This course is designed to meet the needs of two groups: those who have developed an interest in Latin America through study or work and wish to develop this for personal or professional reasons, and those who intend to proceed to a doctorate, and possibly an academic career in the field.

The course seeks to provide participants with a critical understanding of Latin America in all its complexity, and of the means and methods that have been devised to study and understand it better.

The criteria for the assessment of the 30,000-word thesis is rather more stringent than on Master’s programmes at most other Universities, where (in the UK) the thesis typically represents only a quarter of the year’s work. In particular, there is a requirement for originality, which must be met either by research using primary sources (documents, interviews, official publications, or the like) or else by developing a distinctive approach to an existing debate or literature. This is consistent with the aim of the thesis, which is to develop advanced skills of research and expression.

By the end of the course students will have:

• developed a critical view of the contribution made by the academic study of Latin America and of some of its specific disciplines to the humanities and the social sciences;
• developed an understanding of the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary approaches to research on Latin America;
• become familiar with some of the main themes of contemporary debate;
• developed intellectual and practical research skills, and;
• tested their ability to produce a piece of advanced scholarship in conformity with the research techniques, standards of argument and accepted style of presentation of an academic discipline.