Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies


A broad understanding of the complexity and richness of Latin America.

Drawing on resources from the programs in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies, you’ll gain a deep understanding of its politics, economy, society, and culture, as well as the intricate relationship between this region and the United States. Students have access to undergraduate funding opportunities, including summer travel grants for research in Latin America.

CLASSES YOU MIGHT TAKE

Body and Soul: Medicine in the Ancient Americas

This course examines curative medicine in the Americas through its visual culture and oral histories. We’ll consider philosophies about the body, health, causes of illness, representations of practitioners, and their pharmacology. This class also features access to Hopkins’ Special Collections.

Brazilian Culture & Civilization

In this introduction to the culture and civilization of Brazil, we’ll provide you with basic information about Brazilian history, politics, economy, art, literature, popular culture, theater, cinema, and music. The course will focus on how Indigenous, Asian, African, and European cultural influences have interacted to create the new and unique civilization that is Brazil today.

Novelist Intellectuals

This seminar will consider what the Spanish writer Francisco Ayala termed “novelist intellectuals,” that is, literary writers who actively participate in a society’s public sphere. Considering writers from Madrid to New York, from London to Buenos Aires, we’ll ask how one should hold a novelist’s fictional and non-fictional writings in the balance and explore ways of reading that allow us to consider the public intellectual side and the aesthetic side of a novelist together.