Module manager: Dr Anna Grimaldi
Email: a.grimaldi@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
PIED2250
This module is not approved as a discovery module
This module explores contemporary development challenges in Latin America from a historical perspective. The study sessions will explore key themes relevant to the region as a whole, whilst also delivering knowledge, understanding, and opportunities to discuss key readings and specific case studies. The module offers the opportunity to analyse political dynamics, social relations, and environmental issues through regional and country-specific responses to global challenges and external pressures. The module aims to provide students with a solid understanding of and preparedness to engage with Latin America’s experience of development, within the context of broader contemporary global challenges. Students are given agency and choice throughout the module with opportunity to learn how to create new ways to present academic knowledge.
This co-curated module accompanies students to critically and creatively learn about the development challenges faced by Latin America today. It explores the historical roots of contemporary issues relating to inequality, race and ethnicity, gender, religion, climate crises, extractivism, land disputes, state terror, and violence by grounding itself in the Latin American experience and drawing from critical thinkers across the region. The module is team-taught and proposes an innovative, interactive model of assessment that promotes concrete academic and transferable skills. The module assessment supports students in undertaking original primary research. As part of the module, students will design a research project relating to development in Latin America by drawing inspiration from cultural representations of the Latin American identity and experience. They will review relevant fields of literature, design and apply rigorous research methods, conduct primary data collection, and engage with various publics and collaborators.
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Critically assess contemporary development challenges in Latin America by drawing on historical experiences and the legacies of colonialism.
2. Demonstrate and effectively communicate a detailed understanding of current scholarly debates and questions surrounding the Latin America’s political, economic, and social development.
3. Engage voices, experiences, theories and worldviews from Latin America, as part of a broader ‘Global South’, to enrich academic debate.
Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
1. Oversee the design and delivery of an independent research project.
2. Communicate complex ideas to a specific audience by identifying appropriate modes of presentation, including video and audio.
3. Work with others in a collaborative way to co-produce knowledge and develop new ideas.
Details of the syllabus will be provided on the Minerva organisation (or equivalent) for the module
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workshop | 11 | 2 | 22 |
| Lecture | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| Independent online learning hours | 42 | ||
| Private study hours | 125 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 33 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 200 | ||
A formal formative assessment opportunity will be provided for each summative assessment task, which is specifically pedagogically aligned to that task. As part of this, each student will receive feedback designed to support the development of knowledge and skills that will be later assessed in the summative task.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Coursework | . | 100 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
Check the module area in Minerva for your reading list
Last updated: 06/02/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team