Student Learning Goals

Students who complete a minor in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies will:

Knowledge

• Gain an understanding of the many kinds of diversity of the Americas (North, South, Central, Caribbean) from the ancient to the modern.
• Learn about Latin American, Caribbean, and Latina/o/e/x contributions to the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences.
• Understand the role of settler colonization, European and non-European peoples, values, and forces in shaping contemporary Latin American/Latina/o/e/x societies as well as U.S. perceptions of the Caribbean and Latin and Latinx America.
• Refine existing understanding and/or create new knowledge by identifying and formulating a question or series of questions about Latin and Latinx America that will facilitate its investigation.

Intellectual Skills and Practice

• Be able to evaluate current issues and contexts from interdisciplinary perspectives (e.g., historical, political, economic, cultural, linguistic, and artistic).
• Make connections between and appreciate how different social science and humanities disciplines and methodologies shape understanding of the Caribbean and Latin and Latinx America.
• Develop knowledge and skills to be able to identify and challenge preconceptions as well as to think critically about a complex, dynamic region, whether as a whole and by studying and/or comparing its constituent communities.
• Develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, including choosing appropriate qualitative and/or quantitative research methods and being able to identify their limitations.
• Analyze Caribbean and Latin and Latinx American societies in local, regional, global, anti-racist, and/or social justice contexts.
• Integrate and apply understanding of the Caribbean and Latin and Latinx America through internship, study abroad, and/or research projects.
• Understand how Caribbean and Latin American governments and societies see the United States and their own regional, hemispheric, and global connections.

Information Literacy

• Use appropriate research methods to find academic and popular literature; find and access current and historical resources.

Visual Literacy

• Use a variety of visual modes to analyze, display, and communicate information about the Caribbean and Latin and Latinx America, including audio and visual still and time-based media, and data visualization such as charts and graphs. Create clear, appealing presentations that effectively summarize research.
• Effective oral and written descriptive and persuasive communication.
• Work collaboratively across disciplinary and other differences.