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10

. SENATE                  

.

From ? 

. AcADEMIc.       

........................................................................................................................................

..... .. . ?

?

........ ?

.................................................. 

Subject

............... ...Q4N...IN .LATIN .AMERICANS.TUDIES.. 

?

Date...... ....... FEBRUARY 

.

22., .197.1 

S.71-50 

MOTION: 

1.

"That Senate approve the establishment of a program 

in Latin American Studies. 

2.

That the program initially consist of a minor in 

Latin American Studies requiring 15 credit hours in 

?

.

courses at the upper division level and 9 credit 

hours at the lower division level. 

.

?

3. That responsibility for the program rest in the 

L_vision of General Studies with the organization 

and administration to be as set out in Section 3(a) 

of Senate paper S.424 revised. 

4. That the implementation date of the program be no 

earlier than September, 1971." 

SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

S71

ttt

To

.

?

.

From 

?

. Academic Planning Commit e 

Subject

............... Program ... in ... Latin ... American ... Studies .... I 

Date .... .........

February ... 22,,,197. 

RECOMMENDATIONS 

1.

That Senate approve the establishment of a program in Latin American 

Studies. 

2.

That the program initially consist of a minor in Latin American Studies 

requiring 15 credit hours in courses at the upper division level and 

9 credit hours at the lower division level. 

3.

That responsibility for the program rest in the Division of General 

Studies with the organization and administration to be as set out 

in Section 3(a) of Senate paper s.424 revised. 

4.

That the implementation date of the program be no earlier than 

September, 1971. 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION 

At the federal level, the Canadian Government has manifested a deep 

interest in increasing its diplomatic relationships with the Latin 

American nations. This new commitment apparently involves no reassessment 

of Canada's refusal to join the Organization of American States; Canada, 

rather, seeks to amplify its official and cultural ties outside the OAS 

framework. The increased importance of Latin America to Canadian 

officialdom was made clear by the extensive mission to Latin America 

of Minister of External Affairs Mitchell Sharp in 1968. Furthermore, 

the Canadian Universities Service Organization (CUSO) has had, or has 

at the present, missions in five of the Latin American nations, comprising 

(' ? 

.

?

70 persons, and in twelve Caribbean areas, with 129 persons. Finally, 

..2.. 

the growing interest of Canadian business in Latin American commercial 

and investment possibilities was made manifest by the founding in May 

1969 of the Canadian Association for Latin America. 

The inter-disciplinary approach to Latin American studies has been 

cultivated in U.S. universities for approximately half a century, and much 

recent 

?

U.S. scholarly writing on Latin America bears a marked 

inter-disciplinary stamp. From their experience, the Americans seem 

to have reached the concensus that inter-disciplinary work, including 

degree programs, is valuable at the undergraduate and, in many cases, 

at the M.A. level; advanced students, however, Continue to work toward 

the Ph.D. degree within the traditional disciplines. 

Priority among Canadian universities in the Cultivation of Latin 

American studies probably belongs to the Universite de Laval. More 

recently, two important developments have taken place in English- 

speaking Canada; the creation of a Latin American study centre at 

the University 

of

Calgary, and the founding of the Ontario Cooperative 

Program for Latin American and Caribbean studies, which represents a 

pooling of the graduate resources of the universities of Guelph, 

Waterloo, McMasters and Queens. It should be noted that the establishment 

of these two facilities now makes it possible for Canadian undergraduates 

to advance to graduate work in Latin American studies within Canada. 

The number of Latin American specialists appointed to positions in the 

various disciplines has grown; in 1969 the first edition of the Directory 

of Canadian Latin Americanists listed 92 names. In June of 1969, 

approximately 70% of these scholars came together to found the Canadian 

Association of Latin American Studies as a learned society. 

Outside Simon Fraser University, little development in Latin American 

studies has taken place in British Columbia. At the University of 

Victoria, two academics (in history and anthropology) offer course 

work in Latin American topics; neither does so as his major speciality. 

?

El

. . . 3 

*.3e. 

• ? 

