LASC 234
Issues in Latin American Studies
Final Examination Study Guide

The final examination will be given 8:00-10:00am on Friday, December 16, 2011, in Tydings 0101. The examination represents 20% of the total course grade.

You will be allowed to bring to the examination one 8.5" x 11"study sheet. The study sheet may contain whatever information that can be fit on both sides of the paper. You will be required to turn in the study sheet with the examination.

PART I: IDENTIFICATIONS (20% OF EXAMINATION GRADE)

You will define four key terms that we have encountered in the course's five modules. Each definition should be at least two complete sentences in length. To receive full credit, each identification should reference a specific course element (e.g., an assigned reading; a screened video; a podcast; a primary source; an online discussion) that is relevant to defining the term.

PART II: ESSAYS (80% OF EXAMINATION GRADE)

Two of the following three essay questions will appear verbatim on the final examination. You will be required to answer both questions. Your essays should explicitly and specifically draw from the assigned materials and the important analytical concepts introduced and discussed throughout the course.

1. Thomas Holloway argues that by the middle of the twentieth century, the label "Latin America" had achieved "widespread and largely unquestioned currency in public as well as academic discourse, both in the region and outside of it." ["What's in a Name," p. 5]. Develop an argument that identifies three core concerns in the contemporary study of "Latin America" that support Holloway's argument for a coherent meaning for the label "Latin America."
   
   
2. Throughout this course, we come across numerous examples of diversity within Latin America and among Latin Americans. Identify three core elements of diversity that we have encountered, and argue the case why each of your selected elements of diversity in Latin America illuminate how and why we study the region and its people.
   
   
3. Throughout the Americas textbook, Peter Winn develops a number of arguments about Latin America as a region formed out of multiple waves of human migrations. What are three core concerns for such arguments, and how do these concerns influence your understanding of Latin America and Latin Americans?
   

A review session will be held on the last day of normally-scheduled class, Tuesday, December 13.

REMINDER: COURSE EVALUATIONS

All students are strongly encouraged to also use this as the occasion the complete a course evaluation. CourseEvalUM is open through December 14, and is available through ELMS.