The Center offers a Master of Arts degree in Latin American Studies and also provides a Latin American minor for students earning a Master's or Ph.D. degree in one of the participating programs (Anthropology, Art and History of Art, Economics, History, Political Science, Sociology, and Spanish and Portuguese).
In addition, a certificate in Latin American Studies may be awarded with either a Master's or Ph.D. degree upon successful completion of 15 hours of course work and demonstration of language competence (Spanish, Portuguese, or an indigenous language of Latin America).
Latin American Studies Brochure.pdf
M.A. In Latin American Studies
The M.A. in Latin American Studies requires course work with a Latin American content or with subject matter that is closely related to the area. Candidates for the M.A. choose a thesis (24 semester hours plus thesis) or non-thesis (33 hours) option. Each option includes Latin American Studies 290 (an interdisciplinary seminar which focuses on research methodologies and the use of reference materials for Latin Americanists). Master’s degree candidates are expected to demonstrate language competence in Spanish, Portuguese, or an indigenous Latin American language. This means advanced proficiency in one of the three languages and intermediate proficiency in another.
Non-Thesis Option: 15 hours must be in a selected major discipline. An additional 9 hours must be in a second discipline, which will serve as the selected minor field. The remaining 9 hours must be in three additional courses with a Latin American content, wherever possible being selected from disciplines other than the major and minor fields.
Non-Thesis Option
15 hours – major field
9 hours – minor field
6 hours – additional fields
3 hours – LAS 290
33 hours (Total)
Thesis Option: 9 hours in additional fields. The student will write a thesis under the direction of a Center faculty member and with the collaboration of a second member of the faculty. There is no written or oral final examination for the M.A. degree, thesis or non-thesis.
Thesis Option
9 hours – major field
6 hours – minor field
6 hours – additional field
3 hours – LAS 290
24 hours (Total)
Joint Master of Arts and Master of Business Administration
For this program students apply both to Owen Graduate School of Management and the Center for Latin American Studies. The first year of study is devoted to the M.B.A. program (30 hours), the second year to course work in Latin American Studies (24 hours), and the final year is divided between M.B.A. studies and the writing of the Master's thesis for the M.A. degree. Interested students should contact both the Center for Latin American Studies as well as Owen Graduate School of Management.
Joint LL.M/M.A. Degree in Latin American Studies
Vanderbilt University has a joint degree program in Law and Latin American Studies (LL.M. / M. A. in Latin American Studies), which is structured as follows:
A student may enter the LL.M./M.A. in Latin American Studies joint degree program by being accepted by both the Law School and the Graduate School. The requirements for this program and the degree include:
11 hours course work in the Law School
24 hours course work in Latin American Studies
A thesis for 6 credit hours
Students will normally pursue their course work over the first three semesters, devoting the bulk of their time in the fourth semester of study to the completion of the thesis. Students will be enrolled in each school for two of the four semesters.
Certificate in Latin American Studies
The Center for Latin American Studies offers graduate students from different departments and schools at Vanderbilt the opportunity to complete a Certificate in Latin American Studies. The Certificate allows students to document their regional specialization by earning the Certificate, which is awarded in conjunction with their M.A. or Ph.D. The LAS Certificate also encourages graduate students to study outside of their disciplinary specialization.
The Certificate program requires a minimum of 15 hours of formal course work in Latin American Studies as listed in the Graduate Catalog. Course work must be spread over at least two disciplines, no more than 9 hours coming from any one discipline, although we strongly encourage students to take as wide of a range of courses as possible.
In addition, the Certificate requires demonstrated conversational or reading proficiency in Spanish, Portuguese, or an indigenous Latin American language. Proficiency may be demonstrated by 1) satisfactory completion of intermediate level course work in the language or 2) an oral or written exam to be administered by the Center. If a student chooses the second option, he/she should contact the Center well in advance to arrange an examination.
Students planning to complete the Certificate in Latin American Studies should declare their intent by contacting the Associate Director for Graduate Studies, Susan Berk-Seligson (susan.berk-seligson@vanderbilt.edu) at the Center for Latin American Studies.
Buttrick Hall 230
615-322-2527
Latin American Studies 4 + 1 M.A. Program
Requirements for admission to the program:
- Must have an undergraduate major in LAS (or in exceptional cases a closely related field with sufficient LAS content)
- Must have taken LAS 201 and LAS 290 during undergraduate years
- Must apply in the student’s junior year
Requirements beyond those for the B.A. to receive the 4 + 1 M.A.:
- Students must write a M.A. thesis (the non-thesis option is not available for 4 +1 students).
- Students must complete 18 hours of formal LAS coursework, the distribution of which will be established by the graduate advisor in consultation with the student.
- No independent study hours are allowed (except for thesis hours).
