Iberian and Latin American Studies (Graduate Certificate) - 2012/2013 entry

This programme provides you with a critical appreciation of selected aspects of the literature, art, cinema and cultural histories of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America, including Brazil.

It is aimed at students who wish to refresh their knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American studies after a period of no contact with these areas. It is also aimed at advanced students from a variety of disciplines who wish to embark on our MA/MRes Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Cultural Studies and who need to familiarise themselves with the fields of cultural history and cultural critiques of Spain and Latin America.

Find out more about studying at Birkbeck and what our students say about us.

• Prepares you for work in the areas of cultural history, cultural critique and visual culture of Spain, Portugal and Latin America at Master’s level.
• Ideal if you are unable, or do not wish, to commit yourself to a full degree programme, but wish to undertake structured study for a shorter period.
• We maintained our status as one of the best departments of Iberian and Latin American Studies in the country in the latest Research Assessment Exercise.

Take any two modules from those offered in a given year from the BA Spanish and Latin American Studies, BA Portuguese and Brazilian Studies and BA Modern Languages Level 6 option modules. These may include:

• Childhood and Youth Culture in Modern Spain
• Contemporary Latin American Art and Literature
• Collecting and Exhibiting the Nation in Latin America
• Iberian Political Cultures
• Latin American Poetry
• Literature and the Nation in Latin America
• Frontier Poetics
• Portugal In-Between: Identity and Cosmopolitanism in Portuguese Culture
• Power and Control in Spanish Golden Age Art
• Latin American Encounters
• Literature and the City
• Spanish Pragmatics
• Survey of Twentieth-Century Spanish Art and Film
• The Problem of National Identity in Modern Spain 
• The Urban Experience in Brazil
• Women Writers in Latin America.

Birkbeck offers a lively student experience, as well as student support and facilities.

We offer an MA/MRes Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Cultural Studies.

Graduates go on to careers in international organisations or businesses, in translating or teaching, and as researchers or journalists.

About the department

The Department of Iberian and Latin American Studies enjoys a reputation as one of the best units of its kind in the world. Our work is distinguished by its innovative character, its engagement with other disciplines and its challenge to received ideas. We are committed to a continual rethinking of the fields we research and the subjects we teach, creatively and critically.

The department has achieved notable success in obtaining external funding for research. We host the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies, offering a unique environment in which to undertake collaborative, cross-disciplinary and comparative research on visual subjects in the Hispanic and Lusophone world, Latin America and the Caribbean.

We are also known for our unique student population, including a high number of Spanish and Latin American undergraduates and postgraduates. This brings a particular richness and variety of experience and knowledge to our courses and seminars.

Our international staff specialise in diverse aspects of cultural history and critique, with a strong emphasis not only on the literary and linguistic but also the audiovisual expression of the Latin America and Iberian peninsula past and present.

• We encourage you to apply as early as possible.