Partial Course List for the CAS in Latin America and the Caribbean (PLACA)

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Last updated: Feb 15, 2022 by
Havva Karakas-Keles
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Graduate students in any discipline can receive a Certificate of Advanced Study in Latin America and the Caribbean, which is recognized by the State of New York. Students must complete 12 credits of coursework in: 

  • Any of the suggested courses below from list I.
  • Any courses below from list II should be accompanied by some research focus on Latin America/Caribbean (Example - some of course syllabus dedicated to Latin America and main paper written on a Latin American country).

For a course to be eligible for use toward the certificate, the Director of the Certificate Program, Professor Gail Bulman (gabulman@syr.edu), must agree that its Latin American and/or Caribbean content, composed of the syllabus and accompanying research, is at least 33% of overall course content.

This list is by no means comprehensive  

I. ILLUSTRATIVE LIST OF COURSES VALID FOR PLACA CERTIFICATE, WITH 33% OR MORE LATIN AMERICAN AND/OR CARIBBEAN CONTENT

  • ANT 623 Effects of Globalization in Latin America*
  • ANT 627 Brazil: Anthropological Perspectives
  • ANT 627 Caribbean Archaeology 
  • ANT 657 Anthropology of Race in Latin America and the Caribbean
  • EFB 500 Brazilian Amazon
  • EFB 522 Environment, Resources and Development 
  • EFB 796 Ecology and Conservation in the Tropics 
  • FOR 523 Tropical Ecology
  • FOR 796 Agroforestry
  • GEO 500 Topics in Geography: Development and Sustenance in Latin America 
  • GEO 720 Seminar in Latin America
  • HST 700 Selected Topics: Latin America Studies Seminar 
  • HST 725 Readings and Research in Latin American History 
  • LAS 520 Research on Latin America 
  • LAS 523 Culture Change in Latin America 
  • PAI 600 Selected Topics: Contemporary U.S.-Mexico Relations**
  • PAI 700 Current Issues in US-Latin American Relations 
  • PSC 780 Latin American Politics 
  • SOC 645 / WGS 645/ AAS 645 The Caribbean: Sex Workers, Transnational Capital, and Tourism 
  • SPA 600 Selected Topics: Latinos in Literature and Film*
  • SPA 601 Literary Theory and Research Methods
  • SPA 655 Caribbean Spaces*
  • SPA 662 Latin American Colonial Culture 
  • SPA 663 Latin American Theater 
  • SPA 664 19th Century Latin American Literature 
  • SPA 665 Performance and Postmodernism in Latin America 
  • SPA 672 Gay and Lesbian Hispanic Caribbean Literature 
  • SPA 673 Afro-Hispanic Literature of the Caribbean 
  • SPA 674 Cuban Neo-Baroque 
  • SPA 678 Latin American Literature in the New Millennium* 
  • SPA 679 The Literature of Postmodernism in Latin America 
  • SPA 685 Contemporary Spanish-American Literature 
  • WGS 671 Latin American Literature and Feminist Theory 


II. REFERENTIAL LIST OF COURSES VALID FOR PLACA CERTIFICATE

These courses should be accompanied by some research focus on Latin American/Caribbean issues to make sure that they have at least 33% Latin American/Caribbean content.

  • AAS 600 Race and Gender in Latin America: Comparative Perspectives 
  • AAS 611 Arts, Cultures, and Literature of the Pan African World 
  • AAS 612 Histories, Societies, and Political Economies of the Pan African World 
  • AAS 620 Black Women Writers: African American/Caribbean/African 
  • ANT 614 Cities, Spaces and Power* 
  • ANT 616 Political Anthropology 
  • ANT 641 Anthropological Archaeology 
  • ANT 645 Public Policy and Archaeology 
  • ANT 647 Archaeology of North America 
  • ANT 655 Culture and AIDS
  • ANT 672 Language, Culture, and Society 
  • ANT 679 Anthropology of Global Transformations 
  • ANT 683 Social Movement Theory 
  • ANT 707 Culture in World Affairs 
  • ANT 741 Archaeological Theory 
  • ANT 756 Development Anthropology 
  • BUA 555 World Business Systems: Trade and Investments 
  • BUA 556 International Human Resource Management 
  • CAS 611 Living in a Global Environment 
  • ECN 556 Comparative Medical Care Economics 
  • ECN 655 Economics of Health and Medical Care 
  • ECN 661 Economics of Development 
  • ECN 662 Public Finance in Developing Areas 
  • ENS 696 Selected Topics: Wetlands Policy 
  • ENS 707 Environmental Science Seminar
  • ENS 797 Reading in Urban Ecology 
  • GEO 561 Global Economic Geography 
  • GEO 563 The Urban Condition 
  • GEO 606 Development and Sustainability 
  • GEO 772 Seminar: Cultural Geography*
  • GEO 755 Seminar in Political Ecology 
  • GEO 815 Seminar in Urban Geography 
  • GEO 870 Seminar in Population Geography 
  • EAR 603 Geomorphology 
  • HST 645 History of International Relations
  • LIN 671 Dimensions of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism 
  • PAI  632 International Public and Non-Government Organization Management 
  • PAI  715 Topics in Global Development
  • PAI  788 Global Issues: Drugs, Crime and Terrorism 
  • PAI 730 Problems in Public Administration: Global Issues in Modern Diplomacy 
  • PAI 756 International Development Policy and Administration
  • PAI 765 Humanitarian Action: Challenges, Responses, Results 
  • PSC 651 Theories on International Relations 
  • PSC 753 International Political Economy
  • PSC 757 Non-State Actors in World Affairs 
  • PSC 760 Foreign Policy Seminars: Comparative Foreign Policy 
  • PSC 781 Politics of the Developing World 
  • PSC 783 Comparative Foreign Policy 
  • PSC 787 Democracy and Democratization 
  • SOC 571 Topics in Sociolinguistics 
  • SOC 605 Theories of Development 
  • SPA 600 Selected Topics: Introduction to Spanish Linguistics 
  • SPA 600 Selected Topics: Second Language Acquisition 
  • SPA 600 Selected Topics: New Identities/Mis-Identities**
  • SPA 620 Language Training in Preparation for Research Using Spanish 
  • SPA 635 Spanish Phonetics and Phonology 
  • SPA 636 The Structure of Spanish 
  • SPA 637 Introduction to Spanish Linguistics 
  • SPA 638 History of the Spanish Language 
  • WGS 553 Women and Social Change 
  • WGS 764 Gender and Globalization 
  • WGS 876 Feminist Geography 

* Courses added in 2018 

** Courses added in 2020