The Graduate Emphasis in Latin American and Caribbean Studies is open to students from all fields and allows students to gain interdisciplinary knowledge of Latin America and the Caribbean and to form scholarly relationships with a range of faculty and graduate students across the UCI campus. The emphasis requires one core course and two elective graduate seminars dealing centrally with issues related to Latin America and the Caribbean.
Admission
Applicants must first be admitted to, or currently enrolled in, a Master’s or Ph.D. program at UCI and submit an application form to the director of the emphasis. Students should ideally apply while they are still engaged in coursework, but exceptions may be considered by the committee.
Requirements
Minimum course work for the graduate emphasis in Latin American and Caribbean Studies consists of three courses: the CLACS Core Course (HUMANITIES 264 or the sequence HUMANITIES 265A, 265B, 265C, where Human 264 and the sequence Human 265A-B-C are both 4-credit courses) and two approved electives that are centrally related to the study of Latin America and the Caribbean. Many students may elect to take one of these elective seminars within their home departments as course-work that also satisfies other degree requirements. One of these seminars must be from outside the student’s home department (and not cross-listed with their home department). For students completing an M.A. thesis or Ph.D. dissertation, the research project will engage the study of Latin America as part of the overall project and one member of the candidate’s dissertation committee should be a core or affiliate faculty in Latin American Studies.
List of pre-approved graduate classes qualifying for the Graduate Emphasis
Additionally, you may petition to have a class accepted as qualifying for one of the two elective seminars. The class must deal 50% or more with content and themes related to Latin America & the Caribbean. Please contact the CLACS Director, Heidi Tinsman, hetinsma@uci.edu with a copy of the course syllabus and short explanation of how that class qualifies as a course in Latin American & Caribbean Studies.