Latin American studies

Latin American studies (LAS) is an academic and research field associated with the study of Latin America. The interdisciplinary study is a subfield of area studies, and can be composed of numerous disciplines such as economics, sociology, history, international relations, political science, geography, gender studies, and literature.

Definition

Latin American studies critically examines the history, culture, international relations, and politics, of Latin America. It is not to be confused with Latino Studies, an academic discipline which studies the experience of people of Hispanic ancestry in the United States.

Latin Americanists consider a variety of perspectives and employ diverse research tools in their work. The interdisciplinary disciplines of study varies, depending on the school, association, and academic program. For example, the Latin American Centre of the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS) at the University of Oxford heavily focuses on the social sciences, such as the economics, politics, and development of the region.[1] The Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona also focuses on social sciences with faculty from Anthropology, Geography, Political Science, Sociology, and History an places emphasis on issues related to anti-racism, human rights, security, environment and health. On the other hand, schools like Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) at The University of Texas at Austin, focus on the humanities; with the language, culture, and history of Latin America as a central component.[2] Others include the study of environment and ecology of the region.

Latin American studies is usually quite open and often includes or is closely associated with, for instance, Development studies, Geography, Anthropology, Caribbean studies, and Transatlantic studies.

History

Latin America has been studied in one way or another ever since Columbus's voyage of 1492. 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.

In 1875, the International Congress of Americanists held its first meeting in Nancy, France, and has met regularly ever since, alternating between venues in Europe and in the Western hemisphere. However, unlike the scholarly organizations of the twentieth century, the ICA does not have an ongoing organization, nor is there a journal of the ICA. The creation of formal and ongoing scholarly organizations focusing on Latin America is a product of the twentieth century.

In the US, historians with an interest in Latin American history within the American Historical Association created a group focusing on Latin America. In 1918, they founded The Hispanic American Historical Review, which has published quarterly since that time and has built a reputation as one of the premier scholarly journals.[3] The Latin Americanists within the AHA created the Conference on Latin American History in 1926, which is now separately incorporated (since 1964), but continues to coordinate its annual meetings with the American Historical Association. In 1936, US Latin Americanists also founded the Handbook of Latin American Studies, with editorial offices in the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress. In a pre-digital era, the compilation of annotated bibliographic references in the humanities and social science organized by subject and country was a vital tool for scholars in the field.[4][5] In 1954 was founded in Paris the Institute of Latin American Studies (IHEAL), by the geographer Pierre Monbeig.[6]

With the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the US government began seriously focusing on Latin America as Cuba and the hemisphere was seen to be an integral element of Cold War politics. The Latin American historian who wrote the early history of the founding of the Latin American Studies Association wryly suggested in 1966 that at some future date Latin Americanists should erect a statue to Fidel Castro, the "remote godfather" of the field, who instigated a renewed US interest in the region.[7]

Interest in Latin American studies increased starting in the 1950s. In the US, 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. In the UK, the 1965 "Parry Report" provided similar impetus for the establishment of Institutes and Centres of Latin American Studies at Oxford, London, Cambridge, and Liverpool.[8] In Canada, York University in Toronto established the first Latin American center, "in part thanks to the inflow of exiled intellectuals from South America."[9] Germany's Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut in Berlin had been founded in 1930, but not until the 1970s did it experience expansion.[10]

