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Introduction to Latin America Spring 2007

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Introduction to Latin America Spring 2007 INST 207: Introduction to Latin America Spring 2007 (Tuesdays, Thursday, 9:30-10:45 pm; Croft 107) Dr. Oliver Dinius Dr. Leslie Schwindt-Bayer Office: Bishop Hall 304 Office: 235 Deupree Hall Office Phone: 915-3791 Office Phone: 915-5673 E-mail: [email protected] Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tu 11-12; Th 3-4 Office Hours: Tu, Th by appt. COURSE DESCRIPTION Latin America is a region whose geographic fragmentation, ethnic diversity, and long history of colonial rule make for a highly divided society. In contemporary Latin America, the results of these historical divisions are still felt in frequent political upheaval – often in the form of coup d’états – and in a legacy of gross social inequality and everyday violence. The course aims to help you understand this complex social reality and assess whether recent trends towards democratization and economic liberalization have benefited the region. The course has three specific objectives. First, we want to introduce you to the history, politics, society, and culture of Latin America to provide you with a foundation for future coursework or research on the region. Second, we hope to dismantle common stereotypes and generalizations you might have about Latin America and help you see the diversity that exists across countries. Third, we aim to strengthen your critical thinking skills analyzing the problems faced by each country and evaluating possible solutions. We begin the course with an historical perspective that introduces some of the common themes in the region: the colonial experience, economic development, authoritarianism, and U.S-Latin American relations. Then we turn to individual countries to highlight the diversity of recent developments in Latin America. First, we look at a defining moment in contemporary Latin American history, the Cuban Revolution, and try to understand Cuba’s trajectory as a socialist nation. We continue with the revolutionary theme looking at Guatemala’s revolution and counter revolution focusing on the plight of indigenous peoples, the causes and effects of state-sponsored violence and oppression, and the reconciliation process that followed. Moving to South America, we will examine the trajectory of Brazil since the collapse of its authoritarian corporatist state in the 1980s and try to understand the significance of the rise of the Worker’s Party’s leader Luiz Inácio ‘Lula’ da Silva from an opposition union leader to the nation’s president. In Mexico, the most recent country to become democratic in Latin America, we will examine Mexico’s democratic transition was so long in developing and what difficulties it faces consolidating democratic governance. In contrast to Mexico’s transition to democracy, we then study the collapse of the Venezuelan state and the meteoric rise of Hugo Chávez since the mid-1990s raising the question whether Latin America is entering an age of truly radical and lasting political change. Finally, we will look at the civil war/drug war in Colombia to understand the reasons for its prominence, its effects on Colombian politics and society, and the role that the United States plays in its resolution. COURSE REQUIREMENTS Map Quiz 5% Six Research Assignments 60% * (see below) Attendance and Participation 10% Final Exam 25% 1 MAP QUIZ: The map quiz will test your knowledge of Latin American geography. You will receive a list of terms countries, cities, and major geographic features, and you will be expected to be able to place these geographic features accurately on a blank map of Latin America. RESEARCH ASSIGNMENTS: Each of the six country-focused course segments will have a research assignment associated with it. The assignments will vary, but they will all require critical thinking and polished, academic writing. The instructions will be distributed on the first day of the respective unit, and the assignment will be due on the last day we cover a country (see Course Outline for due dates). You must upload it to Blackboard before class and bring a printed copy of your paper with you to class. Please note: You are required to be in class on time with your assignment. If you are late, the assignment will be considered late. Late assignments will lose 5 points until midnight the day the paper is due and will lose one letter grade (10 points) for each day late after the first day. Spell-check and proofread your papers! Assignments with excessive spelling or grammar errors will be returned to students un-graded and must be re-submitted error-free. You will lose one letter grade on an assignment initially submitted in poor form. All papers must use appropriate citation and bibliographic formatting. Please see the citation guidelines posted under “Assignments” on Blackboard. If you receive a B- or lower on an assignment, you will have the opportunity to rewrite