Latin American Studies

Engaged Latin American Studies

Engaged Latin American Studies takes what you’re learning in your courses and puts it into practice through internships, research, study away, winter term, career exploration, and beyond.

Here’s a sampling of recent projects, field experiences, and post-graduate destinations for Latin American studies majors.

RISE at Oberlin
Research. Internships. Study Away. Experiential Learning.

Ways Latin American Studies Majors Rise

Research

  • Why Study Violence? Trauma and Recovery After the Pinochet Dictatorship
  • Feminist Congresses During the Mexican Revolution
  • Translating Charlie Chaplin: Cuban Poet Fina García Marruz Goes to the Movies
  • The Deportables: Mexican Labor in the United States, 1940-2018
  • Art as a Survival Strategy During Cuba’s “Special Period”
  • Urban Provincianos: La Música Chicha and Cultural Identity in 1970s and 1980s Lima, Perú

Internships

  • The International Foundation for the Global Economic Challenge (FIDEG), Nicaragua
  • Legal Advocates for Children and Youth, San Diego
  • Carpe Diem Arte e Pesquisa, Portugal
  • Facing History and Ourselves, Boston

Study Away

  • Border Studies Program: based in Tucson, Arizona, with excursions to Mexico
  • Social Change in Central America: Exploring Peace, Justice, and Community Engagement
  • Liberal Arts Studies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Santiago, Chile, or University of Havana, Cuba

Experiential Learning

  • Oberlin students graduating with a major in Latin American studies have chosen a wide range of career paths including teaching, bilingual education, social work, government or international organizations, business, journalism, and specialized nonprofit organizations.
  • On-campus experiential work includes recording oral histories of Puerto Rican immigrants in Lorain, Ohio, and volunteer work with immigrants studying for their U.S. Citizenship exams, also in Lorain.
  • Winter term options include regularly offered group projects in Mexico (Spanish language learning), Guatemala (working with returned refugee communities), and Nicaragua (with Oberlin’s Student Cooperative Association).
  • Students with Spanish proficiency may teach Spanish in Oberlin’s public schools through the SITES (Spanish in the Elemetary Schools) program.
  • Students may live in La Casa Hispanica, the Spanish language and culture house.

First Destinations of Recent Latin American Studies Majors

  • Graduate Schools:
    • MA in Asian American studies, UCLA
    • JD at Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco
    • MA in social work, University of Massachusetts
    • PhD in history, Yale University
  • Positions:
    • Fulbright (ETA) in Mexico
    • Research assistant at Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City
    • History teacher in New Orleans
    • Immigration paralegal in Oakland, Calif.
    • Health educator in Chicago
    • Managing editor for the NACLA Report in New York City
    • New media editor for Major League Soccer
    • Politics reporter for ThinkProgress
    • Admissions counselor at University of Wisconsin-Madison