- Students must complete 9 hours of work during the summer after their senior year; we encourage students to take 6 hours of thesis research and 3 hours of formal coursework (although all 9 hours may be used for thesis work).
- Students must submit a completed thesis for defense and final approval by late March for May graduation.
Students considering the 4 + 1 program should consult with their LAS advisor as early as possible and make formal application to the program by the end of their junior year. An application consists of a letter of intent, a copy of college transcripts, and the names of two Vanderbilt faculty who could be consulted as references. Decisions on admission to the program will be decided by the Center’s Executive Committee.
Language Requirements
Master's degree candidates are expected to demonstrate language ability in Spanish, Portuguese, or an indigenous Latin American language; this means advanced ability in one of the three languages and intermediate ability in another.
Students combining a master's degree from a related discipline with a minor in Latin American studies select area courses as their minor and must fulfill the Center's language requirement of a reading and speaking knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese, or an indigenous Latin American language.
Doctoral candidates with a minor in Latin American studies must have a reading and speaking competence in Spanish, Portuguese, or an indigenous Latin American language and a technical reading knowledge of either of the other. The doctoral minor consists of not less than 15 hours, selected from area courses in two disciplines.
Why Learn Portuguese.pdf
Financial Aid
Fellowships and teaching assistantships are awarded each year on the basis of merit and promise. These provide a living stipend in addition to tuition and health insurance coverage. Applications for financial awards should be made at the time of application to the Graduate School.
Each year several Vanderbilt Honor Scholarships and University Graduate Fellowships are awarded to exceptional students entering graduate study. Honor scholarships provide stipends of $3,000 to $5,000 per year in addition to the regular fellowship or assistantship award. Such awards are renewable, provided the holders continue to fulfill the high promise for which they were chosen.
The Department of Education has designated CLAS as one of its Foreign Language and Area Studies Programs and funds five graduate fellowships annually, as well as summer travel to Brazil, Guatemala, and Mexico for intensive language training. Vanderbilt CLAS is also one of the select graduate programs approved by the U.S. Army for its Foreign Area Officer training.
Conferences, Seminars, and Visiting Scholars
The Center is actively involved in enrichment and outreach activities locally, nationally, and internationally. Faculty members and departments associated with the Center frequently sponsor special lectures and seminar discussions, and distinguished scholars and personalities from Latin America are invited to visit our campus annually.
Requests for graduate application forms may be sent to:
The Graduate School
411 Kirkland Hall
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN 37235 (USA)
These may also be downloaded or completed online.
CLAS Graduate Students, 2008-2009
Juri Bottura
Katie Chalk, from Cincinnati, Ohio, came to Vanderbilt to study Latin American economic and community development. Her passion for Latin America was awakened at an early age when she traveled to Costa Rica and fell in love with the region. After pursuing Spanish in high school, she attended Miami University and completed majors in Spanish, Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs, and Latin American Studies as well as a minor in Economics. Outside of the classroom, Katie has worked with Latino communities in Ohio through Living Water Ministry and with Community Refuge and Immigration Services.
Laura Delgado, from Houston, Texas, is in her fifth year at Vanderbilt. She attended Vanderbilt as undergraduate, double majoring in Spanish and Latin American Studies and studying K’iche’ Mayan. After graduating in May 2007, she decided to take a year off and spent a year in a small town in the Cádiz province of Andalusia, Spain, teaching English at a bilingual elementary school. As a student at CLAS, Laura is specializing in Portuguese with a minor in History. In her spare time she volunteers as a Spanish interpreter at the Siloam Health Clinic, a local volunteer-run free clinic supporting the immigrant community in Nashville.
LaKisha Grant
Andrew Larason completed his undergraduate degrees in Latin American Studies, Theatre Production and Spanish at the University of Delaware. Spending nearly five months in Cholula, Mexico heightened Andrew's interests in the Aztec culture, with a specific focus on the Aztec people's influence in regards to colonial interactions, institutions, and documents. Pursuing his curiosities of the indigenous cultures of Latin American brought Andrew to Vanderbilt University to study the Mayan civilization. During the summer of 2008, Andrew traveled to Nahuala, Guatemala to learn the K'iche' language and continues his language studies throughout this academic year. Currently, Andrew is working on a short film based upon the folklore of Nahuala and hopes to carry on combining his love of Latin American cultures and art in the years to come.
Matthew Layton, born and raised in New Jersey, received his B.A. in History and Politics from Washington & Lee University (Lexington, VA) in 2006. His interest in Latin America originated from his missionary service in Minas Gerais, Brazil from 2001-2003. He also spent a year in Manaus after graduation. His research interests include all things related to Brazil, but particularly Brazilian sub-national development and democratization. He plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Political Science upon completion of his M.A. degree in Latin American Studies.
