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Iberian and Latin American Studies

MPhil/PhD

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Key information

Key information for 2026-27

Start date:
October 2026 | January 2027 | April 2027
Study route:

  • Seven years part-time, on campus

  • Four years full-time, on campus

Status:
Fully approved
Location:
Birkbeck Campus, Central London
Awarding body:
University of London
Study options:
Full-time | Part-time | On campus

Key information for 2027-28

Start date:
October 2027 | January 2028 | April 2028
Study route:

  • Four years full-time, on campus

  • Seven years part-time, on campus

Status:
Fully approved
Location:
Birkbeck Campus, Central London
Awarding body:
University of London
Study options:
Full-time | Part-time | On campus

Course Overview

As people involved in research, our prime concern is with producing top-quality work that in different ways questions the boundaries of the disciplines we work in and seeks to bring new materials, theories and methods into them.

The research programme in Iberian and Latin American studies is both exciting and innovative. The expertise of staff ranges across the field - from Golden Age art to Luso-Brazilian imperial history and culture and the colonial literatures and cultures of Spanish America; from contemporary Spanish and Portuguese cinema and urban studies to Latin American literature, poetry, cinema and museum studies - and the research published by both staff and students is also groundbreaking.

An MPhil/PhD is an advanced postgraduate research degree that requires original research and the submission of a substantial dissertation of 60,000 to 100,000 words. At Birkbeck, you are initially registered on an MPhil and you upgrade to a PhD after satisfactory progress in the first year or two, and after an interview. You need to find a suitable academic supervisor at Birkbeck, who can offer the requisite expertise to guide and support you through your research. 

Apart from the process of research supervision and the final examination of the thesis, each student has an annual review in which their progress is assessed. The PhD is usually three to four years of full-time study or five to seven years of part-time study. Find out more about undertaking a research degree at Birkbeck.

Attendance

Regular meetings with your supervisor(s).

More Highlights

  • Birkbeck’s research excellence was confirmed in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework with 83% of our research rated world-leading or internationally excellent.
  • Our academics in this subject area bring together research and teaching in French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish, making them an outstanding multidisciplinary team.

Entry Requirements

The entry requirement for this MPhil/PhD Iberian and Latin American Studies is a good degree with Spanish or Portuguese as a main component.

Graduates in other subjects may be asked to take a qualifying examination.

You will also need to submit a 2,000-word research proposal prior to consideration for interview.

  • What are the English language requirements?

    If English is not your first language or you have not previously studied in English, the requirement for this programme is the equivalent of an International English Language Testing System (IELTS Academic Test) score of 7.0, with not less than 6.0 in each of the sub-tests.

    If you don't meet the minimum English language requirements, please contact us or see our international study skills page for more details about how we can help.

    Visit the International section of our website to find out more about our English language entry requirements and relevant requirements by country.

  • What are the visa and funding requirements?

    If you are not from the UK and you do not already have residency here, you may need to apply for a visa.

    The visa you apply for varies according to the length of your course:

    • Courses of more than six months' duration: Student visa
    • Courses of less than six months' duration: Standard Visitor visa

    International students who require a Student visa should apply to study on our courses full-time as these qualify for Student visa sponsorship. If you are living in the UK on a Student visa, you will not be eligible to enrol to study part-time courses at Birkbeck (with the exception of some modules).

    As a Student visa student, you should also apply to study on campus only, as online and flexible options of study  (if they are available for your course) may affect the conditions of your visa.

    For full information, read our visa information for international students page.

    Please also visit the international section of our website to find out more about relevant visa and funding requirements by country.

    Please note students receiving US Federal Aid are only able to apply for in-person, on-campus programmes which will have no elements of online study.

School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication

The school's teaching and research is highly interdisciplinary, spanning cultures and periods. Academic and practice-based study will equip you for a career in the creative and cultural industries.

Visit the school

Fees

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in October 2026

Academic year 2026-27

Part-time home students: £2,780 per year
Full-time home students: £5,238 per year
Part-time international students: £8,230 per year
Full-time international students: £16,285 per year

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in January 2027

Academic year 2026-27

Part-time home students: £2,780 per year
Full-time home students: £5,238 per year
Part-time international students: £8,230 per year
Full-time international students: £16,285 per year

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in April 2027

Academic year 2026-27

Part-time home students: £2,780 per year
Full-time home students: £5,238 per year
Part-time international students: £8,230 per year
Full-time international students: £16,285 per year

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in October 2027

Academic year 2027-28

To be confirmed

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in January 2028

Academic year 2027-28

To be confirmed

MPhil/PhD: Four years full-time or seven years part-time, on campus, starting in April 2028

Academic year 2027-28

To be confirmed

Students are charged a tuition fee in each year of their course. Tuition fees for students continuing on their course in following years may be subject to annual inflationary increases. For more information, please see the College Fees Policy.

Lifelong Learning Guarantee

If you’ve studied at Birkbeck before and successfully completed an award with us, take advantage of our Lifelong Learning Guarantee to gain a discount on the tuition fee of this course.

Fees and finance

PhD students resident in England can apply for government loans of over £30,000 to cover the cost of tuition fees, maintenance and other study-related costs.

Flexible finance: pay your fees in monthly instalments at no extra cost. Enrol early to spread your costs and reduce your monthly payments.

We offer a range of studentships and funding options to support your research.

Discover the financial support available to you to help with your studies at Birkbeck.

Do you offer international scholarships?

