Program in Latin American Studies

Founded in 1966, the Program in Latin American Studies (PLAS) awards a certificate of proficiency to seniors who have completed a multidisciplinary course of study on Latin America. Open to students in any concentration and grounded on a knowledge of the language(s) of the region, the program seeks to promote interdisciplinary dialogue on Latin American issues across the humanities, social and natural sciences, environmental studies, and policy fields. The program’s faculty and course offerings draw upon the fields of anthropology, art and archaeology, ecology and evolutionary biology, economics, English, history, politics, Spanish and Portuguese languages and cultures, sociology, and the Woodrow Wilson School. The program’s bibliographer for Latin America, Iberian, and Latino studies orients students in using the University library’s extensive Latin American holdings and teaches a seminar on research methods in Latin American studies.

One of the most active area-studies programs on campus, PLAS maintains a full calendar of lectures and colloquia pertinent to the study of Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, the program’s graduate and undergraduate student organizations regularly offer academic and social activities of special interest to students.

Requirements for a certificate in Latin American studies consist of:

• Completion of the requirements of the departmental major.

• Satisfactory completion of the language requirement in Spanish or Portuguese.

• Satisfactory completion of six courses in Latin American subjects sponsored or cross-listed by the Program in Latin American Studies. At least one of these courses must be in Spanish American or Brazilian literature taught in either language, as well as one in history and one from economics, politics, or sociology. Students in the natural sciences, geosciences, engineering, mathematics, and molecular biology should consult with the program manager for their certificate requirements.

• At least one of the six courses mentioned above must be a PLAS-sponsored advanced undergraduate seminar (at the 300 or 400 level), designed to enable students to examine significant problems of the area in an interdisciplinary fashion.

• Completion of a senior thesis on a Latin American subject. Normally it should be written under the supervision of a faculty member associated with the program. Alternately, a faculty member associated with the program should be consulted early in the senior year concerning available sources. The thesis should also demonstrate an ability to use primary source materials in Spanish or Portuguese, or, in more general terms, materials from the country, region, or countries studied, or by Latin American organizations when appropriate.

The program encourages research leading to the senior thesis and funds undergraduate field research in Latin America, normally conducted during the summer following the junior year. An annual grant competition is held in the spring of each year for that purpose.

Students in fields such as the natural sciences or engineering who satisfy the course requirements for the certificate but whose thesis cannot be devoted to a Latin American topic may complete the program requirements by writing a research paper of sufficient complexity and length to substitute for the thesis. The topic should be determined in consultation with the director and relevant program faculty.

Senior theses have ranged over a wide variety of topics in the humanities and social sciences, and outstanding work is recognized each year on Class Day with the conferral of the Stanley J. Stein Senior Thesis Prize for the best senior thesis in the field of Latin American studies. Recent winning titles include “Citizenship, Nation, and Colonialism: The Debate in Puerto Rico, 1898–1917,” “The Changing Face of Revolution: Legitimizing the Mexican State and a New Path to Development,” “Los gauchos judíos: The Vitality of a Text,” “Redefining the Mexican Nation: An Analysis of Government History Textbooks, 1959–1996,” “Signatures of Ancient Mayan Painters and Sculptors,” “Extractive Reserves in the Brazilian Amazon,” “Fighting Cholera in Peru: Vaccination, Sanitation, or Education?”, “Revolution in Chains: The Independence Movement in Puerto Rico (1968–1982),” “Cities of Silver and Gold: Colonial Potosi and Modern Cajamarca,” “Maquinaciones narrativas: Plot, Desire, and the Machine in Adolfo Bioy Casares’s La invención de Morel,” and “Health in a State of Scarcity: An Ethnography of Health Care among the Urban Poor in the Northeast of Brazil.”

After Princeton, program graduates often continue on to graduate or professional school and pursue distinguished careers in research, teaching, commerce and trade, banking, international law, nonprofit organizations, and government.