PhD in Latin American Studies

In Politics and International Relations:

• Comparative political institutions and public policy (Professor Jennifer Curtin, Politics and International Relations)
• Transitional Justice (Associate Professor Stephen Winter, Politics and International Relations)

In Education:

• Education and International Development (Dr Ritesh Shah, Faculty of Education and Social Work)
• Community-based governance of schools (Dr Ritesh Shah, Faculty of Education and Social Work)
• Learning and teaching of foreign languages (Dr Constanza Tolosa, Education and Social Work)
• Teachers’ beliefs and practices (Dr Constanza Tolosa, Education and Social Work)
• Bilingual education (Dr Constanza Tolosa, Education and Social Work)

In Law:

• The Kyoto environmental Protocol and the Cartagena Biosafety Protocol (Associate Professor Caroline Foster, Faculty of Law)
• International Law Commissions (Associate Professor Caroline Foster, Faculty of Law)
• Public International Law (Associate Professor Caroline Foster, Faculty of Law)
• International Economic Law, International Environmental Law and Human Rights (Associate Professor Caroline Foster, Faculty of Law)
• Dispute Settlement in International Law (Associate Professor Caroline Foster, Faculty of Law)
• Law of the Sea and Antarctica (Associate Professor Caroline Foster, Faculty of Law)

In Business:

• Latin American business (Associate Professor Christina Stringer, Faculty of Business and Economics)
• Chinese foreign direct investment in Latin America (Associate Professor Christina Stringer, Faculty of Business and Economics)
• Strategies in emerging markets (Associate Professor Christina Stringer, Faculty of Business and Economics)
• Economic integration between Latin America and New Zealand (Associate Professor Christina Stringer, Faculty of Business and Economics)

• Collaboration and interdisciplinary creative practice between Chilean and NZ artists, through methodologies of artistic research (Associate Professor Alys Longley, Dance Studies, Creative Arts and Industries)
• Sustainable development and social innovation in Argentina and NZ (Dr Gabriela Baron, Design for Sustainability, Conservation and Social Innovation)

• Comparative studies on environmental sustainability (Dr Gabriela Baron, Design for Sustainability, Conservation and Social Innovation)
• Design for Environmental Conservation (Dr Gabriela Baron, Design for Sustainability, Conservation and Social Innovation)
• Design Methodologies for Sustainable Development (Dr Gabriela Baron, Design for Sustainability, Conservation and Social Innovation)
• Non-motorised mobility and accessibility in urban environments (Dr Gabriela Baron, Design for Sustainability, Conservation and Social Innovation)

• Trade unions (Professor Jennifer Curtin, Politics and International Relations)
• Fair Trade (Associate Professor Christina Stringer, Faculty of Business and Economics)

• Women, politics and leadership (Professor Jennifer Curtin, Politics and International Relations)
• Women, Human Rights and Cultural resistance (Associate Professor Walescka Pino-Ojeda, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Radical kindness and Creativity in the Chilean Social Movement (Associate Professor Alys Longley, Dance Studies, Creative Arts and Industries)
• Creative practice as a mode of engagement to explore the embodied affects of neoliberalism in Chile (Associate Professor Alys Longley, Dance Studies, Creative Arts and Industries)

• Indigenous peoples and participatory media (Dr Kathryn Lehman, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Sovereignty and epistemology (Dr Kathryn Lehman, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Natural resources and privatisation (Associate Professor Marama Leigh Muru-Lanning, Anthropology, James Henare Māori Research Centre)
• Documentary film and representation of Indigenous Peoples (Dr Kathryn Lehman, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Indigenous Peoples, colonisation and the nation-state (Dr Kathryn Lehman, Spanish and Latin American Studies)

• Digital repatriation of the non-physical (Dr Callie Vandewiele, Global Studies)
• Theorizing and exploring best practice around museums and knowledge repatriation through community driven research methods in the Alta Verapaz of Guatemala (Dr Callie Vandewiele, Global Studies)
• Heritage Crafts and the “Making” of white nationalism (Dr Callie Vandewiele, Global Studies)
• Connecting ways of “making” and “knowing” with the reproduction of violent political ideology in contemporary Aotearoa – New Zealand and the United States (Dr Callie Vandewiele, Global Studies)
• Global Art Histories and Maori and Pacific art history and visual culture (Dr Caroline Vercoe, Art History)
• Contemporary Pacific art and performance art: race, gender and representation (Dr Caroline Vercoe, Art History)

• Privatization of education in Latin America (Dr Ritesh Shah, Faculty of Education and Social Work)
• Private-public partnerships in education in Latin America (Dr Ritesh Shah, Faculty of Education and Social Work)
• Neoliberalism, memory and trauma in post-authoritarian Latin America (Associate Professor Walescka Pino-Ojeda, Spanish and Latin American Studies)

• Transatlantic and Latin American film studies (Professor José Colmeiro, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Latin American Cinema, Third Cinema, Transnational Cinema (Dr Kathryn Lehman, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Post-authoritarian Latin American film, Political documentary in Latin America (Associate Professor Walescka Pino-Ojeda, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Tango and social change (Dr Kathryn Lehman, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Popular music and social movements in Latin America (Associate Professor Walescka Pino-Ojeda, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Civic activism and culture in Latin America (Associate Professor Walescka Pino-Ojeda, Spanish and Latin American Studies)

• Trauma and processes of re-democratization in post-conflict Latin America (Associate Professor Walescka Pino-Ojeda, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Refugees and resettlement (Associate Professor Jay Marlowe, Faculty of Education and Social Work)
• Art and trauma (Associate Professor Walescka Pino-Ojeda, Spanish and Latin American Studies)
• Trauma, identity and acculturation (Associate Professor Jay Marlowe, Faculty of Education and Social Work)
• Social work education (Associate Professor Jay Marlowe, Faculty of Education and Social Work)
• Education and development in conflict-affected regions (Dr Ritesh Shah, Faculty of Education and Social Work)
• Migration and mental health (Dr Rodrigo Ramalho, Department of Social and Community Health at the School of Population Health)
• Latin American diaspora and mental health (Dr Rodrigo Ramalho, Department of Social and Community Health at the School of Population Health)

Students completing a PhD in Latin America Studies are eligible to conduct one semester of research at any partner university that offers such a degree, without paying additional fees. At these institutions students will be supervised by specialists for the duration of their stay. To cover airfare and accommodation costs, students completing this PhD may use their allocated research budget, which can be supplemented through other scholarships, such as the 360 International Scholarship.

Our main partner universities in the area of Latin American Studies are:

• Australian National University, Australia
• University of Sydney, Australia
• University of Sao Paulo, Brazil
• University of Chile, Chile
• Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
• Universidad Diego Portales, Chile
• Colegio de Mexico, Mexico
• Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
• University of Salamanca, Spain
• University of Nottingham, UK
• University College London, UK
• University of California, Davis, USA
• University of Oregon, USA
• University of Washington, USA

Find out more through Exchange Partner or inter-semester courses abroad.