Degree Programs
Certificate in Brazilian Studies
Offered by the College of Arts and Letters, the basic certificate in Brazilian studies allows students to complement their course of study in traditional majors with interdisciplinary coursework on Brazil. Students gain multiple perspectives on current social, political, and economic dynamics in Brazil; learn to recognize diverse aspects of Brazilian culture including music, cinema, and religion and discuss Brazilian political and economic systems and relate them to regional and global contexts.
The certificate requires 12 units to include Arts and Letters 222 and nine units selected from Africana Studies 300, 320, 351 [or Religious Studies 351], 421, 472; Anthropology 443; International Business 410; Journalism and Media Studies 454; Latin American Studies 306 [or Portuguese 306], 307 [or Portuguese 307], 325, 415 [or History 415], 496, 553 [or History 553], 556 [or History 556]; Philosophy 360; Religious Studies 406; Sociology 411.
Students must obtain a grade of C (2.0) or better in each of the certificate courses.
Download the certificate check list
CAL-222 Art, Sports, and Culture in Contemporary Brazil
Brazilian culture and history to include capoeira, carnaval, forro, funk, ju-jitsu, samba, soccer, street art, and street theatre. Ethnic and racial diversity, nationalism, regional identity, right to urban space, rural and urban life.
View the class schedule for details.
LATAM-307/PORT-307 Brazilian Music & Culture
Brazilian music and culture with emphasis on religious and cultural practices of candomble, capoeira, carnival, and notions of race and class in contemporary Brazilian funk and hip-hop. Taught in English.
View the class schedule for details.
LATAM-415 Precontact and Colonial Latin America
Indigenous and colonial history of Latin America, pre-contact through early national period
SUSTN-496 The Amazon is the Center of the World
Interdisciplinary approach to cultural and scholarly production about the Amazon. Pre-conquest history and cosmovision of the Indigenous populations of Amazonia. Indigenous rights, ecological conservation, politics. Literature, film, visual arts, anthropology, and guest lectures.
CAL-222 Art and Sport in Brazil
Brazilian culture and history to include capoeira, carnaval, forro, funk, ju-jitsu, samba, soccer, street art, and street theatre. Ethnic and racial diversity, nationalism, regional identity, right to urban space, rural and urban life.
View the class schedule for details.
AFRAS-421 Black Urban Experience
Major social science literature of international Black urban experience. Behavior, culture, and oppressions unique to urban environment.
View the class schedule for details.
AFRAS-472 African Enslavement
Comparative history of enslavement of Africans in the Americas and Muslim world, African servitude, and modern-day enslavement.
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IB-410 Doing Business in Latin America
Business and managerial methods, practices, and systems in Latin American markets.
View the class schedule for details.
LATAM-306/PORT-306 Portuguese & Brazilian Cinema & Culture
Movements and productions of Portuguese and Brazilian cinema. Social factors and representations of national identities. Taught in English.
View the class schedule for details.
ANTH-422 Music and Culture
How the forms, functions and meanings of music vary cross culturally. Understanding a society's music historically, holistically and experientially, with emphasis on non-Western music. Universals of music and music use. Ethnological theories of music and music change
AFRAS-351 Black Religions and Spirituality
Major Black religious and spiritual responses and expressions in Africa and Black diaspora, including creation of institutions to support and advance religious and spiritual matters.
View the class schedule for details.
HIST-415 Pre-Contact and Colonial Latin America (B)
Indigenous and colonial history of Latin America, pre-contact through early national period.
View the class schedule for details.
HIST-553 History of Slavery in the Americas
Trans-Atlantic slavery from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. Liberation movements, nation-states, revolution, slavery, and capitalism. Agency of enslaved people, agricultural and environmental transformations, legacies of trans-Atlantic slavery and contemporary enslavement, new communities and diversities, race and racism.
View the class schedule for details.
LATAM-415 Pre-Contact and Colonial Latin America
Indigenous and colonial history of Latin America, pre-contact through early national period.
View the class schedule for details.
PORT-306 Portuguese and Brazilian Cinema and Culture
Main movements and productions of Portuguese and Brazilian cinema. Social factors and representations of national identities. Taught in English.
AFRAS-300 Afro-Brazilian Community, Culture, and Identity
Culture, history, and the social institutions of Brazilians of African descent. Economic and political standing in Brazil's contemporary urban and traditional rural societies.
View the class schedule for details.
AFRAS-320 Political Economy of African Diaspora
Political economy of urban growth, development, and redevelopment in African diaspora, examined in historical and contemporary contexts. Race and class inequality and conflict; effectiveness of public and private sector decisions and programs.
View the class schedule for details.
AFRAS-421 Black Urban Experience
Major social science literature of international Black urban experience. Behavior, culture, and oppressions unique to urban environment.
View the class schedule for details.
HIST-556/MUSIC-561 Sounding Society: A History of Power, Protest, and Identity in Brazil Through Music & Art
This Arts Alive SDSU Interdisciplinary Collaborative Teaching Program links two existing classes, History 556, The History of Brazil with Music 561 Ethnomusicology Area Studies: Brazil. Adopting an interdisciplinary lens, the course will explore the role of music and the arts in contesting subjugation and marginalization in Brazil. In particular, we will use music spanning Brazilian history, including Afro-Brazilian religious music, carnival/samba, capoeira, foreign-influenced rock, tropicália, MPB, blocos afro, sertenejo, hip-hop, and favela funk to understand how different artists have engaged in direct critique of power structures and implicitly challenged the status quo though the expression of counter-hegemonic identities.
IB-410 Doing Business in Latin America
Business and managerial methods, practices, and systems in Latin American markets.
View the class schedule for details.
LATAM-415 Pre-Contact and Colonial Latin America
Indigenous and colonial history of Latin America, pre-contact through early national period.