Structured PhD (Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences) (Latin American Studies)

Course Overview

The Structured PhD in Latin American Studies at NUI Galway offers students a unique opportunity to study within a Latin American focused academic environment, with expertise in Southern Cone, Central American and Mexican kinds of literature and cultures. There are currently five academic members of staff actively researching in the area of Latin American Studies within the discipline of Spanish.

This PhD is highly interdisciplinary in nature and is a very attractive option for students interested in continuing in academia, as well as those who intend in diversifying and working in Development or NGOs throughout the Americas. Current Ph.D. students are working in the areas of literary studies, gender studies, cinema, detective fiction and cultural studies in Mexican, Chilean, Argentine and Cuban contexts. As part of this program students usually have the opportunity to engage in research in different Latin American countries. One of the most exciting elements of the Structured Ph.D. is the range of cross-disciplinary modules offered to the student, which serve to consolidate the student’s learning and guide them towards very interesting and innovative interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to their research topic.

Admission to a Structured Ph.D. is at the discretion of the potential supervisor and the Head of the discipline; it is based on a proposal from the applicant, following discussion with the staff member whose academic area of interest is most appropriate. Candidates should possess an honors degree in Spanish (Second Class, Grade 1 minimum) and should normally hold an MA in a relevant area.

As part of the doctoral training available on the Structured PhD programme, students avail themselves of a range of interdisciplinary taught modules.  The wide menu of available options include modules that:

• are discipline-specific in that they augment the student’s existing knowledge in their specialist area, e.g., Latin American Literature I and II
• are dissertation-specific in that they supply core skills which are essential to the completion of the research project e.g. additional language skills
• acknowledge a student’s professional development, e.g., presentation of a paper at an international conference
• enhance a student’s employability through generic training, e.g., career workshops, computer literacy.

Each student is assigned a primary Supervisor(s) and a Graduate Research Committee made up of experienced researchers to plan their programme of study and to provide on-going support to their research.