Unit rationale, description and aim
Latin America, a vast region that stretches south from Mexico to Chile and Argentina and encompasses the island nations of the Caribbean, is home to one in twelve people on Earth. Bound by a shared history of Spanish and Portuguese colonialism, the region is racially and culturally heterogeneous. The Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano observed that "for the world today, America is just the United States; the region we inhabit is a sub-America, a second-class America of nebulous identity." Yet Latin America's people, economy, culture, and ideas shaped the modern world. This unit examines major regional developments and their global consequences, while attending to the distinct experiences of particular nations and communities. Organised both chronologically and thematically, the unit explores race and racism, political movements, US–Latin American relations, and migration and the formation of Latinx diasporas.
This unit aims to develop students' understandings of Latin American history from the nineteenth century to the present, an era forged by wars and revolutions that produced towering figures like Fidel Castro and sent shockwaves far beyond its borders, including how ideas and movements born in Latin America—e.g. liberation theology, dependency theory, and revolutionary socialism—influenced intellectual and political life around the world.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Discuss theoretical and factual knowledge of Latin...
Learning Outcome 01
Communicate clearly in written and/or oral form, i...
Learning Outcome 02
Locate, use and appropriately reference a variety ...
Learning Outcome 03
Apply critical reading skills to your understandin...
Learning Outcome 04
Interpret and reflect on key historical debates re...
Learning Outcome 05
Content
Topics will include:
- Colonialism and its legacies
- Race and racism
- Indigenous peoples
- Sex and gender
- Human rights
- Religion
- Poverty and inequality
- Revolutions
- The Cold War
- USA-Latin American connections
- Political economy
Assessment strategy and rationale
Overall, the assessment in this unit encourages students to develop specific skills in locating, reading, and analysing sources; consider different approaches to the past and the dynamics of historical and historiographical debate; and employ active research techniques in their own work.
The unit introduces students to strategies for understanding and interpreting the history of a particular country or countries, and for taking a thematic approach to the study of Latin American history.
The Analytical Task asks students to demonstrate knowledge of course content. The Research Task builds on this foundation, requiring independent research on a relevant topic to develop an evidence-based narrative or argument drawing on primary and secondary sources. The Exam requires students to critically reflect on the content and skills developed in the unit, demonstrating an overarching understanding of key themes and the legacies of Spanish and Portuguese colonialism in the present day.
Students will be guided in the ethical use of GenAI as appropriate to each assessment task.
To achieve a passing grade in this unit, students must achieve 50% of the available marks and attempt all assessment tasks.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Analytical Task The purpose o...
Assessment Task 1: Analytical Task
The purpose of this task is for students to develop critical reading and listening comprehension skills as they draw on lectures and assigned readings to analyse sources for studying the past.
20%
Assessment Task 2: Research Task This task is de...
Assessment Task 2: Research Task
This task is designed for students to locate and reference primary and secondary sources, using them to construct and prove an evidence-based written or oral argument on a particular research topic.
45%
Assessment Task 3: Exam This assessment will be ...
Assessment Task 3: Exam
This assessment will be a secure exam that may be written or oral. It is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their theoretical and factual knowledge of Latin American history and core skills developed in this unit.
35%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit is designed to cultivate deep historical thinking and active engagement with the complexity of Latin American history. Lectures provide foundational content, historiographical context, and interpretive frameworks, orienting students within key scholarly debates. Tutorials build on this foundation through a range of activities that facilitate peer dialogue and collaborative analysis of sources and narratives about the past.
The Latin American historical archive is vast and rich. This unit incorporates engagement with a diverse range of primary sources, such as newspaper articles, artworks, novels, government reports, and oral histories, to equip students to asses different forms of historical evidence, and build the historical knowledge and critical literacy needed to understand the multiple perspectives that shape Latin American history.