your assignment to improve on content. Note that a rewrite is not simply a correction of formal errors or the addition of a few words, but a significantly changed and improved paper. Rewrites are due the class after the assignment was returned. The grades will be averaged. There is no guarantee that a rewrite will receive a better grade than the original paper. * Your best assignment will count 15%, and your worst assignment only 5%. The other four will count 10% each. NOTE: The assignment counting 15% cannot be one for which you did a rewrite. ATTENDANCE & PARTICIPATION: You are expected to attend all class sessions, finish all assigned readings prior to class, and be prepared to participate actively. Class sessions will vary in format, but will include lectures, discussions, small group activities, short readings, and short writing assignments. FINAL EXAM: A comprehensive exam will be given on the university-designated final exam date and time. The exam will likely consist of short answer and essay questions. The purpose of the exam is to test your grasp of important concepts, your specific knowledge of Latin America and the countries we cover, and your ability to draw comparisons between the cases. Make-up exams will not be given except with a university-accepted excuse, and you must have approval from the professors prior to the exam. REQUIRED TEXTS The following texts are required for this course and are available at the university bookstore and on reserve at the main library: 1) Gott, Richard. Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution. London: Verso, 2005. 2) Preston, Julia and Samuel Dillon. Opening Mexico: The Making of a Democracy. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2004. 3) Sanford, Victoria. Buried Secrets: Truth and Human Rights in Guatemala. New York: Palgrave- Macmillan, 2004. 4) Skidmore, Thomas E. and Peter H. Smith. Modern Latin America, 6th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. (NOTE: Make sure to purchase the 6th edition. Earlier editions do not include the chapter on Colombia.) Electronic Reserves: Readings other than the above books will be placed as PDF files on the Blackboard website for INST 207. These readings are marked with a double asterisk (**) in the syllabus. 2 ACADEMIC INTEGRITY The University of Mississippi has an Academic Discipline Policy that will be followed in this course. Students are expected to submit their own original work in all aspects of this course and behave in a respectful manner both toward the professors and other students in the class. Suspected violations will be subject to disciplinary action according to the University policy. If you have questions, please consult the University's M Book (Section II, I. A-G). COURSE OUTLINE (Note that the course outline and reading assignments may be subject to change.) T 1/16 Introduction to Course & Latin American Geography PART I: LATIN AMERICA IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE Th 1/18 Latin America before the Industrial Revolution Skidmore and Smith, Modern Latin America, 13-41 (Ch. 1). T 1/23 Contemporary Latin America Skidmore and Smith, Modern Latin America, 42-68 (Ch. 2). MAP QUIZ Th 1/25 The United States in Latin America Skidmore and Smith, Modern Latin America, 396-439 (Ch. 12). PART II: REVOLUTION (CUBA) T 1/30 The Cuban Revolution: Origins and Outcomes (1) Skidmore and Smith, Modern Latin America, 296-327. (2) ** Fidel Castro, “History will absolve me” (1953), excerpts. Th 2/1 Fidelismo and Cuban Socialism (1) ** Fidel Castro, “Creating Wealth with Political Awareness, Not Creating Political Awareness with Money or Wealth” (1968), in Fidel Castro Speaks, 406-424. (2) ** Alma Guillermoprieto, “Fidel in the Evening,” in Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), 126-152. (3) ** Ana Julia Jatar-Haussmann, The Cuban Way (West Hartford, CT: Kumarian Press, 1999), 19-40 (Ch. 2-3). T 2/6 Cuba and the Crisis of the 1990s (1) ** Jatar-Haussmann, The Cuban Way, 41-90 (Ch.4-6). (2) ** Isaac Saney, “The United States and Cuba,” in Saney, Cuba: A Revolution in Motion (New York: Zed Books, 2004), 151-176. Th 2/8 Cuba under Castro: A Balance Sheet (1) ** Saney, “Race, Inequality, and Revolution,” in Cuba: A Revolution in Motion, 90-121. (2) ** Jon Lee Anderson, “Castro’s Last Battle,” The New Yorker 7/24/2006, 43-55. (3) ** Recent Articles from the Financial Times on Cuba. RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT #1 DUE 3 PART III: INDIGENOUS CULTURE, CIVIL WAR, AND DEMOCRACY (GUATEMALA) T 2/13 Introduction to Guatemala (1) Skidmore and Smith, Modern Latin America, 356-367 and 389-395 (Ch. 11). (2) ** Handy, Jim, “The October Revolution” in Revolution in the Countryside (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 22-46 (Ch. 2). Th 2/15 The Civil War (1) ** Jonas, Susanne, “Background: Guatemala’s Thirty-Six-Year Civil War,” in Of Centaurs and Doves: Guatemala’s Peace Process (Boulder: Westview Press, 2000), 17-27 (Ch.
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