Latina / Latino Studies Informaion

University of Tennessee

Availability / Marketing of Content

The Latin American Studies website is easy to locate off of the University of Tennessee homepage. The formatting of the website itself is somewhat awkward compared to other universities. The website has a general overview of the program as well as links to the major and minor, career opportunities, and faculty. The faculty comes from different departments such as Anthropology, History, Sociology, Political Science, and Geography.

Courses Offered

There is both a major and a minor available at UTK. In the major, the student have the choice in majoring in General Studies or Brazilian Studies. UTK states, "Each program requires 27 hours taken from three different participating departments; three of the hours are to be in an approved Spanish or Portuguese literature/culture course at either the 300 or 400 level. The Brazilian Studies track includes a minimum of six hours in UTK's Summer Study program in Fortaleza, Brazil (or other programs in Brazil approved by the director of Latin American Studies) and up to nine hours of approved courses that focus on Brazil. Majors are strongly urged to take as a prerequisite Latin American Studies 251-252".

University of Tennessee's Latin American Studies department addresses their minor by stating that it, "consists of 18 hours including Latin American Studies 251-252, three hours of an approved Spanish or Portuguese literature/culture course at either the 300 or 400 level, and nine additional hours selected from courses offered by three different participating departments".

Program Structure

UTK emphasizes its strength in studying Latin America from different angles and encouraging students to study abroad, "The Latin American Studies program at UTK offers students a broad sampling of courses from numerous academic disciplines which focus on the region's complexities. A major and minor are sponsored by the joint efforts of professors from such departments as Anthropology, Geography, History, Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures, Political Science, and Sociology. Study abroad opportunities are strongly encouraged, especially UTK's summer programs in Puebla, Mexico and Fortaleza, Brazil". There is also a strong emphasis on being able to use Spanish and Portuguese practically.

Demographics

The city of Knoxville, Tennessee, where UTK is located has a population of 173,890. 1.58% of this population identifies as Hispanic or Latino of any race. 16.8% of the population is of the college age (18 - 24). The University's Office of Institutional Research and Assessment accounted for 1.4% of their students identifying as Latino in 2004.

Sources

Latin American Studies. (n.d.). Retrieved February/March, 2006, from University of Tennessee Web site: http://web.utk.edu/~LatAmer/default.html