Courses

Arts

Arte Argentino Contemporáneo

After a brief overview of the main artistic movements of the 19th century, this course goes on to consider the socio-cultural changes occurring roughly between 1900 and 1945. These were manifested both in art - the Painters of the People, the Paris Group, Cubism, Surrealism, Concrete Art - and in architecture: Art Nouveau, Neocolonialism, Art Deco, Rationalism and Monumentalism. The euphoria and rebellion of the 1960s found their modes of expression in Pop Art and abstraction, the New Figuration Movement, Participatory Art, Brutalism, Formalism, the International Style and Casablanquismo. The return to democracy in Argentina in 1983 coincides with the advent of Postmodernism, Ecological Art, Postfiguration, Digital Art, Naive Art, Regionalism and Technological Determinism. Classes will/can be supplemented with visits to the many museums and urban spaces that Buenos Aires has to offer. This course is taught in Spanish.

• Subject: Arts
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: Spanish 300 or greater

Business

Economía Social en Latinoamérica

Environmentally, technologically, economically and culturally, we live in an interconnected world where traditional approaches to business no longer work. Environmental problems and social issues are becoming increasingly important. Notions of sustainable development and fair trade are forcing companies to radically rethink their business strategies. New structures and beliefs and a redistribution of existing resources are required to build sustainable businesses. Here, the work of C.K. Prahalad and Stuart Hart has been ground-breaking: added values, such as transparency and mutual agreements, are just part of a new vision of business. This course is taught in Spanish.

• Subject: Business
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 45
• Prerequisites: Spanish 300 or greater

Economics

Argentine Economy

Argentina’s economy is best understood within the context of Latin American economic history. This course includes topics such as the Argentine economy before and after 1930; economic growth and structure; external terms of exchange between agricultural exports and imported industrial goods; foreign currency shortages; structural changes and the process of industrialization; import substitution; relative prices; capital formation; and economic cycles. Inflation, devaluations, recessions and stabilization programs, and hyperinflation will also be discussed. Finally, the course will consider Argentina’s Convertibility Law - a currency board implemented throughout the 1990s – and more recent trends in inflation, economic growth and unemployment.

• Subject: Economics
• Course Level: 300
• Language: English
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: Econ 101

Historia económica de Latinoamérica

The course examines the development of the economies of Latin America from the late nineteenth century to the present day. A comparative approach is adopted and special attention is given to the major economies of the Northern and Southern Cones of Latin America (Venezuela, Brazil, Chile and Argentina). The course also examines the economic structures of Latin America - its rural (1870 -1930) and industrial (1929-1950) economy and the external and internal conditions leading to a period of relative stability (1960-1970) and mounting foreign debt. It highlights the role of the International Monetary Fund’s austerity plans In the 1980s and the social crises that followed. It also looks at the rise of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) in the 1990s, and their results in terms of output growth, as well as neo-liberal macroeconomic adjustment and labor market flexibility. The 21st century under the leadership of Brazil, offers new horizons in which Latin America looks set to consolidate a united bloc. It has already strengthened the democracies and economies of the region with the creation of UNASUR. The role of the IMF, the reduction of foreign debt, the redistribution of wealth, employee participation in profits and media relations with the government are just some of the debates that we will be exploring.

• Subject: Economics
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: None

Latinoamérica y la Economía Global

This course provides an overview of international economic relations with an emphasis on Argentina and Latin America. It discusses the internal and external determinants of economies of less developed countries in general and Latin American countries in particular within the "intra-capitalist" framework of the global economy. We study the general principles applicable to economic and social development and economic integration in Latin America. MERCOSUR, AC-4, G-3, NAFTA, and future FTAA agreements are described in relation to other important global institutions such as the EU, NAFTA, and Asia-Pacific. The program promotes discussion of education for development, human resources training, transfer of technology, economy and the environment. The course concludes with a survey of Latin America the twenty-first century in the current international context of economic globalization.

• Subject: Economics
• Course Level: 400
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: Macroeconomics

Política Económica Argentina

This course looks at two hundred years of Argentine economic policy within an international context. Different periods are distinguished and short-term variables are identified and compared with those from Latin America and other parts of the world. The economic plans applied under different presidents are discussed, together with implicit or explicit economic diagnoses, actions and results. The course concludes with an analysis of national and international scenarios and analyzes the new political and economic landscape after the crisis of 2001-2002 and the governments of Presidents Néstor and Cristina Kirchner.

• Subject: Economics
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: None

English and Literature

Argentine Literature

This course approaches Argentine cultural history through a close reading of novels and short stories. A major theme of the course is how the notion of civilization that guided nation-building narratives in the nineteenth century remained central to twentieth century fiction. The impact of immigration policies, the rise and fall of Peronism, Eva Peron’s political and cultural legacy, the Dirty War and the role of fiction in shaping social memory are just some of the topics that are considered. By the end of the course, students will have a general picture of the historical and cultural contexts in which Argentine fiction has been produced and an understanding of the close links between this country’s history, politics and literature.

