The Latin American History program at Indiana University is distinguished by its depth and regional diversity. Seven members of the Department of History research in ten different countries. Our innovative research encompasses ethnography, oral history, documentary film, and music as well as sophisticated methods of reading a wide variety of archival materials. We all employ interdisciplinary research methods and encourage our students to do the same.
Our graduate program is outstanding. Our students, a mix of Latin Americans and North Americans, are encouraged not to follow in the footsteps of the faculty (or to work with only one) but instead to pursue their own original research which recently has included such diverse topics as photography in Honduras, “the silent majority” during Argentina’s Dirty War, and transnational practices of religious devotion, among many others.
We help these students develop excellent research proposals typically earn dissertation fellowships in national competitions like those of the Social Science Research Council and Fulbright. Many of our recent PhDs have either published books at leading presses or are on the verge of doing so. Students benefit not only from History faculty feedback but from that of fellow students as well as affiliated faculty in our Title-VI funded Latin American Studies program.