Director’s Welcome
Today—as with every day—the relevance of Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies is more urgent than ever. Our field’s intellectual rigor and social justice orientation equip students with historically grounded, ethically responsive tools to address some of the most pressing issues of our time. Whether students plan to work in mental health, immigration advocacy, criminal justice, community organizing, or international diplomacy, LLACS offers experiential learning opportunities that allow them to apply their skills in real time.
Founded in 1997, LLACS emerged from a sense of urgency among faculty committed not only to understanding injustices across Latin America, the Caribbean, and their diasporas, but to producing research, service, and policy engagement that meaningfully respond to them. Our more than twenty faculty affiliates contribute expertise on topics ranging from the descendants of African enslavement and Asian indenture in the Southern Caribbean, Eighteenth century biographies written by free peoples of African descent, to the formation of immigrant communities in North America, to the historical roots of debt crises across the hemisphere, and the legal precarity faced by undocumented populations in the United States.
As a Latinx feminist scholar whose commitments were shaped by graduate student activism in the 1990s, I am dedicated to expanding intellectual and professional pathways for students—especially first‑generation, Latinx, LGBTQI+, and politically engaged populations. My scholarly research focuses on all forms of personal, intimate, state-sponsored, and epistemic violence in the Americas, from the nineteenth century to the present. I’m also committed to public-facing work as socio-political commentary, which is why I have written for the MS. magazine online and print platforms for the last 20 years.
In these turbulent political times, we have a real opportunity to build community together—one that is welcoming, collaborative, and grounded in the belief that all ideas deserve space and consideration. One example of this commitment is the Dialogue of Civilizations course I direct every other summer, Gender and Migration: Case Study Mexico City, where students develop an original, on-ground research project relevant to their primary field of study. By completing this DOC, students also complete half of the LLACS minor, demonstrating how closely our academic programming aligns with social justice–oriented research and practice.
If you are a student, a prospective community partner, or someone seeking a media expert in Latinx, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies, please feel free to reach out. LLACS—and I—are here to support your goals, make your day a bit less arduous, and contribute together to a more just world.
Sincerely,
Dr. Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández
[email protected]
[email protected]