MPhil in Latin American Studies

MPhil Latin American Studies

This is a twenty-one-month programme which spans six academic terms, plus a field work project in Latin America (up to 3 months). 

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This programme allows students to develop an individual research project informed by interdisciplinary teaching at the LAC and a period of fieldwork in Latin America. The programme is ideally suited to those students considering an academic or research-focused career, and is an excellent training for a doctoral degree. Find out more about our current MPhil students and their experiences here.

In their first year, students on this programme will join classes in the various disciplines taught at the LAC (including History, Politics, Geography, International Relations and Economics), and will be asked to submit two portfolios of essays on subjects of their choice. The classes taught may emphasise the specific features of individual countries, but there is also broad comparative coverage of major trends such as authoritarianism and democracy, the economic cycle, the effect of international factors, the evolution of the Left and Right, revolutionary movements, and the effects of neo-liberal economic models. Students will also take a Research Methods course in their first year.

Students will receive a number of tutorials to review their academic progress and preparations for their fieldwork research. Students must pass three courses (two of which must be disciplinary courses) in order to qualify for entry on to the second year of the programme. 

The five disciplinary courses are: 

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  • Latin America since Independence
  • Introduction to the Latin American Economies
  • Environmental Geography of Latin America
  • The International Relations of Latin America
  • The Politics of Democracy in Latin America

The number of optional courses on offer vary from year to year. Those for 2025-26 are: 

  • Andean Politics 
  • The Politics of Brazil
  • Roman Catholicism in Latin America
  • Histories of Inequality: Race and Racism in Latin America

In the second year, students complete a 30,000 word thesis. The thesis is an in-depth research project, and will train students to apply theory to empirical study of their selected topic. A list of past thesis titles is available here. Hear more from our MPhil students about their research projects. Students will take two further courses in their second year, or by agreement with the relevant department, take a methodology or other papers from an appropriate MPhil in another discipline at Oxford University. 

A lively programme of LAC seminars and conferences with visiting speakers complements the MPhil programme, and students are encouraged to make the most of these opportunities to meet with and learn from fellow Latin Americanists.

For any queries regarding the application process please contact enquiries@lac.ox.ac.uk

Watch our 'Why Study Latin American Studies at Oxford?' video to get a flavour of LAC student life.

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LAC Disciplinary Courses

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Course provider

Professor Eduardo Posada-Carbó

Email: eduardo.posada-carbo@lac.ox.ac.uk

Course aims and objectives

This course aims at providing students with a general understanding of the modern history of Latin America since independence; familiarizing them with some of the key debates in the academic literature; and enabling them to engage with their subject in a scholarly manner, both in their writings and in class discussion, and to relate the history of the region to other disciplines in the social sciences.

Course description

The course covers a selection of major themes, either generally applied to the whole region or to individual countries. The topics covered include: independence; problems of state and nation building; liberalism and state-church relations; the abolition of slavery in Brazil; the export economy and immigration in Argentina; the Porfirian regime and the Mexican revolution; elections and democratization; relations with the United States and the Cuban revolution.

Course structure

The course is taught in Michaelmas Term through a series of eight seminars. Students are expected to attend and actively participate in the seminars, to which they are required to contribute with at least one presentation. Covering at least the ‘core readings’ in advance is a requirement to attend the seminars.  Students are also required to write two essays, to be submitted by the end of weeks 3 and 6.

Students are also expected to attend the Latin American History Seminar (Thursdays, 5:00 p.m.), and other seminars organized by the LAC and the University, especially those on topics directly relevant to the course.

Course assessment

An online open-book examination in Trinity Term. Students will be given the exam paper two days before the due date for submission (Weeks 6-8 of Trinity Term). Candidates will answer three questions per paper out of a possible ten to twelve options.

 

Course provider

Dr Felipe Krause

Email: felipe.krause@lac.ox.ac.uk

Course aims and objectives

This course explores the economic trajectory of Latin America along with the main challenges faced by the region from a historical and comparative perspective. In doing so, we use concepts and theories from economics, political economy and development studies, to discuss how policy and economic models have changed over the last century. We look at how the political economy of the region has been modified by both external shocks and internal factors. We will pay attention to how the former have influenced the latter, but also to how and why domestic choices were made, and what their long-term effects have been. While the course is centred around the overall regional patterns and trends, we do consider the differences and commonalities between individual country-cases.

Our central goal is to understand why the region has struggled to achieve structural change and reduce inequalities, discussing how these and other challenges continue to hamper development across the region. To conduct our discussions, we will adopt a political economy framework, which emphasises the interplay between the state, political-economic actors and economic structure.

Course requirements

Unmarked assessments: Students taking this paper can expect to write at least two essays and undertake other individual and group activities. The essays will be around 2000 words and the questions should be agreed in advance. The essays will be discussed in group tutorials (times and days to be agreed). Essays form part of the overall assessment of the student’s progress but do not count towards the final mark for the course.

Course structure

The course is taught in Michaelmas Term through a series of eight two-hour seminars. Students will prepare for each class through a combination of core readings and other suggested material. Each student will also be expected to attend a group tutorial.  

