新墨西哥大学

The Master of Arts (MA) in Latin American Studies (MALAS) offers students the opportunity to explore the cultures, languages, histories, and societies of Latin America. The program provides students access to a large and diverse faculty, selecting content drawn from over thirty departments and nine Colleges/Schools at UNM. The program encourages students to design an interdisciplinary program of study that reflect their particular interests. LAS concentrations allow students to customize their individual program of study to best suit their academic and professional goals while also developing valuable research skills and in-depth knowledge. The MALAS is used by some students to prepare for graduate training in a specific discipline at the PhD level or in a professional school. Other students use the MALAS as an entry-level degree for careers in government service, teaching, business, travel and tourism, advocacy, or inter-American organizations.

Degree Requirements

The MALAS program requires 36 credit hours of coursework and the completion of either a thesis (Plan I) or a capstone project/comprehensive examination (Plan II) in their chosen concentration.

Plan I: Students must take LTAM 510: Pro-Seminar in Latin American Studies (3 credit hours), concentration courses (21 credit hours), elective courses (6 credit hours), and LTAM 599: Master's Thesis (6 credit hours). Three credit hours from the chosen concentration requirement must be devoted to a methods course that advances the student's inquiry of study. Plan I students present an oral defense of the thesis, which integrates their chosen concentration with field research or other forms of original research, before a thesis committee.

Plan II: Students must take LTAM 510: Pro-Seminar in Latin American Studies (3 credit hours), concentration courses (21 credit hours), elective courses (9 credit hours), and LTAM 551: Master's Problems (3 credit hours). Three credit hours from the chosen concentration requirement must be devoted to a methods course that advances the student's inquiry of study. Plan II students complete a capstone project or comprehensive examination focused on the concentration area.

History & Society

This concentration allows students to develop an integrated program of historical inquiry focusing on Latin America. Students benefit from interdisciplinary grounding in methods of historical research and textual criticism, cultural heritage and museum studies, anthropology, historical geography, digital humanities, oral history, and visual methods. Coursework is selected from, but not limited to, the departments of Anthropology, Art & Art History, Geography and Environmental Studies, History, Museum Studies, Spanish and Portuguese, among other departments. The concentration allows for the study of pre-Columbian through Modern periods of Latin American history and provides an excellent foundation for further academic study in history and related fields, in addition to preparing students for applied careers in history, cultural resource management, and museums.