Syllabus

Course Meeting Times

Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1 hour / session

Recitations: 1 session / week, 1 hour / session

Purpose

This HASS-D/CI course is designed as an introduction to Latin American politics and society for undergraduates at MIT. No background on the region is required. Overall workload (reading, writing, class participation, and examinations) is similar to that of other HASS-D courses. Many of the themes raised here are covered in greater detail in other courses: 21F.020J (New World Literature), 21F.716 (Introduction to Contemporary Hispanic Literature), 21F.730 (Twentieth-Century Hispanic American Literature), 21F.735 (Advanced Topics in Hispanic Literature and Film), 21A.220 (The Conquest of America), 21H.802 (Modern Latin America), 3.982 (The Ancient Andean World), 3.983 (Ancient Mesoamerican Civilization), 17.507 (Democratization and Democratic Collapse), and 17.554 (Political Economy of Latin America).

Course Requirements

Requirements include weekly course readings and videos; active participation in class discussions, class presentations, and the class debate; three short papers (two of which must be revised and resubmitted); one in-class map test; and one three-hour final exam.

Required Texts

Principal texts for the course include:

Winn, Peter. Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. 2nd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780520201811.

Spooner, Mary Helen. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780520080836.

Allende, Isabel. The House of the Spirits. Translated by Magda Bogin. New York, NY: Everyman's Library, 2005. ISBN: 9781400043187 (English).

Colburn, Forrest D. Latin America at the End of Politics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780691091815.

More Recent Versions

Winn, Peter. Americas: The Changing Face of Latin America and the Caribbean. 3rd ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780520245013.

Spooner, Mary Helen. Soldiers in a Narrow Land: The Pinochet Regime in Chile. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999. ISBN: 9780520221697.

Readings and Videos

Weekly readings range from 75 to 130 pages, or about 100 pages on average. Readings include articles from the popular press, literary works, and scholarly research from the social sciences.

I strongly recommend that you purchase all of the above books, the third of which was originally written in Spanish. (Feel free to buy and read it in the original, if you prefer.)

If your first language is not English, you should still try to read the non-literary works in English. For literary works (such as García Márquez and Allende), however, please feel free to read them in the original.

Readings are normally due on the first day of class of the week in which they are assigned. Where the first day is entirely occupied by a lecture, however, you may wait until later in the week.

Many weekly readings are accompanied by videos or films, which are an integral part of the course. Videos from the Americas series, produced in part by WGBH-Boston, are one hour each. Please note that the film The Battle of Chile is very long, so you should plan in advance.

Written Requirements

There will be a 30-minute map test at the end of the second week of the course. (Those students joining the course late can make up the map test outside of class with no penalty.) This test will cover all countries in Latin America, as well as major cities and geographical regions (e.g., the Amazon basin, the Andes, etc.).

Over the course of the semester, you will also write three papers (4-5 pages long) addressing different topics raised in the course of the semester. Due dates for the papers are noted below, and the paper topics themselves are included toward the end of this package. Rewritten papers must take into account comments you receive on the original version.

Please note also that the bar for revisions is higher than it is for the original draft. A paper that received an A- the first time around, and that was not revised based on your instructors' comments, would probably receive a B+ or a B on the revision. Of course, it is difficult to get an A on the revision if you flailed completely on the original version, so there is still a strong incentive to "get it right" the first time.

When writing your papers and preparing your presentations, be sure to pay attention to the list of stylistic and substantive hints included in this package.

Finally, at the end of the semester during the official exam period, there will be a three-hour exam covering all course materials. Half of this exam will be based on identification or short answer questions; half will be based on an essay. Last year's final exam is attached; this year's exam will be identical in the essay questions and very similar in the list of potential items for the short answer section.

How to Hand in Papers

For stylistic and substantive advice on writing your papers, see the hints attached to this syllabus. Guidance for formatting can be found at Online MIT writing and Communication Centre.

Papers that are late will be penalized by one-third of a letter grade for each day late.

The TA(s) and I would like to practice blind grading, so please don't include a title page or put your name in the footer; instead, put your name on a separate page after the paper. Also, at the risk of stifling self-expression and generally sounding like a pain, I ask that all papers be double-spaced and submitted in Times 12 font. (Otherwise we learn people's fonts after the first paper, which defeats the purpose of blind grading.)

Class Participation

You are expected to participate in class discussion throughout the semester. Participation includes informal class discussion of the readings and films, in-class presentations, and a formal class debate. Attendance is obviously a prerequisite for class participation. If you must miss a class, you should notify me in advance. More than two unexcused absences will seriously jeopardize your class participation grade. (A handy reference sheet on what constitutes an excused absence is available here: (PDF).)

Also, please notify me at the beginning of the class if, for whatever reason, you are unprepared to participate in class discussion that day. (You need not explain yourself unless you wish to do so.) I "cold call" people occasionally; in a small class there is nowhere to hide. Again, more than two unexcused "unprepareds" will jeopardize your class participation grade.

My somewhat odd habit is to record class participation grades for each student after each class in which there is an opportunity for class discussion. If your attendance record is perfect, the lowest two of your regular class participation grades will be dropped at the end of the semester. If you miss only one class over the semester, the lowest of your regular class participation grades will be dropped. You may not, however, miss any of the scheduled presentations described below.

Please note that we will have one formal class debate, one individual class presentation, and several group presentations over the course of the semester. Information on these is attached to the syllabus.

Plagiarism Clause

When writing a paper (or an essay exam), you must identify the nature and extent of your intellectual indebtedness to the authors whom you have read or to anyone else from whom you have gotten ideas (e.g., classmates, invited lecturers, etc.). You can do so through footnotes, a bibliography, or some other kind of scholarly device. Failure to disclose your reliance on the research or thinking of others is Plagiarism, which is considered to be the most serious academic offense and will be treated as such. If you have any questions about how you should document the sources of your ideas, please ask me or the TA before submitting your work.

Grading

Your grade will be determined as follows:

Thus, the total oral and written components of the class will be weighted roughly equally. About 20% of your grade will be determined by your work with your other classmates; most of your grade will depend on your individual performance. Within the limits imposed by equity, grading will attempt to take into account the fact that some students (seniors, those who have lived for a long time in Latin America, political science majors, etc.) have had far more exposure to the material covered in the class.

Calendar

L = Lecture R = Recitation