Course assessment

An online open-book examination in Trinity Term. Students will be given the exam paper two days before the due date for submission (Weeks 6-8 of Trinity Term). Candidates will answer three questions per paper out of a possible ten to twelve options.

 

Course provider 

Dr Gregory M. Thaler

Email: gregory.thaler@lac.ox.ac.uk

Course description

This course introduces key themes and debates in Latin American environmental geography through critical engagements with extractivism. Extractivism has become a master concept for discussing environment and development in Latin America, but scholars and activists differ on what extractivism entails and how it should be addressed. This course will explore environmental concerns to show how Latin American politics, economics, and society are inseparable from Latin American ecologies, and perspectives from environmental geography can illuminate the position of Latin America in global human and environmental systems.

Course objectives

Through engagements with diverse voices from the region and beyond, the course offers a focused examination of extractivisms, resistances, and alternatives that gives students a foundation for scholarship and action in environmental geography and Latin American studies.

Course structure

This course consists of eight lectures and eight seminars and tutorials.

Course assessment

An online open-book examination in Trinity Term. Students will be given the exam paper two days before the due date for submission (Weeks 6-8 of Trinity Term). Candidates will answer three questions per paper out of a possible ten to twelve options.

Course provider

Dr Laura Trajber Waisbich

Email: laura.trajberwaisbich@lac.ox.ac.uk

Course aims and objectives

The course provides students with a general understanding of the international politics of Latin America from 1945 onwards, and particularly since the end of the Cold War. Students will develop an understanding of the major theories of international relations and learn to use these theoretical frameworks to systematically analyze international politics and events across the region. Students will also become proficient in studying theoretical frameworks self-sufficiently together with the search and collection of empirical evidence underpinning their analysis and argumentation.

Course description

The course examines the international relations of Latin America. The first four weeks cover

an introduction to the international relations and foreign policy in Latin America, traditional international relations concerns, such as the evolution of the bilateral relations of the Latin American states with the United States and with other extra-regional powers (Europe, China); regional integration, coordination, and cooperation dynamics; and the participation of Latin American states at the United Nations. The last four weeks discuss thematic “intermestic”/cross-border issues in contemporary Latin American international relations, including human rights, democracy, and development; new wars, intrastate conflicts, and transnational organised crime; migration and environmental politics. Students will become familiar with the broad historical development of the international relations of the region, as well as the major theoretical perspectives and analytical approaches that are relevant to the field.

Course structure

The course is taught in Michaelmas Term. Students will attend 105-minute-long lectures on Mondays from 2pm-3.45pm. The first essay will be discussed in group tutorials (during Week 5).

Course requirements

Students who want to present themselves for examination in Trinity must write at least two 2,000-word essays. The first essay must be submitted by 9 am Monday of Week 5 and the second essay must be submitted by 9 am Monday of Week 9. The essays should be based on past exam paper questions or on a question set in consultation with the course provider. Students are free in the choice of the topic and should present a theoretically guided and empirically-sound systematic analysis. Essays form part of the overall assessment of the student’s progress but do not count towards the final mark for the course.

Course assessment

  • Regular attendance, preparation of the weekly readings, and active participation in seminar discussions;
  • Delivery of a 7-10 minute long presentation on a key-concept;
  • Submission of two written essays of no more than 2000 words;
  • Critical discussion of another student’s essay during tutorials;
  • Submission of a written review of the essay discussed during tutorials;

An online open-book examination in Trinity Term. Students will be given the exam paper two days before the due date for submission (Weeks 6-8 of Trinity Term). Candidates will answer three questions per paper out of a possible ten to twelve options.

Course provider

Professor Eduardo Posada-Carbó

Course aims and objectives

This course offers a historically grounded, area studies approach to the politics of Latin America. In particular, it aims at enabling students to understand the processes of democratization in the region from the late 1970s; to be acquainted with key themes in the academic debates and the related relevant literature; and to enable students to engage with their subject in a scholarly manner, both in their writings and their class discussions.

Course description

The course comprises a combination of the analysis of general themes with the examination of single aspects or problems of democratization in individual countries. The topics covered include: Democracy and Political Culture; Transitions to Democracy; the Rule of Law and Security; Presidentialism; Parties and Congresses; Elections; the Media and Public Opinion; Populism; Democratic Performance; and Attitudes Towards Democracy.

Course structure

The course is taught in Hilary Term through a series of eight seminars. Students are expected to attend and actively participate in the seminars, to which they are required to contribute with at least one presentation. Covering at least the ‘core readings’ in advance is a requirement to attend the seminars. Students are also required to write two essays, to be submitted by the end of weeks 3 and 6 of Hilary Term.

Students are also expected to attend the general Latin American Seminar, and other seminars organized by the LAC and the University, especially those on topics directly relevant to the course.

Course assessment

An online open-book examination in Trinity Term. Students will be given the exam paper two days before the due date for submission (Weeks 6-8 of Trinity Term). Candidates will answer three questions per paper out of a possible ten to twelve options.

