Luso-Brazilian Studies

  • Department Information

    Luso-Brazilian Studies

    Dixon Abreu, Coordinator (Latin American, Latino and Iberian Studies)

    Portuguese is the official language of eight countries situated on four continents (including territories in India, China, and Japan), spanning several cultural thresholds that are essential to any interdisciplinary curriculum in international studies. Portuguese, furthermore, is the first language of one of the largest immigrant populations in the United States. From the politics of the European and African Unions, to the economic blossoming of Asia and Brazil, the study of Portuguese language and cultures can be highly advantageous for students preparing to work in a broad range of professional contexts in the twenty-first century.

  • Minor

    The Luso-Brazilian Studies Minor

    Note: Students must receive a C (2.0) or above for these courses to count toward the minor. No course taken for less than .5 units will count towards the minor.

    5-5.75 units, including:

    LAIS 349 Portuguese for Romance Language Speakers or another comparable intermediate/advanced course in Portuguese language.  The requirement in Portuguese language can be fulfilled in one of the following ways:

    1. LAIS 349 Portuguese for Romance Language Speakers
    2. Exemption through a placement test that measures oral, writing, reading, and comprehension skills. Exempted students must still take a total of 5-5.75 units to complete the minor; thus, they may substitute LAIS 349 with an elective
    3. Completion of Portuguese language coursework at one of our partner institutions abroad (PUC Rio, SIT, CIEE Brazil, or CIEE Portugal).

    LAIS 314 Luso-Brazilian Studies: A Global Perspective with optional C-LAC component in Portuguese language

    Three interdisciplinary electives

    Students fulfilling their electives on campus will choose from course offerings within the specific field of Luso-Brazilian Studies or from a myriad of related academic disciplines. Students are required to seek approval for each elective in consultation with the program director. As a general rule, advanced courses in related disciplines may be taken for credit within the Luso-Brazilian Studies minor as long as the student seeks prior approval and fulfills a corresponding C-LAC (Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum) component in Portuguese language or culture (worth 0.25 units). Students may fulfill the C-LAC component in different ways: students with no prior knowledge of Portuguese may choose to take a basic language mini-course, whereas students with prior knowledge of Portuguese may choose to hold weekly conversation sessions on the course’s topics –both with a peer instructor.  Students may also choose to complete a project -in English- focusing on a Lusophone topic that intersects with the scope of the course (For example, a student enrolled in PLSC 348 Politics of Africa could complete a project on the economic, migratory, and military relations between the Lusophone country of Mozambique and South Africa). If a Luso-Brazilian Studies elective is taken abroad with Portuguese as the language of instruction, then the C-LAC requirement will be waived.

    The following electives in Luso-Brazilian Studies are content specific and thus C-LAC is optional:

    DANC 218 Capoeira Angola

    ECON 211 -Economic Development in Asia, Africa, and Latin America

    GEOG 333/ENVR 333 Geographies of Amazonia

    HIST 262 The Making of Modern Brazil