETHN 135A. Early Latino/a-Chicano/a Cultural Production, 1848–1960
ETHN 135B. Early Latino/a-Chicano/a Cultural Production, 1960–Present
ETHN 137. Latina Issues and Cultural Production
ETHN 143. Chicano Film and Media Studies
ETHN 154. History of Mexican America
ETHN 160. Global Indigenous Studies
ETHN 163E. Decolonial Theory
ETHN 180. Special Topics in Mexican American History
ETHN 187. Latina/o Sexualities
ETHN 189. Special Topics in Ethnic Studies (when Latin American studies content)
ETHN 190. Research Methods: Studying Racial and Ethnic Communities
ETHN 197. Fieldwork in Racial and Ethnic Communities
History
HILA 100. Conquest and Empire: The Americas
HILA 100D. Latin American Colonial Transformation
HILA 101. Nation-State Formation, Ethnicity, and Violence in Latin America
HILA 102. Latin America in the Twentieth Century
HILA 103. Revolution in Modern Latin America
HILA 104. Drugs in Latin America
HILA 114. Dictatorship in Latin America
HILA 117. Indians, Black, and Whites: Family Relations in Latin America
HILA 118. Subverting Sovereignty: US Aggression in Latin America, 1898–Present
HILA 119. Central America: Popular Struggle, Political Change, and US Intervention
HILA 121A. History of Brazil through 1889
HILA 121B. History of Brazil, 1889–Present
HILA 122. Cuba: From Colony to Socialist Republic
HILA 123. The Incas and Their Ancestors
HILA 124. The History of Chile, 1880-Present
HILA 124A. History of Women and Gender in Latin America
HILA 126. From Columbus to Castro: Caribbean Culture and Society
HILA 131. History of Mexico
HILA 132. Modern Mexico: From Revolution to Drug War Violence
HILA 133S. Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America
HILA 134. Indians of Colonial Latin America
HILA 135. Science and Knowledge in Colonial America
HILA 144. Topics in Latin American History
HILA 145. People in Nature in Amazonia: An Unwritten History
HILA 161. History of Women in Latin America
HILA 162. Special Topics in Latin American History
HILA 163. History of Chile, 1880–Present
HILA 164. Women’s Work and Family Life in Latin America
HILA 167. Historical Scholarship on Latin American History
HILA 168. Historical Scholarship on Latin American History
HILA 169. Historical Scholarship on Latin American History
HILA 171. Topics in Latin American History since 1910
HITO 155. Race, Sport, and Inequality in the Twentieth Century
HITO 156. Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion in the United States and Europe: Multiple Multiculturalism
HIUS 106B. American Foreign Relations since 1900
HIUS 113A. History of Mexican America
HIUS 117. History of Los Angeles
HIUS 158. Social and Economic History of the Southwest I
HIUS 159. Social and Economic History of the Southwest II
HIUS 167. Topics in Mexican American History
Literature
LTAM 100. Latino/a Cultures in the United States
LTAM 105. Gender and Sexuality in Latino/a Cultural Production
LTAM 106. Modern Chicana and Mexican Women Writings
LTAM 107. Comparative Latino/a and US Ethnic Cultures
LTAM 108. Chicano/a and Latino/a Cultures: Intellectual and Political Traditions
LTAM 109. Cultural Production of the Latino/a Diasporas
LTAM 110. Latin American Literature in Translation
LTAM 111. Contemporary Caribbean Discourse
LTAM 120. Ecocultural Narratives from Latin America
LTAM 140. Topics in Culture and Politics
LTCS 100. Theories and Methods in Cultural Studies
LTCS 102. Practicing Cultural Studies
LTCS 125. Cultural Perspectives on Immigration and Citizenship
LTCS 132. Special Topics in Social Identities and the Media
LTCS 133. Globalization and Culture
LTCS 134. Culture and Revolution
LTCS 172. Special Topics in Screening Race/Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality
LTEN 169. Topics in Latino/a Literature
LTEN 171. Comparative Issues in Latino/a Immigration in US Literature
LTEN 180. Chicano Literature in English
LTEN 188. Contemporary Caribbean Literature
LTSP 100A. Advanced Spanish Reading and Writing for the Humanities and the Social Sciences
LTSP 100B. Advanced Spanish Reading and Writing for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (heritage speakers)
LTSP 116. Representations of Spanish Colonialism
LTSP 123. Topics in Modern Spanish Culture
LTSP 135A. Mexican Literature before 1910
LTSP 135B. Modern Mexican Literature
LTSP 137. Caribbean Literature
LTSP 138. Central American Literature
LTSP 145. Hispanic Memory, Human Rights, and Culture
LTSP 150A. Early Latino/a-Chicano/a Cultural Production, 1848–1960
LTSP 150B. Early Latino/a-Chicano/a Cultural Production, 1960–Present
LTSP 151. Topics in Chicano/a-Latino/a Cultures
LTSP 172. Indigenista Themes in Spanish American Literature
LTSP 174. Topics in Culture and Politics
LTSP 175. Gender, Sexuality, and Culture (when Latin American content)
LTSP 176. Literature and Nation (when Latin American content)
LTSP 177. Literary and Historical Migrations
LTWR 101. Writing Fiction in Spanish
Music
MUS 111. Topics/World Music Traditions (when Latin American content)
MUS 116. Popular Music Studies Seminar
MUS 150. Jazz and the Music of the African Diaspora: Special Topics Seminar
MUS 151. Race, Culture, and Social Change
Philosophy
PHIL 139. Global Justice
PHIL 155. Mexican Philosophy
PHIL 156. Latinx Philosophy
PHIL 157. Topics in Latin America/Latinx Philosophy
PHIL 170. Philosophy and Race
Political Science
POLI 101E. The Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
POLI 105A. Latino Politics in the U.S.