LAC Option Courses

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Course convener

Professor Laurence Whitehead and Dr John Crabtree

Course aims and objectives

This course examines the main public policy issues at stake in the contemporary Andes (such as democratic experimentation; populism and the backlash against it; institutional design and weak institutionality; extractivism; rule/unrule of law; indigenous politics and decoloniality, etc).  It takes Bolivia and Peru as the key reference points, but extending coverage to the neighbouring Andean republics where appropriate. The depth of historical background required will depend upon the issue, a comparative perspective on all topics will be encouraged. 

Course description

The course covers a selection of major issues that have defined the politics of both countries in the wider comparative perspective of the Andean region, in the case of Peru from the military government (1968-80) onwards, and in the case of Bolivia from the aftermath of the 1952 revolution. Topics will include democratisation, political violence, social movements, the activities of political parties, institutional weaknesses/reform, elites, the narcotics industry, the military, amongst others.

Course structure

The course will be taught in Hilary term. In principle, there will be eight classes, with students expected to write at least two essays of no more than 2,000 words, and to provide oral presentations on a topic of their choice. A general reading list will be supplied as well as reading lists on the essay topics that students choose to select.

Course assessment

A 5000-word extended essay assessment (excluding bibliography).

Course provider

Dr Gregory M. Thaler

Email: gregory.thaler@lac.ox.ac.uk

Course aims and objectives

This course explores politics and society in contemporary Brazil. A country of tremendous diversity and extraordinary regional and global influence, Brazil presents a political landscape that is at once uniquely Brazilian, and also emblematic of broader trends across Latin America and the Global South. In this course, we examine different dimensions of Brazil’s recent political and social history, giving students deeper and more contextualized understandings of some of the most important political and social processes in Latin America today.

Course description

The course is structured around different themes in Brazilian politics, blending deep dives into Brazilian reality with scholarship that places Brazil in comparative perspective. Interacting with multiple Brazilian and Brazilianist scholars in their areas of expertise, students will acquire diverse perspectives for thinking about, researching, and engaging with Brazilian politics and society.

Course structure

The course will be organised as a series of eight sessions of 90 minutes each, combining lecture and seminar formats. Students are expected to complete all required readings in advance of class, to participate actively in class discussions and activities, and to write two formative essays of no more than 2000 words each on topics agreed with the course convener.

Course assessment

A 5000-word extended essay assessment (excluding bibliography).

Course provider

Dr Daniel McDonald

Email: daniel.mcdonald@history.ox.ac.uk

Course aims and objectives

This course examines the history of Roman Catholicism in modern Latin America. It draws on a dynamic interdisciplinary literature that explores how conflicts within Catholicism interacted with regional, national, and sub-national developments across the twentieth century. This course asks students to explore the interplay between the transnational institutional Roman Catholic Church and an equally global faith tradition as well as political, social, and cultural developments in the region home to the most Catholics in the world.

Course description

This course combines an analysis of general themes within the history of modern Catholicism in Latin America with examination of specific issues or case studies grounded in individual countries. The topics covered include: Church-state relations, layperson and political movements from Catholic Action to the base communities (CEBs), Christian Democracy, Catholic developmentalism, Latin America’s role in the Second Vatican Council, the Council of Medellín, the Cold War, liberation theology, human rights, and inter-faith relations. 

Course structure

The course will be taught in Michaelmas Term as a series of eight 1.5 hour seminars.  Students are expected to attend and actively participate in the seminars having covered the assigned readings in advance of the session. Sessions will primarily consist of seminar-style discussions but will include regular lecture components. One of the sessions will reserve time for student presentations on one of their essays. Students must complete the two tutorial essays and a 15-minute class presentation.

Course assessment

A 5000-word extended essay assessment (excluding bibliography).

Course provider

Dr Jessica A. Fernandez de Lara Harada

Course aims and objectives

This course examines the legacies of empire, colonialism and racism and related processes of racialised incorporation and exclusion in Latin America in historical perspective. It encourages us to consider the historical role played by these durable systems of power in hierarchically structuring Latin American societies and reproducing patterns of privilege and exclusion from full equality, citizenship and human rights in several contrasting case studies from the wars of independence until c. 1950. More generally, the course considers the ideological, institutional and practical construction of ‘racial states’ throughout Latin America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Course description

The course is organised thematically and chronologically beginning with key concepts, approaches and debates, followed by case studies about race and slavery in processes of independence; liberal ideas and policies towards the indigenous in mid to late nineteenth century; the adoption, adaptation and production of pseudo-scientific racism; the impact of racial ideas and practices on immigration policy, racial thought about desirable and undesirable immigrants, and racial selection in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; discourses about the “Indian” produced by early twentieth century Latin American intellectuals in Mesoamerica and the Andes; ‘the myth of racial democracy’ in Brazil and Cuba; and the construction of whiteness in the Southern Cone.

Course structure

The course will be taught in Hilary term over eight classes. will be required to write two essays in preparation for the exams and will receive feedback through comments on their submitted papers. Students are expected to attend all the seminars, complete the required reading and come prepared to participate with two comments and questions on the assigned readings to discuss in the seminars.

Course assessment

A 5000-word extended essay assessment (excluding bibliography).