We provide a range of scholarships for eligible international students, including our Global Future Scholarship. Discover if you are eligible for a scholarship.

If you've studied at Birkbeck before and successfully completed an award with us, take advantage of our Lifelong Learning Guarantee to gain a reduction on the tuition fee of this course.

Birkbeck's campus is located in the historic and vibrant Bloomsbury area of central London - named one of the best places to live in London 2025 by The Times.

Our Research Culture

We have built up an excellent team of research students who collaborate through our research seminars and are encouraged to publish and give papers at conferences. There are a number of research events, which provide research training through the year, and a lecture series given by international experts. The Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, whose International Director is Slavoj Žižek, offers masterclasses for research students, given by Žižek, Etienne Balibar and other international specialists.

We host the Centre for Iberian and Latin American Visual Studies (CILAVS), dedicated to collaborative, cross-disciplinary and comparative research on visual cultures. CILAVS includes the Ibero-American Museum of Visual Culture on the Web, which currently displays a large virtual exhibition of objects, artefacts and images from Brazil, Argentina and Chile (1880-1900). This resource is being expanded to other geographical areas, and to photography and film. CILAVS focuses our strong commitment to research in visual culture, in Renaissance and modern Spain and Portugal and in native, colonial and modern Latin America.

We offer specialist supervision by experts who publish in their field. Key areas of research interest are: early modern Spanish culture; Golden Age art; Spanish American colonial art and cultural history; Spanish and Latin American fiction; Spanish and Latin American poetry; Spanish urban studies; childhood and youth studies in modern Spain; cultural history of Brazilian tropicality; Portuguese Asian and African colonial history; modern Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American cultural studies, including film, iconography, gender studies, urban studies, transcultural/subaltern studies, cultural geography and popular culture. Further core concerns of our work are cultural theory and the critical redefinition of modernity, from the experience of Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

Interdisciplinary research projects are encouraged, and joint supervision can be arranged with other academic departments at Birkbeck.

You will be encouraged to participate with articles for, and in the editing of, Dandelion, our online journal for arts research students.

Several academic staff members have been involved in the foundation and development of the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, which has been actively engaged in redefining Latin American studies.

You will have access to computer workstations with email and internet facilities. You will also be offered workshops in research skills and methodologies during your first year of study.

We particularly encourage students to engage with current debates, while at the same time providing a solid training in research methodology. There is a fortnightly seminar where we discuss readings in theory and methodologies, a student conference where students give papers, and a thesis-writing workshop. Staff and students also organise reading groups in order to explore particular areas of knowledge. We seek to create a mutually supportive environment, informed by discussion and dialogue.

You are expected to participate in our research events, including attending lectures, research skills sessions and other classes/workshops as appropriate.

Recent research topics include:

  • Cross-cultural histories of tropical botany in Latin America
  • Culture and revolution in Portugal (1974-1975)
  • Visual and poetic works of the Brazilian and Peruvian neo-avant-garde
  • Lisbon in contemporary Portuguese cinema
  • Supernatural elements in the novellas of Maria de Zayas
  • Mexican performance art
  • Pablo Neruda’s radical poetics
  • Wearing the change: fashion in Portugal after the April Revolution
  • Imagined cities in the Dominican Republic: place, race and the quest for 'Lo Dominicano'
  • Invisible friends: questioning the representation of the court dwarf in Early Modern Spain
  • The transition from dictatorship to democracy: changes and continuities; causes and consequences
  • The struggle on stage: theater, proletarian cultures and social emancipation (1891-1934)
  • Visual representations of the Black Legend

Find out more about our vibrant research culture.

Finding a Supervisor

A critical factor when applying for postgraduate study in Iberian and Latin American studies is the correlation between the applicant’s intellectual and research interests and those of one or more potential supervisors.

Find out more about the research interests of our academic staff:

How to Apply

Follow these steps to apply to an MPhil/PhD research degree at Birkbeck:

  1. Check that you meet the entry requirements, including English language requirements, as described on this page.
  2. Find a potential supervisor for your MPhil/PhD research. Check the ‘Find a Supervisor’ area on this page or search our staff directory.
  3. Contact the academic member of staff - or the school they teach in - for an informal discussion about your research interests and to establish  if they are willing and able to supervise your research. (Please note: finding a potential supervisor does not guarantee admission to the research degree, as this decision is made using your whole application.) Find out more about the supervisory relationship and how your supervisor will support your research.
  4. Draft a research proposal. This needs to demonstrate your knowledge of the field, the specific research questions you wish to pursue, and how your ideas will lead to the creation of new knowledge and understanding.
  5. Apply directly to Birkbeck, using the 'Apply Now' link on this page. All research students are initially registered on an MPhil and then upgrade to a PhD after making sufficient progress.

Find out more about the application process, writing a research proposal and the timeframe.

What are the application deadlines?

You can apply at any time during the year and start studying in October, January or April.

If you wish to apply for funding, you will need to apply by certain deadlines. Consult the websites of relevant bodies for details.

Related courses

Study routes for Iberian and Latin American Studies (MPhil/PhD)

Please select a study route below to continue your application.

Please note that international students who require a Student visa to study in the UK can only apply for full-time, on campus routes.

Starting in October 2026

Full-time

Part-time

Starting in January 2027

Full-time

Part-time

Starting in April 2027

Full-time

Part-time

Starting in October 2027

Full-time

Part-time

Starting in January 2028

Full-time

Part-time

Starting in April 2028

Full-time

Part-time