Postgraduate study and research in Latin American Studies

Postgraduate study opportunities

Postgraduate students can undertake study and research with a focus on Latin America through programmes in Spanish. The School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics offers a full postgraduate programme in Spanish: Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Master of Arts and PhD. A PhD in Latin American Studies is available from 2014. This acknowledges the completion of PhD student research with a focus on Latin America in recent years, along with an increased research profile for Latin American Studies at the University of Auckland.

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Current and past supervised projects

PhD Theses completed

  • Marcelo Mendes de Souza, “Toward a Latin American Irony: English Intertextuality and the Transnational Reception of Machado de Assis and Borges”. PhD Comparative Literature, 2014. Supervisor Kathryn Lehman. Faculty of Arts Best Thesis Award
  • Lina González, “Policies of Decentralisation in the Context of Armed Conflict: A Comparative Analysis of Colombian Local Autonomy”. PhD Politics, 2013. Co-supervisor Kathryn Lehman. Faculty of Arts Best Thesis Award.
  • Negotiating Gendered Discourses: Michelle Bachelet and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2012) by Jane Christie (Bright Future Scholar). Supervisors: Dr Kathryn Lehman and Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.
  • Post-Colonial Intersections between Spain and Latin America: Interpretations of Hispanidad in the Twentieth Century (2010), by Paul Bowker (Bright Future Scholar). Supervisors: Prof. Christine Arkinstall and Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.
  • From Stone to Silicon: Image Editing and Web Design as a Resource for Historical Narratives (2009), by Genaro Oliveira (in conjunction with Art History). Supervisor: Dr Kathryn Lehman.
  • From the People to the Popular: Fifty Years of Brazilian Film (2004), by Sarah McDonald.  Supervisors: Dr Kathryn Lehman and Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.
  • Locating the Mestizo Intellectual: Race and Class in Mariátegui, Arguedas and Gutiérrez (2001), by Francisca da Gama. Supervisor: Dr Kathryn Lehman.

PhD Theses in progress

  • Journey without Direction, Utopia without Representation: the Latin American Cinema of the Neoliberal Era, by Carla Grosman (University of Auckland Doctoral Scholar). Supervisor: Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda and Associate Professor Roberto Gonzalez-Casanovas.

MLit Thesis completed

  • Democracy in the State and the Home: Chilean Feminine Poetry in Times of Political Crisis (2005), by Lorena Garrido (First Class Honours). Supervisor: Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.
  • Centre and Periphery in Latin American Cultural Debates during the Post Authoritarian Era (2002), by Joyce Luke (First Class Honours). Supervisor: Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.

MA Thesis completed

  • Transcending the Emprisonment Space in the Writing of Roseleen Walsh and Reinaldo Arenas (2009), by Sarah Stewart (in conjunction with Comparative Literature). Supervisor: Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.
  • National and Subnational Movements in Latin America: Mexico, Brazil and Argentina (2008), by Emma Stone (First Class Honours). Supervisor: Dr Kathryn Lehman.
  • Music and Dance Performance, Longing, and the Construction of Brazil in Auckland, New Zealand (2007), by Mona-Lynn Courteau (in conjunction with Anthropology). (First Class Honours) Supervisor: Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.
  • The Spectre of Absence: Argentine Cinema as Re-narration of Collective Memory (2006), by Carla Grosman (First Class Honours). Supervisor: Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.
  • Violent Mexicans: Cinematic Violence and Authenticity in Recent Films about Mexico (2006), by Kara Morrison. Supervisor: Dr Kathryn Lehman.
  • Translation of Evo Morales’s Inaugural Address. Master of Professional Studies (2006), by Jane Christie (in conjunction with Translation Studies). Supervisor: Dr Kathryn Lehman.
  • Latin American Rock and the Renewal of Collective Utopia (2005), by Kirsty Charles (First Class Honours). Supervisor: Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.
  • Forbidden Passions: Nation, Religion, and Sexuality in 19th Century Argentina (2002), by Elly Sharp (First Class Honours). Supervisor: Dr Kathryn Lehman.
  • Coercion, Crisis, and Cultural Difference: Women’s Writing in Authoritarian Argentina and Brazil (2001), by Sarah McDonald (First Class Honours). Supervisors: Dr Kathryn Lehman and Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.
  • The Man in the Middle: Modernism, Borges and Postmodernism (1993), by Elly Wayne (First Class Honours). Supervisor: Dr Kathryn Lehman. 

