Latin American Studies

Minor

Knox College offers a minor in Latin American studies through an interrelated array of courses about a group of nations that are our neighbors, whose economics are intertwined with our own, and whose people have immigrated to the United States in large numbers, ultimately making Spanish our de facto second language.

The program raises a multiplicity of questions—about culture, power, ecology, history, literature, art, and language. Compared to a world-wide focus, engagement with these questions within a specific geographic area can lead to a deeper understanding of a region important to the United States and worthy of study in its own right.

The Program
The minor in Latin American Studies is designed to help students better understand, and act in, an increasingly interconnected world. Through courses and a final integrating project, students gain an appreciation of the culture, history, politics, economics, and literature of the region. Students explore the range of dilemmas that face all of Latin America, as well as the diversity of Latin American countries, whose linguistic, ethnic, cultural and political differences are sometimes as great as their similarities.

The minor is appropriate for students in a variety of majors. Scientists with an interest in environmental issues can benefit from an understanding of social issues that shape the debate over degradation of the region's rainforests. Social science majors can expand their understanding of political and cultural factors that shape economic development in countries whose economies are increasingly integrated with that of the United States. Educational studies students can gain knowledge that will assist in their teaching U.S. students from diverse backgrounds, increasing numbers of whom are immigrants from Latin America or of Latin American descent.

Resources
Coordinated by the Modern Languages Department, the Center for Language and Culture Studies (also known as "the language lab") includes state-of-the-art audio, video and computer facilities that provide new avenues for learning. Watching foreign movies or recordings and listening to themselves speak are just a few of the learning activities made possible for students at the Center.