SPAN 2111 - Introduction to Latin American Culture

North Terrace Campus - Semester 2 - 2020

This course is a general introduction to the cultures of Latin America. It is aimed at students with little or no knowledge of the region. Starting with a review of the major aboriginal cultures that existed in Latin America previous to the arrival of the Spaniards, we will proceed to explore the conquest of the American continent and the effects these events had in the shaping of Latin American culture and society. Enough time will be dedicated to the discussion of the process of nation building in the continent, including the struggle for independence and early revolutionary movements. The second half of the course will be dedicated completely to the study and discussion of 20th and 21st Century Latin America. Some of the topics will touch on the processes of decolonization that today are emerging in different Latin American countries. This course will be conducted in Spanish. Reading materials will be mostly in Spanish.

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Course Details

Course Code	SPAN 2111
Course	Introduction to Latin American Culture
Coordinating Unit	Spanish Studies
Term	Semester 2
Level	Undergraduate
Location/s	North Terrace Campus
Units	3
Contact	Up to 3 hours per week
Available for Study Abroad and Exchange	Y
Prerequisites	SPAN 2101
Assumed Knowledge	Basic oral & written knowledge of the Spanish language
Assessment	Participation 10%, Oral exchange 20%, Mid-term test 20%, 3000 word Essay 50%

Course Staff

Course Coordinator: Dr Sergio Holas

1Room 807, Napier Building
Phone: 8313 4744
sergio.holas@adelaide.edu.au

Consultation Hours: Tuesday 10 to 13:00 p.m.

Course Timetable

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

Lecture: Monday 12 to 14:00 p.m.; Napier 205
Seminar: Wednesday 11:00 to 12:00 p.m.; Napier 108

Learning Outcomes

Course Learning Outcomes

1) acquire an advanced knowledge and understanding of Latin American cultures and societes.

2) acquire the ability to independently use a variety of sources to further your understanding of Latin American discourses on "liberacion" and "decolonization".

3) To get an overview of the immense diversity of Latin American and Amerindians cultures throughout history.

4) To reach an understanding of the ways in which Latin American peoples/indigenous communities creatively decolonize and represent themselves under different and continuous processes of colonization.

5) To reach an understanding of the situated nature of knowledge.

6) To have a strong conceptual and systemic foundation to further study in the area of Latin American Studies.

7) To further develop the capacity to write reports and oral presentations on Latin American theme.

8) To gain the ability to work collaboratively with their peers and to communicate effectively with them.

9) To further learn how to make effective use of the internet resources when doing research on Latin American cultures.

10) To be able to critically appreciate the cultural richness of Latin American cultures.

11) to be able to appreciate the "mestizo" character of Latin American cultural producctions.

University Graduate Attributes

No information currently available.
Learning Resources

Required Resources

All of your readings for SPAN 2111 Introduction to Latin American Cultures are on the www. In the following Required Readings list you will find all the texts you will need to prepare yourselves prior to your lectures and workshops/seminars.

Required Readings

Week 2:

Wearne, Philip, "Before Columbus", Return of the Indian. Conquest and Revival in the Americas. London: Cassell & LAB, 1996, pp. 32-60.

Week 3:

Dussel, Enrique, "Conference 1. Eurocentrism". (pp. 18-25)
Download full book from Enrique Dussel web page https://enriquedussel.com/Libros-ED.html
Accessed 10/07/2020

Dussel, Enriquie, "Conference 4. The Spiritual Conquest. Toward the Encounter Between Two Worlds?", (pp. 49-62).

Weeks 4 & 5:

Quijano, Anibal, "Colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y America Latina. Available at:
http://www.bibliotecavirtual.clacso.org.ar/ar/libros/lander/quijano.rtf
Accessed 10/07/2020

Week 6:
Paz, Octavio, The sons of La Malinche.
Available at: http://chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/lessons/lessons6/lessons6.php?s=8
Accessed 20/07/2020

Week 7:
Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, "Forging of a Nation". México profundo. Reclaiming a Civilization. (pp. 94-107)

Week 8:

José Martí, "Our America."
Available at: http://www.biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/subida/clacso/osal/uploads/20140310040752/Marti.pd
Accessed 20/07/2020

Week 9:
Conferencia Dr. Enrique Dussel - Transmodernidad.
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7IYcSmeDjY
Accessed 20/07/2020

Week 10:
Menchu Tum, Rigoberta,, "La diversidad cultural es el espejo de la diversidad natural". Available at:
Available at: http://wwwactualidadetnica.com/opinion/columnistas/1230-por-rigoberta-menchu.html
Accessed 20/07/2020

Week 11:
Nueva Ley Marco de la Madre Tierra y desarrollo integral para vivir bien. (Estado Plurinacional de la República de Bolivia).
https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user-upload/FAO-countrioes/Bolivia/docs/Ley-300-.pdf
Accessed 20/072020

Online Learning

Other Learning Resources.

a. Latin American Network Information center, University of Texas:
http://lanic.utexas.edu/la/region/history/

Vast internet resources on countries, economy, education, government, media, culture, communication, science, society, and many other aspects. In English, Portuguese and Spanish.

b. Library of Congress - Hispanic reading Room:
http://www.loc.gov.rr/hispanic/

The primary access point for research to the Caribbean, Latin America, and Iberia; the indigenous cultures of those areas; and peoples throughout the world historically influenced by Luso-Hispanic heritage, including Latinos in the US, and peoples of Portuguese or Spanish heritage in Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

c. Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales. CLACSO.
http://www.clacso.org.ar/inicio/inicio.php?idioma=esp

Vast internet resources on Social Sciences and the Arts.