• Subject: English and Literature
• Course Level: 300
• Language: English
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: History of Latin America is recomended

Jorge Luis Borges: Visions of Culture and Knowledge

Borges’ vision of the world as a Library of Babel and Aleph anticipated the information age and the development of the Internet by several decades. However, although Borges can be regarded as the least representative Latin American writer, not all his fictions address universal problems. This course shows how many of his short stories, essays and poems are embedded in and have contributed to the Latin American and Argentine literary traditions. The course also considers Borges’ precursors (Poe, Marcel Schwob and Kafka) and his followers (Donald Barthelme, Leonardo Sciascia, Danilo Kis and Umberto Eco, among others). Finally, it looks at Borges’ presence in visual culture: film, architecture and art.

• Subject: English and Literature
• Course Level: 300
• Language: English
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: History of Latin America is recomended

Literatura Argentina

The course examines Argentine literature starting with its role in the construction of national identity in the 19th century. Esteban Echeverría’s short story "The Slaughterhouse", written in 1839 but not published until 1871, illustrates the conflict between gauchos, Indians and government. However, it is José Hernández’s “Martín Fierro” (1872), an epic poem depicting the plight of the all-but-vanished gaucho minority, which is to become problematic when appropriated by the literary establishment. The course also looks at the literary avant-garde of the twenties (Oliverio Girondo, Alfonsina Storni, Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Arlt) and its relationship with the city of Buenos Aires, as well as literary testimonies of the 1976-1983 military dictatorship in Argentina and discusses the place of literature in the national memory. Finally, we consider some new literary phenomena: blogs, virtual publications, and the problem of copyright in the digital age. This course is taught in Spanish.

• Subject: English and Literature
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: Spanish 300 or greater

Film and Media Studies

Cine Latinoamericano

This course focuses on aspects of history and culture as presented in recent Argentine and Latin American cinema. Through a close study of the films themselves as well as related texts (interviews, reviews, essays, testimonials, literature, newspapers, comics), the course explores the aesthetic approaches used to reflect on society and social problems. Assignments help students to develop reading and writing skills in Spanish while class discussions help students to sharpen their oral skills. This course is taught in Spanish.

• Subject: Film and Media Studies
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: Spanish 300 or greater

History

Historia Latinoamericana Siglo XX

This course provides an overview of Latin American history since independence. It describes how Spain’s colonies became nation states and how these new republics gradually consolidated their political, social and economic systems. It outlines the ideas and careers of their founding fathers, as well as the major political figures of the twentieth century. In particular, it compares the socio-political developments of the 1940s and 1950s (e.g. under Getulio Vargas in Brazil, Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala and Juan D. Perón in Argentina). It also examines the causes and consequences of the many military coups in the region, together with the eventual return to democracy. Finally, the program analyzes political changes in Latin America since the end of the Cold War and the region’s current situation in the 21st century. This course is taught in Spanish.

• Subject: History
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: Spanish 300 or greater

Narrativas de lo monstruoso en Latinoamérica

In Abnormal: Lectures at the College de France (1974-1975), Michel Foucault traces a "genealogy of the abnormal" based on the relationship between knowledge, power and society and social mechanisms of identification, distance, inclusion and exclusion. On this course we will explore one of the most common figures of abnormality, the human monster, together with violence, a violence shaped by both social and natural laws. This course takes students on a journey through the different representations in Latin American literary and film narrative of the human monster and other marginal figures such as criminals, fallen women, rebels, and the strange and unclassifiable. Texts will include works by Sarmiento, Borges and Bioy Casares, Rubén Darío, Horacio Quiroga, Leopoldo Lugones, Gabriel García Márquez, Roberto Bolaño and Silvina Ocampo. There will also be movies directed by Leonardo Favio, Luis Buñuel, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, Héctor Babenco and Arturo Ripstein showing the relationship between the monstrous “other” and social and political power as one of discipline, control and standardization.

• Subject: History
• Course Level: 400
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: History

Literature

Literatura Latinoamericana

This course explores Latin American literature from pre-Columbian times to the present. The prescribed texts include letters, poems, short stories, critical articles and novels by acclaimed authors such as Ruben Dario, Juan Rulfo, Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa, Pablo Neruda, Elena Poniatowska, César Huidobro and Roberto Bolaños. Many of them belonged to the Latin American Boom of the 1960s and 1970s, when the Latin American novel became known throughout the world. But the course also considers original Latin American genres, such as testimonial narrative. The course examines literary responses to complex cultural, social and historical problems: conquest, nation building and national identity formation; acculturation, avant-gardism, nationalism and cosmopolitanism; or populism and authoritarianism.

• Subject: Literature
• Course Level: 300
• Language: 300
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: None

Political Science

Pensamiento Político Latinoamericano

This course explores the different traditions of political thought in Latin America from the 19th century to the present day. It considers the foundational influence of European thought in Latin America in terms of inspiration, assimilation and re-creation. The course is organized around the following topics: Contractualism (Mariano Moreno) and Republicanism (Simón Bolívar), the task of nation building (Domingo F. Sarmiento, Juan Bautista Alberdi and José Martí); the parallel with the United States (José Martí), the development of Latin American socialism and its link with the problem of indigenous land (José Carlos Mariátegui and Victor Haya de la Torre) development and dependency theories (Raul Prebisch, Fernando Cardoso and Enzo Faletto), Latin American populist thinking (Jauretche Arturo and Ernesto Laclau), liberation theology (Gutiérrez) and late twentieth-century neo-liberal thinking (de Soto).