MA Thesis in progress

  • Discourse, Power and Authenticity: The Latin American Cantautor and the Struggle for Truth, by Sorrel O'Leary.  Supervisor:  Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.

MA Dissertations and Postgraduate Essays completed

  • Theories of Relativity; Shifting Certainties and Human Connections in Maurice Gee’s Plumb and Marcelo Birmajer’s Los tres mosqueteros (2006), by Sarah Giffney (Dissertation with Comparative Literature). Supervisor: Dr Kathryn Lehman.
  • Leaving the Labyrinth: An Analysis of Maya Symbolic Continuity and Rupture Employed by the EZLN in El Sexto Sol (2002), by Jonathan Wright (Postgraduate Essay). Supervisor: Dr Kathryn Lehman.
  • Cooking and Writing: The Body and the Text in Como agua para chocolate (2000), by Carmel Murphy. Supervisor: Dr Walescka Pino-Ojeda.
     

Postgraduate student publications

  • Oliveira, Genaro Vilanova Miranda de. “Salvador, Bahia, Brazil” in Encyclopedia of People of Color. Facts on File: Illinois, 2008. 2107 words (2010)
  • Christopher, Callum. ”The Determinism and Agency of Popular Culture in City of God, City of Men, and Central Station” The European Connection. 13 (2009): 1-14. (2009)
  • Giffney, Sarah. “Argentina’s Wandering Jews. Judaism, Loyalty, Text and Homeland in Marcelo Birmajer’s Tres mosqueteros” Latin American Jewish Cultural Production. Ed. David William Foster Vanderbilt University Press. 7043 words. (2009)
  • Ana Bravo-Pérez. “The Human Face of Coal.” Just Change. Critical Thinking on Global Issues. He whakaaro kaikini mō ngā take o te ao. 13 (2008): 6-7. (2008)
  • Beaglehole, Joe. “Public Policy and Propaganda: An Analysis of Documentaries on Venezuelan Social Change.” The European Connection. 12 (2008): 9-17. (2008)
  • Mazur, Kim. “Films Review: Jeannette Paillán, Wallmapu and Robert Powhare, Tuhoe: A History of Resistance.” in Junctures. The Journal for Thematic Dialogue. December (2007): 132-5.
  • Christie, Jane. 2006. “The Power of ‘the Multilingual among Monolinguals,” The European Connection 11 (2006): 11–16.
  • Morrison, Kara. “Institutional Failure and the Creation of Alternative Economies: Violence as a Strategy of Authenticity in Recent Films about Mexico.” The European Connection. 11 (2006): 47-58.
  • Roles and Identities of Translators and Interpreters in the 21st Century: Working between the Frontlines. Proceedings of the XIVth National Conference of the New Zealand Society of Translators and Interpreters. (2006)

            Kara Morrison “Translating Wallmapu” 64-69.

            Jane Christie “Indigenous English into Indigenous Spanish”         52-59.

            Omar Silverio Anica “Cultural Loss” 60-63.

  • McDonald, Sarah. “Repudiation and Redemption: An Assessment of the Feminine in Central do Brasil”. Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies. 9:2, 107-116. (2003)
  • McDonald, Sarah. "Metaphorical Displacement under Authoritarianism in Argentina and Brazil," The European Connection. 9, 32-39. (2003)
  • David Rawson "The Authority of Memory: History and Myth in Eduardo Galeano's Memoria del Fuego”, The European Connection. 6, 89-94. (2000)
  • Gama, Francisca da. "La Internacional Comunista, Mariátegui y el 'descubrimiento' del indígena." Anuario Mariateguiano. 9, no. 9 (1997): 50-58. (1997)