Comparative-Lat Am advice

[BartBrown]

Hello all,

I'll be a Senior in the Fall and I'm planning to apply for PhD programs in Political Science (Comparative Politics) this year. I'm still in the midst of trying to identify the programs I will apply to and am hoping to get some advice. I've been speaking with faculty at my school, but I figure more advice never hurts.

I'm a Poli Sci/Spanish Major, Econ minor at a small and not highly ranked LAC.

3.8 Cum. GPA and a 4.0 in both majors.

Upper level coursework since first-year

3 years as a poli sci research assistant with several acknowledgements in conference papers and journal articles

5 months independent field work experience in Latin America

Hopefully will have a paper in an undergraduate journal and/or a conference in the Fall

Taking GRE soon

My main interests are Latin American Politics, Violent and Non-violent Contention, Identity (mainly race/ethnicity), Democratization and Democratic Theory

Methodologically I'm looking for programs that are not entirely Quant

I've done some research and identified programs with faculty members that I'm interested in. However, I'm hoping to see what people's suggestions might be for programs that I would be qualified for that have relevant faculty and strong programs in my interest areas.

Thanks in advance to anyone that has advice!

[JanuaryHymn]

Hey, looks like we're in the same boat, even with research interests...weird. Some schools with great Latin Americanists, I think, are UT-Austin, UCSD, UPitt (not highly ranked as a department, but pretty strong in the region), Stanford, Berkeley, Northwestern, and really, any of the ivies are worth checking out. I was told that NYU has a budding LA program, along with UNM (one of my professors called UNM a hidden jewel for this field)

[Penelope Higgins]

A few scattered thoughts:

The top place to do Latin America, especially if you're not inclined toward quant work, is certainly Berkeley, where you could work with the Colliers. They have a record second to none in producing great dissertations. Other great overall departments with strengths in Latin America include Harvard (Dominguez, Robinson, Levitsky), Northwestern (Gibson, Mahoney, etc.) Princeton (Yashar, Lieberman), and Columbia (Murillo), though the last two are likely more quant-focused departments than the OP seems to want. I'm not sure that I can think of a traditional Latin Americanist at NYU, which tends to be a very very quant-formal department.

You've listed some of the other great places to do Latin America (Texas, UCSD, Pitt, Stanford [though that is a very quant-focused place) and New Mexico) but I didn't see Notre Dame listed. Even with O'Donnell retiring, Notre Dame has a very strong group of Latin America faculty, and a big research community focused on the region. I'd certainly apply there.

Hey, looks like we're in the same boat, even with research interests...weird. Some schools with great Latin Americanists, I think, are UT-Austin, UCSD, UPitt (not highly ranked as a department, but pretty strong in the region), Stanford, Berkeley, Northwestern, and really, any of the ivies are worth checking out. I was told that NYU has a budding LA program, along with UNM (one of my professors called UNM a hidden jewel for this field)

[JanuaryHymn]

I hadn't heard about Nortre Dame, but I will be sure to look into it. I myself am shooting for Berkeley, they seem to be very supportive mentors and give their students plenty of publishing opportunity.

Thanks for the overall response. I've been following your posts for a while, and they always seem to be filled with sound advice.

A few scattered thoughts:

The top place to do Latin America, especially if you're not inclined toward quant work, is certainly Berkeley, where you could work with the Colliers. They have a record second to none in producing great dissertations. Other great overall departments with strengths in Latin America include Harvard (Dominguez, Robinson, Levitsky), Northwestern (Gibson, Mahoney, etc.) Princeton (Yashar, Lieberman), and Columbia (Murillo), though the last two are likely more quant-focused departments than the OP seems to want. I'm not sure that I can think of a traditional Latin Americanist at NYU, which tends to be a very very quant-formal department.

You've listed some of the other great places to do Latin America (Texas, UCSD, Pitt, Stanford [though that is a very quant-focused place) and New Mexico) but I didn't see Notre Dame listed. Even with O'Donnell retiring, Notre Dame has a very strong group of Latin America faculty, and a big research community focused on the region. I'd certainly apply there.