Fernanda Conforto de Oliveira

Latin America in the World

This course examines the historical trajectory of Latin America from the early 19th century to the present, with particular attention to the region’s complex political, social, and economic transformations and its evolving role in the world. Emphasizing both internal developments and international dynamics, the course explores how Latin American societies have engaged with global forces while shaping their own paths.

Beginning with the crisis of Iberian imperialism and the anti-colonial independence movements, we will analyse how newly independent nations navigated the challenges of nation-building, forged new social and economic orders, and contended with enduring struggles over race, class, gender, and power.

Major topics include the abolition of slavery, indigenous resistance, caudillo politics, populist movements, revolutionary change, the impact of the Cold War, military regimes, neoliberal reforms, and Latin America’s integration into the global political and economic system.

Given the region’s diversity, the course focuses on case studies that exemplify key historical phenomena, such as populism, revolution, and authoritarianism, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. Through the analysis of primary sources, scholarly literature, film, music, and fiction, students will engage with how Latin Americans have responded to local and global challenges, and how they have envisioned alternative futures.

By examining scholarly and historical documents, this course not only invites students to critically examine Latin America’s rich and contested history but also to grapple with the process of developing historical knowledge itself.

Natural Language Processing for the Analysis of Diplomacy and Multilateralism

This interdisciplinary course explores the use of Natural Language Processing (NLP) to analyse the language of diplomacy, international negotiation, and multilateral governance. It is designed for graduate students in international history, political science, digital humanities, and other related fields who are interested in combining computational methods with the study of global institutions and international relations.

The course introduces core NLP techniques, such as named entity recognition, sentiment analysis, topic modelling, and document classification, through hands-on applications to historical and contemporary corpora of diplomatic documents. Students will also engage critically with the epistemological and methodological challenges of applying computational tools to the study of international politics.

A basic working knowledge of Python is required; however, technical instruction will be provided throughout the course to support students in developing and applying their skills. By the end of the term, students will complete an independent project using NLP methods to analyse a self-curated or provided corpus related to diplomacy or multilateral institutions.