Courses are held in German, Spanish, Portuguese and English. Participants can choose to write their term papers and their Master's theses in any of these languages.
The application period for the MA in Interdisciplinary Latin American Studies for the winter semester starts on 15 April and ends on 15 August each year.
https://www.fu-berlin.de/en/studium/bewerbung/frist-master/index.html
The dates indicated on the main pages of the Freie Universität Berlin website regarding the application period are binding.
Applicants are recommended to check out the homepage of the study programme for further current information.
The Master's programme is modularised, with each module comprising two courses. It consists of a core area of studies, an area of specialisation (study tracks) and an elective area (SPO 2013).
The core area of study caters to the development and tackling of current interdisciplinary questions and the consolidation of knowledge about Latin America. Furthermore, students are expected to gain specific theoretical and methodological knowledge and abilities necessary to conduct academic research on the topics covered by the Master's topics. The students’ choice of one of the offered tracks fosters a deepening of their understanding of one of the four disciplinary areas.
Students can choose one of the following study tracks:
Study track A: Representation and Entanglement
Questions of representation and entanglement are of central importance for the processes of societal transformation and cultural dynamics in Latin America. They are based on societal heterogeneity and structures of power. In this track, students will examine actor, image and discourse-led actions in the past and present. At the same time, the culturally diverse Latin American academic traditions and epistemic productions are dealt with alongside the specialist traditions of historiography, and literary and cultural studies. Representations and entanglement with their transregional and constantly changing dimensions will be analysed on the basis of theoretical and methodological approaches. The research in this track is informed by the close connection between the approaches of history, social and cultural anthropology, and Latin American literature and cultural studies.
Study track B: Transformation and Development
In this track, students examine the complex processes of societal change and cultural dynamics that characterise the development of Latin American societies. Their complex inclusion in transregional and national processes as well as in global structures in the past and present is a key topic. Hereby, a particular focus is laid on the perception of Latin America as a “continent in crisis” and at the same time a “laboratory of modernity”.
Study track C: Brazil in a Global Context: Literature, Culture and Society
Brazil plays a special role in Latin America due to its geographical size and cultural diversity, its own language and specific historical formation. This track aims at improving the students’ understanding of Brazil and the Caribbean based on the study of social and economic processes, cultural dynamics and the country’s evolution in a regional and global context.
Study track D: Gender Relations, Ways of Life, Transformations
This track offers the foundation for the understanding of historical and contemporary gender relations in Latin America while taking into consideration the theoretical and methodological approaches of interdisciplinary gender studies. Against the backdrop of gender-specific problems that account for the socio-economic and cultural heterogeneity of Latin America, this track focuses on questions of democratisation and violence (i.e. developmental policy, law and public spheres, social movements, ways of life and praxes), interculturality (ethnicity, hybridity and transnationalism), and representations (body and discourse).