About

CLAS brings together UChicago faculty, students, and visiting academics for intellectual exchange central to Latin America and the Caribbean. We seek to nurture research and scholarship on Latin America across the University. Together, we continue to cement Chicago’s reputation as a global crossroads for Latin Americanist thinkers.

Our faculty:

• We serve more than 50 instructors dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of the region.
• Our work is primarily focused on four areas of inquiry of local and global importance: Democracy, Environment, Legacies of Exclusion, and Diasporas.
• We host visiting professors and scholars, including three to four Tinker Visiting Professors annually.

Our degree programs:

• We offer a BA major and minor in Latin American and Caribbean studies (LACS).
• Additionally, CLAS awards a LACS graduate certificate/option available to MA and PhD students across divisions and schools.

Our support for students:

• We fund preliminary field research through CLAS Tinker Field Research Grants and doctoral fieldwork for students in the social sciences through the CLAS Mellon Research Travel Fellowship.
• We promote graduate student professional development in the form of teaching and research assistantships (both in the Introduction to Latin American Civilizations courses and in Tinker Visiting Professor program).

Our programming:

• We offer regular events including academic conferences, lectures, symposia, and graduate workshops.
• We cosponsor events with University departments, institutes, centers, and student organizations, as well as external academic and cultural institutions.
• We host two graduate student workshops: the Latin American History Workshop and the Workshop on Latin America and the Caribbean.