OVERVIEW

This seminar-based course examines authoritarianism and resistance in contemporary Latin America, with particular attention to Cold War dictatorships, transnational repression, enforced disappearances, and campaigns for truth, justice and memory. Through primary sources and historical scholarship, it introduces students to the methods and tools of research in Latin American history.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Aim of the course is providing students with the basic skills to orient themselves in the context of Latin American historical research, in modern and contemporary times.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The course explores the interpretative categories, methods and sources required to study authoritarianism and forms of resistance in contemporary Latin America. Participation in lectures, seminars and source-based workshops, together with independent study, will enable students to:

• reconstruct the principal political and social transformations of Latin America in the second half of the twentieth century and situate them within the regional and global context of the Cold War;
• distinguish and use appropriately such concepts as authoritarianism, military dictatorship, state terrorism, National Security Doctrine, counter-insurgency, internal enemy, transnational repression and enforced disappearance;
• compare national cases while recognising local specificities, transnational circulations and connections among state institutions, civilian actors and international networks;
• identify the main actors and repertoires of political, social, cultural and human-rights resistance, with attention to student and labour movements, political organisations, women and victims’ relatives, Indigenous peoples and exile networks;
• critically analyse primary and secondary sources, including periodical publications, photographs, testimonies, diplomatic and military records, judicial documents and truth commission reports;
• assess critically the methodological and interpretative choices made in historical scholarship;
• formulate a research question, define a documentary corpus and present a research pathway orally with clarity, analytical rigour and appropriate disciplinary vocabulary;
• develop independent judgement, collaborative skills and awareness of the ethical implications involved in studying political violence, human rights and traumatic memories.

PREREQUISITES

There are no specific prerequisites. However, a basic knowledge of modern and contemporary history will help students engage with the course content more effectively.

TEACHING METHODS

The course combines introductory lectures, seminar activities and source-analysis workshops. Lectures will provide the historical and historiographical framework; seminars will focus on the discussion of readings and the presentation of case studies; workshops will guide students in the analysis of written, visual and testimonial sources and in the preparation of a short research project.

Attendance is recommended. Materials used in class and instructions for seminar activities will be made available on AulaWeb. Students who do not attend classes will prepare the specific syllabus indicated in the Reading List section.

Students with valid certification relating to disability, specific learning difficulties or other special educational needs are invited to contact the lecturer and the relevant coordinator at the beginning of the course, so that teaching arrangements consistent with the learning aims and responsive to individual learning needs may be agreed.

Delivery mode:

• In-person: Lectures will take place in the classroom, accompanied by seminars and practical workshops.

• Remote: Students who explicitly request it can attend the lectures via streaming on Teams but will need to follow the non-attending student programme.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

Course theme

Authoritarianism and resistance in contemporary Latin America

The course will address the following topics:

1. Authoritarianism, dictatorship and democracy in Latin American historiography. Definitions, periodisation and comparative problems.

2. Latin America during the Cold War. The Cuban Revolution, social conflict, political radicalisation and the crisis of democratic systems.

3. The National Security Doctrine, revolutionary warfare and counter-insurgency. The construction and repression of the ‘internal enemy’.

4. Coups and authoritarian regimes in the Southern Cone. Brazil, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay in comparative perspective, with references to Paraguay and Bolivia.

5. Cooperation among repressive institutions, the circulation of practices of violence and the Condor system.

6. State terrorism. Clandestine detention, torture, enforced disappearance, concealment of bodies and the social production of terror.

7. Forms of resistance. Political parties and organisations, armed movements, trade unions, students, religious communities, cultural practices and clandestine communication.

8. Women, victims’ relatives, Indigenous peoples, exile and transnational networks of solidarity and human-rights advocacy.

9. Sources for the history of authoritarianism and resistance. The press, images, testimonies, archives of repression, judicial records and truth commissions.