Associations


Bibliographic resources

Reference works

Journals

Programs

Research Libraries and Archives outside Latin America

Some notable Latin Americanists

See also Category:Latin Americanists

See also

References
  1. "MSc Latin American Studies (MSc LAS) | Latin American Centre". www.lac.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  2. "UT College of Liberal Arts:". liberalarts.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2018-06-27.
  3. see homepage
  4. Howard F. Cline, "The Latin American Studies Association: A Summary Survey with Appendix," Latin American Research Review, Vol 2 No. 1, (Autumn, 1966) pp. 57-79.
  5. http://salalm.org/Conf/2016/04/panel-11-the-hispanic-division-and-the-handbook-of-latin-american-studies-highlighting-luso-hispanic-collections-in-the-library-of-congress/ Archived 2016-09-20 at the Wayback Machine accessed 13 August 2016.
  6. About IHEAL, accessed 15 November 2019.
  7. Howard F. Cline, "The Latin American Studies Association: A Summary Survey with Appendix," Latin American Research Review, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Autumn 1966), p. 64.
  8. José C. Moya,ed. The Oxford Handbook of Latin American History, New York: Oxford University Press 2011, p. viii.
  9. Moya, The Oxford Handbook of Latin American History, p. viii
  10. Moya, The Oxford Handbook of Latin American History, p. viii.
  11. http://clah.h-net.org/
  12. https://www.can-latam.org/
  13. http://www.calstatela.edu/pcclas
  14. https://rmclas.org/
  15. http://salalm.org/#
  16. http://www.slas.org.uk/about/history.htm
  17. https://www.can-latam.org/journal
  18. http://hahr-online.com/
  19. JPLA - open access homepage
  20. http://www.lais.ucsb.edu/
  21. Donald L. Gibbs, "The development of the literary holdings of the Benson Latin American Collection" Library Chronicle (1992) 22#3 pp 10-21
  22. Mary Wilke, Patricia J. Finney, and James Simon. "Colonial Latin American Resources at the Center for Research Libraries." Colonial Latin American Review 11.2 (2002): 317-323.
  23. Roger Macdonald, "Library Resources for Latin American Studies in the United Kingdom 25 Years after the Parry Report." Bulletin of Latin American Research 9.2 (1990): 265-269. in JSTOR

Further reading
  • Alvarez, Sonia, Arturo Arias, and Charles R. Hale. "Re-Visioning Latin American Studies." Cultural Anthropology 26, no. 2 (2011): 225-46.
  • Berger,Mark R. Under Northern Eyes: Latin American Studies and U.S. Hegemony in the Americas, 1898-1990. Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1995.
  • Bulmer-Thomas, Victor, ed. Thirty Years of Latin American Studies in the United Kingdom 1965-1995. London: Institute of Latin American Studies, 1997.
  • Cline, Howard F. ed. Latin American History: Essays on its Study and Teaching, 1898-1965. 2 vols. Published for the Conference on Latin American History by University of Texas Press 1967.
  • Cline, Howard F. "The Latin American Studies Association: A Summary Survey with Appendix," Latin American Research Review, Vol 2 No. 1, (Autumn, 1966) pp. 57-79.
  • Crahan, Margaret E. "Lest We Forget: Women's Contribution to Making LASA an Organization for All Its Members by One of the First Women to Serve on the Executive Council, (1973-1975)," LASA Forum 37 (Spring 2006): 11-14.
  • Delpar, Helen. Looking South: The Evolution of Latin Americanist Scholarship in the United States, 1850-1975 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press 2008) online review
  • Dent, David W., ed. Handbook of Political Science Research on Latin America: Trends from the 1960s to the 1990s. Westport CT: Greenwood Press 1990.
  • Diégues Júnior, Manuel and Bryce Wood, eds. Social Science in Latin America. New York: Columbia University Press 1967.
  • Eakin, Marshall C. "Latin American History in the United States: From Gentleman Scholars to Academic Specialists," History Teacher 31 (August 1998) 539-61.
  • Hanke, Lewis, "The Development of Latin American Studies in the United States, 1939-1945," The Americas 4 (1947) 32-64.
  • Kagan, Richard L., ed. Spain in America: The Origins of Hispanism in the United States. Urbana: University of Illinois Press 2002.
  • Mitchell, Christopher,ed. Changing Perspectives in Latin American Studies: Insights from Six Disciplines. Stanford: Stanford University Press 1988.
  • Sable, Martin, ed. Guide to the Writings of Pioneer Latinamericanists in the United States. New York: Haworth Press 1989.
  • Salvatore, Ricardo D. Disciplinary Conquest: U.S. Scholars in South America, 1900–1945. Durham: Duke University Press, 2016.

Library Guides for Latin American Studies
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