Morgan Maxwell completed her B.S. in Psychology in 2008 at Howard University, where she minored in Spanish and Biology. Now a FLAS fellow in Latin American Studies, Morgan’s graduate studies will focus on Afro-Latino culture, specifically on identifying psychological aspects of racism in Latin America. Fascinated by the African diaspora cultures of South and Central America, she has studied abroad in Ecuador where she taught Afro-Ecuadorian children and encouraged them to respect African culture through exposure to music, writings, and achievements of people of African ancestry. Morgan has also served as a volunteer for Global Learning, a non-profit organization dedicated to education for justice in Nicaragua and has worked as a teacher at the Latin American Youth Center in Washington, DC.
Leslie McClure came to Nashville from Louisville, Kentucky in 2004 to attend Belmont University in the Honors Program. She double majored in Spanish and History and spent a semester abroad in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. A FLAS fellow, at Vanderbilt Leslie plans to study the impact of language and culture on various types of music in Latin America. Her love for languages, particularly Spanish and Portuguese, has had an enormous influence on Leslie beyond the academic realm, as she has played in a band with her father John McClure since she was 10 years old and is now composing music in these languages. When she returned from her semester abroad in Spain, they released their first album, The Santiago Set, and have played in multiple Nashville venues. Leslie and her father are currently working on another album that is an eclectic mix of English, Spanish and Portuguese, with instruments and rhythms borrowed from Americana folk and Latino music.
Laura Morgan, originally from Chesapeake, Virginia, earned her B.A. in Spanish and Latin American Studies at the University of Virginia in 2007. There, she mastered her ability to quote the university's founder: Thomas Jefferson. As he advised in 1787, "Spanish. Bestow great attention on this and endeavor to acquire an accurate knowledge of it. Our future connection with Spain and Spanish America will render that language a valuable acquisition." Taking this to heart, Laura studied one semester in Valencia, Spain and a separate semester in Lima, Peru at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Both of these experiences not only bolstered her interest in languages and literatures, but also encouraged her to research the Latin American system of higher education. While at Vanderbilt, Laura received a grant from the FIPSE-CAPES Exchange Program to take classes at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil and conduct research on Brazil's recently implemented racial and social quotas within the federal university system.
Major John Suggs
Major John Trylch is originally from Los Angeles California. He graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from Colorado State University in 1997, receiving a commission as a U.S. Army Officer that same year. Assigned to the United States Cavalry, for the next nine years John served in various positions and places, to include a Scout Platoon Leader in Bosnia-Herzegovina, a Plans Officer in Germany and a Company Commander in Iraq. In 2006, he left the Cavalry to become a Foreign Area Officer, specializing in Latin America. He has recently lived in Argentina and traveled extensively through the region. While at Vanderbilt University, John has studied history and politics, focusing on U.S. national security policy in Latin America. After graduation, John is scheduled to serve as the Chief of Operations in the U.S. Military Group in Guatemala. He is married and has one daughter.
Ty West is a doctoral student in Spanish and Portuguese and a FLAS fellow. Ty was born and raised in central California where the majority of his family still resides, but his interest in foreign languages began during a two month stay at an intensive language school in central Mexico in 2006. This experience sparked an extended journey that lasted the next nine years, during which he lived and traveled throughout Latin America, Europe and Africa working as an English teacher, waiter, farmhand and musician to fund his travels. Having developed a love for literature and languages through his travels, Ty returned to California to pursue a degree in literary studies in 2005 and received a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, Berkeley in May 2008. His current interests lie in Latin American narrative, especially the Mexican short story, and he plans to further cultivate an interest in Brazilian and culture while at Vanderbilt.
Major Jim Winland grew up in Northwest Indiana. He attended undergrad at the Unites States Military Academy at West Point, NY, graduating with a BS in French. His interest in learning about other cultures was born while on exchange from the Academy in France at the St. Cyr military academy. He spent three years in Vilseck, Germany as a tank platoon leader and as a company executive officer and commander of a logistics company, experiencing the many cultures of Europe in the process. He commanded a tank company in Tongducheon, South Korea and travelled in China, Thailand, Japan, and Australia. Switching career paths to be a Foreign Area Officer, he chose Latin America as his focus region, which brought him to Vanderbilt for his MA in Latin American Studies, majoring in Political Science and History and minoring in Spanish and Portuguese. He will complete his FAO training beginning in January of 2009 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil as a student at their army's staff college. The rest of his military career will be spent in various Latin America based assignments, as part of regional expert teams or as an attache to an ambassador in the region.
Chaz Yingling is a native of West Virginia. He holds a B.A. in History from Marshall University where he also earned minors in International Affairs and Geography and a certificate in Latin American Studies. He is currently working on a Master's thesis which will examine the Dominican intellectual and politican Juan Bosch and the political party he led (Partido Revolucionario Dominicano) from 1961-1966.
