To receive the Master of Arts degree in Latin American Studies with a concentration in Sociology, a student must:

1. Demonstrate foreign language competence in Spanish or Portuguese.

2. Maintain a 3.0 grade point average in 40 units of course work (about ten courses), to be completed as follows:
a. Latin American Studies Basic Seminar Sequence: 8 units must be taken in the required Core Seminar in Latin American Studies (LATI 200, 4 units), and Latin American Library Resources and Research Methodology (LATI 210A and LATI 210B, 2 units each).
b. Sociology Concentration: 16 additional units must be taken in courses offered by the Sociology department, as follows:
i. One seminar in Classical Sociological Theory (4 units in SOC 201A or SOC 201B);
ii. One seminar in Sociological Research Methods (4 units in any of the following: SOC 203, SOC 204, SOC 205, SOC 206, SOC 207, SOC 227);
iii. One Core Sociological Field seminar (4 units in any of the following: SOC 212, SOC 216, SOC 222, SOC 226, SOC 234, SOC 244, SOC 264, SOC 267);
iv. One Sociology course or seminar focused on Latin America (4 units in any of the following: SOC 188D Latin American Society and Politics, SOC 189 Ethnicity and Indigenous Peoples in Latin America, SOC 248 Institutional Change in the Contemporary World: Latin American Societies in a Comparative Perspective).
c. General Electives: The remaining 16 units must be taken in departments other than the Department of Sociology as follows: two courses from the Approved List of Courses on Latin America (8 units), 4 units of Directed Reading (298) and 4 units of Independent Research (299).

3. Successfully complete a master's thesis, based on sociological research and focused on a topic relevant to Latin American Studies.

All of the concentration specific units, and at least 50 percent of the General Elective units must be taken at graduate level (200 level). Within a concentration, a maximum of two undergraduate level courses (100 level) may be upgraded to graduate level 298 courses. To convert an undergraduate level course (100 level) into a 298 graduate-level course, a student must attend all of the course meetings and incorporate a component of additional, graduate-level research work, upon arrangement with the faculty member teaching the course (a special form describing the supplementary work must be filled by the student and approved by the instructor and CILAS' Academic Coordinator). In all such cases, the supplementary work should, (a) increase the amount of reading to match the regular reading expectations of a graduate seminar, (b) include additional meeting time with the professor for a graduate-level discussion of the material, and (c) require the student to write a research paper (which would generally be approximately 15-20 pages).

M.A. students who were previously enrolled as undergraduates at UCSD will not be allowed to repeat courses for credit toward the concentration. In all cases there are alternatives, and those students will be expected to take other classes to fulfill the requirements.

Link to approved Sociology courses