Learning & Teaching Modes

Lectures supported by problem-solving seminars which develop the lecture material.

Workload

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

1 x 2-hour lecture (or equivalent) per week	24 hours per semester
1 x 1-hour seminar (or equivalent) per week	12 hours per semester
6 hours reading per week	72 hours per semester
2 hours research per week	24 hours per semester
2 hours assignment preparation per week	24 hours per semester
TOTAL WORKLOAD	156 hours per semester

Learning Activities Summary

Schedule
Week 1	Introduction
Week 2	Lecture: Worlds Before Columbus: Anahuac and Tahantinsiyu. Seminar reading: Philip Wearne, "Before Columbus". Available in CANVAS, module week 2.
Week 3	Lecture: How Europe was constructed & its effects in its peripheries. Seminar reading & discussion paper: Enrique Dussel, "Conference 4. The Spiritual Conquest. Toward the Encounter Between Two Worlds?".
Week 4	Lecture: How Europe was constructed & its effects in its periphery. Seminar reading & discussion paper: Anibal Quijano, Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism and America Latina." Part I. Available in CANVAS, module weeks 4 & 5
Week 5	Lecture: What "coloniality of power" means? What are its effects? Seminar reading & discussion paper: Anibal Quijano, "Colonialidad del poder, eurocentrismo y America". PART II.
Week 6	Lecture: What "coloniality of power" means? What are its effects? Seminar reading & discussion paper: Octavio Paz, "The Sons of La Malinche". Available in CANVAS, module week 6. Monday 31 August: Entregar Bibliografía Anotada.
Week 7	Lecture: Independence. Seminar reading & discussion paper: Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, "Forging a Nation. México profundo. Reclaiming a Civilization. (pp. 94-107) Available in CNVAS, module week 7.
Week 8	Lecture: José Martí and "Our America". Seminar reading & discussion paper: José Martí, "Our America".
Week 9	Lecture: NO HAY CLASES (Labour Day) Seminar reading & discussion paper: Conferencia Dr. Enrique Dussel - Transmodernidad.
Week 10	Lecture: Processes of decolonization in Latin America. Seminar reading & discussion paper: Rigoberta Menchu Tum, "La diversidad cultural espejo de la diversidad natural."
Week 11	Lecture: Processes of decolonization in today's Latin America. Seminar reading & discussion paper: Nueva Ley Marco de la Madre Tierra y desarrollo integral para vivir bien.
Week 12	Lecture: Processes of decolonization, transmodernity and pluriversality.

Small Group Discovery Experience

All activities in the classroom are organised in small groups aimed at discovering new cultural values & language realities of the Latin American speaking worlds. The student must aim at being open and sensible to the perspectives of others. In other words: a key requisite for this course is allowing self to open up to other realities through being able to read self assumptions clouding self.

The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
Assessment must maintain academic standards.

Assessment Summary

Assessment summary

Assessment Task                    Task Type                    Weighting          Learning Outcome

Participation                   (Formative & Summative)            10%                  1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Anotated bibliography   (Formative & Summative)       30%            1, 2, 5, 6
Seminar paper            (Formative & Summative)            20%                  1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Essay                             (Summative)                                40%                  1, 2, 4, 6
_________________________________________________________________________
TOTAL                                                                                100%

Assessment Detail

Assessment Detail.

a. Anotated bibliography.

This exercise requires you to choose one of the texts set for study and to locate 3 scholarly articles about it. For each of this articles you need to:

a.1. provide full bibliography details;
a.2. provide a 50 words account of the argument developed in the article (no critical appraisal required, just a shor account of what the author has tried to argue);
a.3. identify and make a list of the 5 key words (concepts) for each of the 3 articles.

b. Seminar paper.

A reading/text from the list of readings for your seminarwill be the one you need to prepare in advance of your seminar. Before your seminar reading oral presentation you need contact the other student who also have nominated to it. Collectivelly, you will device 6 questions (3 each) that will form the basis for discussion in seminar group. Keep the question straightforward. At the seminar, the class will be divided into 2 gruops and each of you will act as a speaker for the group. Your questions will be discussed in your group in turn, and each group will then report to the class on its findings.

Your seminar paper is based on what takes place during the conversations on topic in the seminar. You must devote the first 40% of the word count to summing up the main ideas that emerged during the workshop. The reminder of the seminar should be your own analysis of what you see as the major issues that need to be considered in order to understand the specific text. The due date for the seminar paper is the week after the workshop presentation and discussion).

c. Essay

Full detail info about the Essay will be included in your Course Outline. The Subnittion date is 2nd of November week 13th.

Submission

Submission will be the day of your workshop.

Deadlines

Students are formally notified of essay deadlines well in advance of the due date. Essays handed in after the due date will incur a penalty of 5% deduction per working day, unless an extension has been granted. Essay submitted one week or more after the due date will not be marked. Extensions will only be granted on mediacl grounds (medical certificate required) or in docvumented cases of hardship. Extensions must be requested from the Course Coordinator well in advance of the due date.

Course Grading

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
Grade	Mark	Description
FNS		Fail No Submission
F	1-49	Fail
P	50-64	Pass
C	65-74	Credit
D	75-84	Distinction
HD	85-100	High Distinction
CN		Continuing
NFE		No Formal Examination
RP		Result Pending

Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

Student Feedback

The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.
Student Support
Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
Fraud Awareness

Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student’s disciplinary procedures.

The University of Adelaide is committed to regular reviews of the courses and programs it offers to students. The University of Adelaide therefore reserves the right to discontinue or vary programs and courses without notice. Please read the important information contained in the disclaimer.

Authorised by:	Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic)
Maintained by:	Course Outlines Administrator