• Subject: Political Science
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: None

Sistemas Políticos: Los Populismos Latinoamericanos

After the breakdown of the so-called ‘colonial pact’, new political elites imposed variations of the available organizational model on their societies. This republican, representative, and often federal model had emerged from the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. However, the contradiction between an archaic social and cultural structure and a modernizing political project was to produce political tensions in Latin America. One result of all this was the emergence of a vague and indeterminate political movement known as populism in the twentieth century. This seminar course redefines the populist phenomenon in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico as a "popular national policy" with elements common to all of Latin America. This course is taught in Spanish.

• Subject: Political Science
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: Spanish 300 or greater

Social Science

Argentina, Sociedad Abierta

This course examines key moments of transformation in Argentine society. The story begins with Argentina’s “Golden Age” when an agricultural export-led economy made it one of the richest countries in the world. Modern Argentina emerged in the years before the First World War through farming, technological innovation, foreign capital and massive European immigration. At the same time, immigration (from abroad and from the countryside) transformed Buenos Aires into a city of contrasts. However, the main focus of the course is on modern Argentina and the political, urban and cultural transformations arising out of Peronism. The course also explores resistance to repression under a series of military governments, the emergence of urban guerrillas and the breakdown of law and order leading to the military dictatorship of 1976-1983. Lastly, it examines new forms of social participation in the 21st Century: the recuperated factories and cooperatives and unemployed workers.

• Subject: Social Science
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: None

Estudios Culturales Argentinos

This course outlines the emergence of Argentina as a distinctive social, economic and political way of being. It also introduces the country’s regional cultures with their individual blends of Hispanic and indigenous native elements, showing that Argentina is much more than Buenos Aires. The mate tradition and the emblematic figure of the gaucho are discussed in detail together with traditional folk music and dancing. Then there is the impact of immigration on national identity, which was also to enrich the arts, literature, music and dance. Yet another focus of the course is on urban identity, including a case study of Buenos Aires. Finally we discuss the role played by tango as a symbol of passion in the River Plate region.

• Subject: Social Science
• Course Level: 300
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: None

Estudios Culturales Latinoamericanos

This course examines aspects of Argentine and Latin American culture with an emphasis on popular culture both written and visual. Taking its primary material from literature, newspapers, mural paintings and photographs, feature and documentary films, the course considers the notion of culture within a broad perspective, including the distinction between “high” and “low” culture. Students will improve their speaking and writing, as well as their listening and reading skills in Spanish as they achieve a deeper understanding of contemporary Latin American culture.

• Subject: Social Science
• Course Level: 200
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: None

Estudios de género en Latinoamérica

For historical, political and cultural reasons Gender Studies in Argentina began with controversies over sexual ambiguities and problems of genital ambiguity. Drawing on psychoanalysis and interdisciplinary studies as well as gender studies, this seminar explains the conceptual differences between sex, gender and sexual identities. Students are encouraged to explore old and new ways of addressing gender issues. The myths and customs of pre-Columbian cultures are introduced through ethnographic documents, anthropological accounts and films of archaeological discoveries. The process by which modern ideas and myths of masculinity have been formed is explored through anthropological approaches to such Argentine passions as football and tango. Current paradigms of womanhood, manhood and variations of love in men and women are questioned through an interesting selection of films, comic strips and journalistic records, as well as through short stories and novels by Latin American writers.

• Subject: Social Science
• Course Level: 400
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: Psychology

Ficiones Urbanas: las Ciudades Latinoamericanas

Taking Buenos Aires as a model, this seminar course deals with representations of Latin American cities from the nineteenth century to the present day. Over the past two hundred years, Buenos Aires has behaved almost like a nation, reacting against internal and external threats (farmers, immigration, and progress) and the fantasies of would-be Europeans and Latin Americanists alike. From The Great Village (La gran aldea, 1884) by Lucio V. López to The Woman who murdered Princess Diana (La asesina de Lady Di, 2005) by Alejandro Lopez, Buenos Aires has been an object of desire and rejection. Literature, poetry, film, music, photography and painting have all helped to shape, explain, mystify, condense, deny or encourage the city’s identity. We will study certain urban types - the dandies, tangueros, knife-fighters, immigrants, professionals and militants that arose in response to cultural adjustments. Finally, the course reflects on the urban experience of modernity in other Latin American cities which, like Buenos Aires, sometimes think of themselves as lying on the periphery of global culture and needing to construct an identity for themselves on the edge of the world.

• Subject: Social Science
• Course Level: 400
• Language: Spanish
• Contact Hours: 60
• Recommended Credits: 4
• Prerequisites: History