10. Democratic transitions, truth and justice policies, conflicts of memory, reparations and the persistence of authoritarian legacies in the present.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Students attending classes

Loris Zanatta, Storia dell’America Latina contemporanea, 4th edn, Laterza, Rome-Bari 2017. For the general framework; the sections to be studied will be indicated during the course.

Valerio Giannattasio, Alessandro Guida and Raffaele Nocera, L’America Latina in guerra. I militari al potere nelle dittature del Cono Sud degli anni Sessanta-Ottanta, Mondadori Università, Milan 2025.

Laura Fotia and Luigi Guarnieri Calò Carducci (eds), Le sparizioni forzate in America Latina. Storia di un crimine transnazionale, Carocci, Rome 2026. The introduction and a selection of chapters will be indicated and discussed during the course.

Additional primary sources and short scholarly essays in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or English will be made available on AulaWeb.

STUDENTS NOT ATTENDING CLASSES

Loris Zanatta, Storia dell'America Latina contemporanea, Laterza, Bari 2010.

Two books of the student’s choice from the following list:

• Paulina Alberto, Eduardo Elena (eds), Rethinking Race in Modern Argentina, Cambridge University Press, New York 2016.
• Vanni Blengino, Il vallo della Patagonia. I nuovi conquistatori: militari, scienziati, sacerdoti, scrittori, Diabasis, Parma 1998.
• Ronald H. Chilcote, Intellectuals and the Search for National Identity in Twentieth-Century Brazil, Cambridge University Press, New York 2018.
• Marshall C. Eakin, Becoming Brazilians. Race and National Identity in Twentieth-Century Brazil, Cambridge University Press, New York 2017.
• Laura Fotia and Luigi Guarnieri Calò Carducci (eds), Le sparizioni forzate in America Latina. Storia di un crimine transnazionale, Carocci, Rome 2026. The introduction and a selection of chapters will be indicated and discussed during the course.
• Amanda Salvioni, L’invenzione di un medioevo americano. Rappresentazioni moderne del passato coloniale in Argentina, Diabasis, Parma 2005.
• Amanda Salvioni, El silencio de las imágenes. Texto e ilustración en la narrativa hispanoamericana del siglo XIX, Ediciones de la Universidad de Murcia, Murcia 2020.
• Fulvia Zega, Il mondo sotto la svastica. Immigrazione e politica in Argentina e Brasile (1930-1960), Aracne, Roma 2018.

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

LESSONS

LESSONS START

15 September 2026.

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

For Attending Students: Presentations in class and oral exam. Mid-term written test is also available.

For Non-Attending Students: Oral exam only.

Duration of Oral Exam: Approximately 30 minutes.

Assessment Criteria:

• Knowledge: Max 14/30

• Analytical and contextual understanding: Max 13/30

• Communication skills: Max 3/30

ASSESSMENT METHODS

For Attending Students:
Oral exam: knowledge of the periodisation and key issues in Latin American history; mastery of disciplinary language; presentation of a research project outline (not a "thesis", but one of the outlines developed during the final part of the course); ability to identify the methodological approaches underlying the exam texts; ability to analyse some of the images studied during the course.

For Non-Attending Students:
Oral exam: knowledge of periodisation and fundamental issues in Latin American history; mastery of disciplinary language. Students must show awareness of the sources used and the methodologies employed by the authors of the exam texts, and demonstrate the ability to contextualise the issues they are asked to address.

The final evaluation will take into account the clarity, critical analysis, and quality of the presentation, in a 30-minute interview for both attending and non-attending students, irrespective of their level of preparation.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Students with specific learning difficulties (DSA)

Students who have formally submitted certification relating to disability, specific learning difficulties or other special educational needs are invited to contact the relevant coordinator, and the lecturer at the beginning of the academic year. Appropriate teaching and examination arrangements will be agreed which, while respecting the course learning aims, take account of individual learning needs and provide suitable compensatory tools.

For information not included in this course description and for clarification concerning the syllabus, students may contact the lecturer by e-mail: fulvia.zega@unige.it