POLI 134A. Comparative Politics of Latin America
POLI 134B. Politics in Mexico
POLI 134D. Selected Topics in Latin American Politics
POLI 134I. Politics in the Southern Cone of Latin America
POLI 134J. Cuba: Revolution and Reform
POLI 140D. International Human Rights Law: Migrant Populations
POLI 145A. International Politics and Drugs
POLI 146A. The U.S. and Latin America: Political and Economic Relations
POLI 150A. Politics of Immigration
POLI 154. Special Topics in International Relations (when Latin American content)
POLI 170A. Applied Data Analysis for Political Science
Sociology
SOCI 104. Field Research: Methods of Participant Observation
SOCI 104Q. Qualitative Interviewing
SOCI 105. Ethnographic Film: Media Methods
SOCI 106. Comparative and Historical Methods
SOCI 108. Survey Research Design
SOCI 109M. Research Reporting
SOCI 125. Sociology of Immigration
SOCI 125M. Sociology of Refugees, Asylum, and Forced Migration
SOCI 127. Immigration, Race, and Ethnicity
SOCI 133. Immigration in Comparative Perspective
SOCI 133E. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
SOCI 163. Migration and the Law (when Latin American content)
SOCI 175. Nationality and Citizenship
SOCI 182. Ethnicity and Indigenous Peoples in Latin America
SOCI 185. Globalization and Social Development
SOCI 188D. Latin America: Society and Politics
SOCI 188M. Social Movements in Latin America
Theatre and Dance
TDHD 175. Cultural Perspectives on Dance
TDHT 108. Luis Valdez
TDHT 110. Chicanx Theatre
TDHT 111. Latinx Theatre and Performance
TDMV 140. Beginning Dances of the World
TDMV 141. Advanced Dances of the World
TDMV 142. Latin Dance of the World
TDMV 143. West African Dance
TDMV 146. Intermediate Latin Dances of the World
Urban Studies and Planning
USP 135. Asian and Latina Immigrant Workers in the Global Economy
USP 162. Migration and the City
USP 176. International Planning and Development: U.S.-Mexico Border
USP 135. Asian and Latina Immigrant Workers in the Global Economy
USP 188. Field Research in Migrant Communities—Practicum
Visual Arts
VIS 102. Democratizing the City
VIS 126AN. Pre-Columbian Art of Ancient Mexico and Central America
VIS 126BN. Art and Civilization/Ancient Maya
VIS 126C. Problems in Meso-American Art History
VIS 126D. Problems in Ancient Maya Iconography and Inscriptions
VIS 126E. Indigenisms I: The Making of the Modern, Nineteenth Century to Mid-Twentieth Century
VIS 126F. Indigenisms II: Contemporary Disseminations, Neo-Avantgarde to the Present
VIS 126P. Latin American Art: Modern to Postmodern, 1890–1950
VIS 126Q. Latin American Art: Modern to Postmodern, 1950–Present
VIS 128D. Topics in Art History of the Americas
VIS 129D. Seminar in Art History of the Americas
VIS 152. Film in the Social Context (when Latin American content)
VIS 156. Latino American Cinema
Methods Courses
Undergraduate majors should take one of the following methods courses:
ANSC 169. Culture and Environment: Research Seminar and Practicum
ANSC 171. Multimodal Methods in Ethnography
CGS 100B. Conceptualizing Gender: Methods and Methodologies
COMM 101. Media Production Lab: Ethnographic Methods for Media Production
COMM 103F. How to Read a Film
ETHN 107. Fieldwork in Racial and Ethnic Communities
ETHN 190. Research Methods: Studying Racial and Ethnic Communities
LATI 150. Digital Oral History in Latin America
LATI 166. Latin Food Culture: Culinary Ethnography of the Americas
LATI 170. Social Science Research in Latin America
LATI 175. Participatory Action Research: Action and Knowledge
LTCS 100. Theories and Methods in Cultural Studies
LTCS 102. Practicing Cultural Studies
LTCS 170. Visual Culture
POLI 170A. Applied Data Analytics for Political Science
POLI 173. Social Networking Analysis
POLI 174. Analyzing Elections
SOCI 104. Field Research: Methods of Participant Observation
SOCI 104Q. Qualitative Interviewing
SOCI 105. Ethnographic Film: Media Methods
SOCI 106. Comparative and Historical Methods
SOCI 108. Survey Research Design
SOCI 109M. Research Reporting
UPS 130. Fieldwork in Racial and Ethnic Communities
USP 163. Community-Based Research and Planning
USP 188. Field Research in Migrant Communities—Practicum
VIS 135. Design Research Methods