Introduction to Spanish and Latin American Studies

Module code: SP1022

This module will give you a broad understanding of some of the key historical turning points in the Hispanic world, from the arrival of the Spanish to the Americas in the late fifteenth century to the present. On successful completion of this module you will be able to: demonstrate a familiarity with key contextual knowledge on the history and cultures of Spain and Latin America; enhance your research and analytical skills, recognising, evaluating and applying key critical responses and/or theoretical concepts/frameworks to the topics covered; improve your writing skills, practising how to structure a coherent argument in appropriately academic language.

Topics covered

• Spanish arrival in the Americas, clash of cultures
• The birth of the nation: Latin American independence
• Dictatorship, trauma, (post)dictatorship and the politics of memory in twentieth and twenty-first century Spain and Latin America
• Extractive economies