At the University of British Columbia, an M.A. in Latin American 

literature is offered under the direction of H. Livermore; there is 

apparently no scholarly articulation within the limited number of other 

academics (e.g., in geography and sociology) who have also worked in 

the Latin American area. 

Since its founding in 1965, Simon Fraser University has attracted an 

unusual number of Latin American specialists in the departments of 

Modern Languages, History, P.S.A., Geography and Economics and 

Commerce. This has been a fortuitous development; however, since the 

beginning, these personshave cultivated professional contacts with 

one another, and since early 1969 a faculty committee on Latin 

American Studies has worked to develo p 

a more effective organizational 

framework. Encouragement to do so hL resulted not only from the 

professional concerns of the individuals involved, but also because of 

the strong student response to individual courses with Latin American 

content, their requests for and ready response to the new courses in 

Spanish rapid reading offered by D.M.L., and frequent inquiries as 

to how they migh obtain a fuller program of Latin American course work. 

The objectives of the program proposed are: 

a)

to meet the demand of a, solid nucleus of students for a more coherent 

approach to Latin American studies. 

b)

to meet the needs of the Canadian diplomatic, business and 

communications communities for university graduates with the necessary 

factual background and language skills relating to Latin America. 

c)

to enable Simon Fraser University to join with the University of 

Calgary and the Ontario Cooperative Program at the forefront of 

Canadian university centres of Latin American studies. 

. . .4 

.A.. 

IMPLEMENTATION 

The program will be implemented no earlier than the fall semester of 

Fall 1971. The nucleus of the program at this stage will consist of 

the staff currently at Simon Fraser University who teach Latin American 

content oriented courses, and will include the current course offerings 

related to Latin America. (see appendix 1) If student and societal 

demand prove the viability of this program, the establishment of a 

major in Latin American Studies will be considered. 

r

n

APPENDIX 1 

A. Cour'ses currently taught relating to Latin America 

1.

Language Skills 

Spanish 102-4 Introductory Spanish 1 

Spanish 103-4 Introductory Spanish 2 

Spanish 110-3 Reading Spanish 1 

Spanish 111-3 Reading Spanish 2 

Spanish 201-3 Intermediate Spanish 1 

Spanish 301-3 Advanced Spanish - Composition 1 

2.

Courses with Exclusive Latin American Content 

D.M.L. 

( ?

341-3 Hispanic Literature 2 

451-5 Modrn Spanish American Novel 

452-5 Modern Spanish American Poetry 

History 

244-3 Latin America 1760-1880 

280-3 Latin America since 1880 

451-5 Latin America and the External World 

452-5 Economic Aspects of Latin America 

453-5 Social Aspects of Latin America 

P. S. A. 

346-5 Regional Studies and Politics: Latin America 

Geography 

467-5 Latin America 

. *2..

B. Courses with partial Latin American content or in which Latin 

America may be emphasized in a given semester 

D.M.L. 

240-3

Introduction to Hispanic Literature 

History 

141-3

Historical Development of the Americas to 

1763

441-5

The U.S. as a World Power 

Geography 

The Geography of Lesser Developed Countries 

• P.S.A. 

341-5

International Relations 

342-5

Comparative Politics 

441-5

International Institutions 

466-5

Problems of Social Change in Developing Societies 

Economics and Commerce 

363-5

Economics of Natural Resources 

455-5

Economic Development 

Archaeology 

273-3

Archaeology of the New World 

C. New courses to be developed and submitted to Senate for approval 

OOX Introduction to Latin American Culture (inter-disciplinary) 

A lecture course, taught cooperatively by the Latin American faculty. 

Culture is meant in the broadest sense: customs, manners, language, 

folklore will receive equal emphasis with formal arts and letters 

and interpretative-approaches through the tranditional disciplines. 

n

40X Inter-disciplinary Seminar in Selected Latin American Subjects 

Each semester, two or three of the Latin American teaching faculty 

will come together to choose the term topics: Obvious themes to 

be explored with profit in this mode are: 

Indigensim, Man and the Land, Values and the Latin American Ethos, 

Challenge of Urbanization, the Latin American Revolutionary Tradition. 

LI