|
High School Preparation
In addition to completing the courses required for admission to the University of California, high school students who plan to major in LALS at UC Santa Cruz should try to acquire as much proficiency in Spanish or Portuguese as possible before coming to UC Santa Cruz.
Transfer Preparation
As early as possible in the course of their studies, it is important that transfer students acquire some breadth of information and an introduction to the variety of approaches available for the study of Latin America and Latino populations. For this purpose, three lower-division courses are required of all majors: LALS 10, Bridging Latin American and Latina/o Studies and two other lower-division electives. LALS 1, Introduction to Latin American and Latina/o Studies, is recommended, especially for frosh, but not required. Without exception, LALS 1 and/or LALS 10 must be taken at UC Santa Cruz. Courses with similar content taken at a community college or other institution may be substituted for the other two lower-division courses with the approval of the LALS Department upon declaration of the major.
While it is not a condition of admission, students from California community colleges may complete the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) in preparation for transfer to UC Santa Cruz.
Transfer course agreements and articulation between the University of California and California community colleges can be accessed on the ASSIST web site.
Careers
Bilingual-multicultural education
Business
Community organizing
Environmental science
Global economics
Government and community service
Health care
Higher education
International relations
Journalism and the media
Law
Legal services
Library science
Literature
Music publishing and research
Politics
Public health
Public policy
Publishing
Social work
Teaching
Translating
Travel industry
Urban/regional planning
These are only samples of the field's many possibilities.
Recognition
Professor of LALS Patricia Zavella has co-edited a new book, Women and Migration in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: A Reader (Duke University Press, 2007) and shared in the 2002 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award for her contribution to Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios. Professor Rosa-Linda Fregoso was awarded the MLA prize in United States Latina/o and Chicana/o Literary and Cultural Studies for her book, MeXicana Encounters: The Making of Social Identities on the Borderlands (University of California Press, 2003).
Professor Jonathan Fox’s Accountability Politics: Power and Voice in Rural Mexico was published in 2007 by Oxford University Press. He also co-edited, with three colleagues, Mexico’s Right-to-Know Reforms: Civil Society Perspectives (Woodrow Wilson Center, 2007), also published in Mexico City as Derecho a Saber: Balance y Perspectivas Civicas (Fundar, 2007). Professor Gabriela Arredondo’s new book, Mexican Chicago: Race, Identity and Nation, 1916-1939, was published in January of 2008 by Illinois University Press. She also co-edited a previous book, Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader (Duke University Press, 2003). Lecturer Susanne Jonas’ book Of Centaurs and Doves (Westview Press, 2000) was designated an Outstanding Academic Title for 2001 by Choice magazine.
Assistant Professor Shannon Gleeson received the Davis Stevenson Faculty Fellowship, awarded to those with “Significance and quality of proposed research to the field of philanthropic and nonprofit sector studies defined to include the nonprofit sector, nonprofit organizations, nonprofit management and leadership, philanthropy, and other closely related topics.” Assistant Professor Flora Lu, in her last year at UNC-Chapel Hill, received a Ueltschi Service Learning Grant for her course Environmental Justice, which incorporates community-based research and other service learning projects to teach students about the connections among race, ethnicity, class, power, and environmental degradation. This course received the 2008 Bryan Award for Public Service at UNC-CH. Dr. Lu also was awarded a three-year, $230,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (Cultural Anthropology Division) for her project, Integration to the Market and Indigenous Health in the Ecuadorian Amazon, co-led with Dr. Mark Sorensen.
Language Requirements
All LALS majors are expected to learn to speak, read, and write Spanish or Portuguese and to make use of these skills on a regular basis in their academic work.
Majors must take at least two upper-division courses taught in Spanish or Portuguese. Before taking an upper-division course taught in Spanish or Portuguese, students must demonstrate proficiency in the language equivalent to completion of Spanish 6, or Spanish 56, Advanced Readings in Different Genres, or Spanish for Spanish Speakers 63. Students who have achieved fluency in Spanish or Portuguese through life experience may be exempt from this recommended preparatory course work. While language instruction courses do not satisfy major requirements per se, they are necessary preparation to fulfill major requirements.
Field-Study and Internship Opportunities
All majors are strongly encouraged to undertake either a field study in Latin America, the Caribbean, or a Latino/a community in the U.S., or formal academic study abroad through the Education Abroad Program (EAP). These paths are the best ways to improve language skills, explore the nature and direction of specific academic and career interests in relation to Latin American and Latino studies, and deepen cross-cultural understanding and relationships based upon personal experience.
Field studies are independent, community-based study projects for academic credit, done under faculty sponsorship and arranged on an individual basis. Local opportunities for internships and field study in Latino/a communities on California’s Central Coast are numerous. Credit for up to three upper-division courses may be applied toward the major from field study; however, course credit from field study and study abroad combined may not exceed three upper-division courses. Students who wish to pursue a full-time field study are required to take the Field Studies Seminar (LALS 196 and Lab LALS 196L). Students should check the LALS Department web site for further information regarding field study.
Study Abroad
Students may apply to study at foreign universities through EAP. EAP offers opportunities for students to study at universities in Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico; San José, Costa Rica; Santiago and Concepción, Chile; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Madrid, Córdoba, Alcalá, Granada, and Barcelona in Spain. Sophomores, juniors, and seniors with two years of university-level Spanish may apply. In addition, during fall and spring quarters, the EAP Field Research Program (FRP) in Mexico is an experiential program geared toward juniors and seniors who want to explore the “real” Mexico outside the classroom and at the same time receive research training. EAP has research sites in states such as Jalisco, Yucatán, Oaxaca, or Michoacán (final site choice depends on the research topic). Application deadlines are generally several months to a year in advance of the program, so students should come to the office early to plan their study abroad programs. The department will approve courses taken abroad that cover topics appropriate to the LALS curriculum for upper-division credit toward the major. All credit for EAP classes transfers back to students’ UCSC transcripts. Financial aid applies to all but summer programs and includes airfare and living costs. Credit for up to three EAP courses can be applied toward the major.
|
LALS08.pdf 
