Global Studies (GLST) 308
Americas: An Introduction to Latin America and the Caribbean (Revision 2)
Revision 2 closed, replaced by current version.
Delivery Mode:Individualized study with video component*. *Overseas students, please contact the University Library before registering in a course that has an audio/visual component.
Credits:3
Area of Study:Social Science
Prerequisite:Professor approval.
Centre:Centre for Global and Social Analysis
GLST 308 has a Challenge for Credit option.
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Overview
GLST 308 explores the political, economic, and social dynamics that have shaped Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the processes that are moulding its future. Building on a ten-hour series of television broadcasts, Americas brings to life a startlingly diverse region that encompasses great wealth and desperate poverty, countries as tiny as Jamaica and as enormous as Brazil, with democratic and authoritarian governments, and a complex, multicultural heritage.
Topics covered in the course include military dictatorship and authoritarianism, urban growth and poverty, race and class, the changing role of women, liberation theology and social activism, revolutionary movements and armed struggle, literature and the arts, the growing Hispanic presence in the United States, and the foreign policy of the United States and Canada toward the region.
Outline
Unit 1: Introduction and Overview
Unit 2: Legacies of Empire: From Conquest to Independence
Unit 3: The Garden of Forking Paths: Dilemmas of National Development
Unit 4: Capital Sins: Authoritarianism and Democratization
Unit 5: Continent on the Move: Migration and Urbanization
Unit 6: Mirrors of the Heart: Colour, Class, and Identity
Unit 7: In Women's Hands: The Changing Roles of Women
Unit 8: Miracles Are Not Enough: Continuity and Change in Religion
Unit 9: Builders of Images: Writers, Artists, and Popular Culture
Unit 10: Get Up, Stand Up: The Problems of Sovereignty
Unit 11: Fire in the Mind: Revolutions and Revolutionaries
Unit 12: The Americans: Latin American and Caribbean Peoples in the United States
Unit 13: Course Review
Evaluation
To receive credit for GLST 308, you must obtain a grade of at least 50 percent on the final examination, and a final composite course grade of at least (“C−” 60 percent). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:
| Assignment 1 | Assignment 2 | Assignment 3 | Final Exam | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20% | 20% | 20% | 40% | 100% |
To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.
Course Materials
Textbook
Skidmore, Thomas E., and Peter H. Smith. Modern Latin America. 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Reader
Rosenberg, Mark B., A. Douglas Kincaid, and Kathleen Logan, eds. Americas: An Anthology. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Other Materials
The course materials include a student manual/ supplemental study guide, a telecourse study guide.
Special Course Features
GLST 308 includes an innovative ten-part television series that corresponds with Units 3 through 12 of the Americas study guide and is broadcast in Alberta on ACCESS, The Education Station. Alternatively, videotapes of these programs are available from the Athabasca University Library. The programs are a fundamental component of the course and students are required to view them in order to complete the course.
Athabasca University reserves the right to amend course outlines occasionally and without notice. Courses offered by other delivery methods may vary from their individualized-study counterparts.
Opened in Revision 2, March 2, 2006.
View previous syllabus
Last updated by SAS 03/24/2014 10:10:31
