Graduate Minor in Latin American Studies

Brief description:
The graduate minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies is designed to provide UIUC graduate students both at the Master’s and doctoral levels in any discipline training in Latin American Studies and is taken in conjunction with students’ primary fields of study. The minor’s purpose is to complement and supplement major work undertaken by students in their primary disciplines. The minor is intended to develop students’ knowledge of the region through interdisciplinary course training and Latin American and Caribbean language study.

Requirements:
The graduate minor in Latin American Studies will require the student to complete 12 graduate hours; 8 of the hours must be at the 500-level. A student pursuing a graduate minor must complete the following requirements:

  1. Area Coursework: A minimum of 8 graduate hours at the 400/500-level from courses in two different departments approved by CLACS every semester. The Center updates and posts approved courses in our website and announce them through our listserv. Our Center has approximately 104 faculty affiliated from different departments in campus, and we approve their courses as part of our curriculum. The Center will record the approved courses on a master list to be kept in the unit that will be used to certify that students took approved courses during their studies in the minor.
  2. Language Component: At least 4 hours in language coursework taken in any Latin American language (Portuguese, Spanish or Native American Language or Haitian Creole) while enrolled in the Graduate Minor program.
  3. In the case that not enough or advance language courses are offered, The Center also accepts as equivalent area courses taught in these languages, i.e. literature class taught in Portuguese or Spanish.
  4. If the chosen language course is at the 400-or 500 level it may count towards the required 12 hours for Graduate Minor. We anticipate that students registering in the Minor already have knowledge of Latin American language.
  5. If the Student’s Master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation deals with a country from Latin America and the Caribbean, we advise students in this minor to speak with their advisor about including a committee member from the minor area.
  6. We recommend that the courses taken for the minor not be applied to course requirements in the students’ Master’s or PhD program

The courses must be selected from the CLACS approved list.

Prerequisites for the minor:
There are no prerequisites for the graduate minor.

Admission to the minor:
A graduate student who selects Latin American and Caribbean Studies as a minor must get approval from the Center, the administrating unit of the minor, and from his/her home department.

The Center will provide an online admission form to be submitted to the minor’s advisor for review (see attached form).

Students will be advised at this time that the 12 graduate credits taken for the Graduate Minor cannot be used towards completion of the student’s Masters of PhD.  The form will require the student’s graduate advisor and program director approval. Applicants must be in good standing in a graduate program at the University of Illinois and should demonstrate an interest in Latin American Studies. Students are encouraged to work closely with the student adviser at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies to design their programs
The minor admission process will be monitored by the Associate Director in charge of academic programming.

Minor Adviser:
The Associate Director will also be assigned the responsibility of advising graduate minor students. She currently serves as the main adviser for our undergraduate minor and majors as well as our current M.A. student in Latin American Studies. She will be the person responsible, with the Director, to monitor the admission process and to advise students enrolled in the minor.

Certification of successful completion:
Successful completion of the graduate minor will be monitored by the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Students will need to declare the minor to the Graduate College as soon as they have decided to pursue it and been approved by their departments. Upon completion of the minor requirements and of his/her Master’s or doctoral degree, the student will receive a completion document from the Center indicating that he/she has earned a graduate minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
It will be the student’s responsibility to petition to have the minor added to their transcripts.