News & Updates

Since its founding in 1956, the Center for Latin American Studies has served as a bridge between the Bay Area and Latin America. In the past year, CLAS has undertaken a number of initiatives reorienting its work to emphasize the plurality and the complex geopolitics of what constitutes “Latin America.” Does it include territories subjected to colonization by England, the Netherlands, and France as well as Spain and Portugal?

Graduate students, do you want to share your academic passions while developing vital teaching and public speaking skills? 

ORIAS is seeking graduate student speakers interested in joining the ORIAS Speakers Bureau. This is a funded professional development opportunity to learn how to share your research with young audiences.

This fall semester, the CLAS Visiting Writer will be Daniela Rossell. She will be teaching a special seminar, "An Experimental Writing Workshop or: How to Say Yes"

When: Fridays: Oct 27, Nov 3, Nov 10, and Nov 17 | 10:30 am a 1:30 pm | Fall Semester 2023

More information and registration here: https://clas.berkeley.edu/academics/courses/special-seminar-daniela-rossell

Julie Chávez Rodríguez, who graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Latin American Studies in 2000, was named to lead the 2024 Biden presidential campaign.

Congratulations to Charles Briggs and Amy Lerman on being named as new fellows of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Courses with Latin American Content, Fall 2023 

CLAS assembles a list of courses each semester that might be of interest to those studying Latin America. 

For more information on other courses, go to https://classes.berkeley.edu/

We the staff of the Center for Latin American Studies stand in solidarity with the 48,000 academic student employees on strike for a cost-of-living pay increase and additional demands that the University of California administration should honor, including disability justice, support for working parents, job security, and free passes for public transportation passes, among others. We cannot overemphasize how important graduate student participation is and has been for the Center of Latin American Studies.

Applications are now available for the 2023 CLAS Field Research Grants.

Field Research Grants support graduate student research about Latin America at the pre-dissertation level. Funding is generously provided by the Tinker Foundation through the Field Research Collaborative Program, and matched by the Center for Latin American Studies.

Applications are due at 11:59 pm on December 15, 2022.

Antonia Mardones Marshall, a 2022 CLAS Summer Dissertation Fellow, discusses the disparity between the overwhelming victory of the call for a new Constitution in Chile and the nearly as strong rejection of the initial draft put out by that country's constitutional convention.

Read "Chile’s Constitutional Process: What Went Wrong and How to Move Forward" on the CLAS Blog

Professor Rebecca Herman's new book, Cooperating with the Colossus: A Social and Political History of US Military Bases in World War II Latin America, is now available in hard copy form from Oxford University Press and other outlets.

She spoke about the book in a conversation with Professor Margaret Chowning and Kyle Jackson on September 28.

See the full press release in Berkeley News.

More than $12 million in new federal grants will drive dramatic expansion of UC Berkeley programs focused on international and regional studies, with benefits for both students and scholars, campus leaders announced today.

Applications are now open for funding for Research Working Groups.

The Center for Latin American Studies is pleased to have again been named a National Resource Center and a Foreign Language and Area Studies Grant Recipient by the U.S. Department of Education for 2022-25.

A new blog by Laura Álvarez López, a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Linguistics, is available on the CLAS Blog.

Professor Álvarez López outlines a recent spate of legislation, some actually enacted, that seeks to limit or ban the promotion of gender-neutral language in Latin America. 

Francia Márquez made history as an AfroColombian woman advancing to the final round of Colombia's 2022 elections as a vice presidential candidate.

Running with Gustavo Petro, their Historic Pact for Colombia ticket received the plurality of votes at over 40%, and advances to the runoff election on June 19, 2022.

CLAS announces three funding opportunities, with applications due this Spring semester. 

Event & Conference Cosponsorship Grants: Funding for UC Berkeley students, faculty, staff, and researchers to organize conferences, lectures, and cultural events. Applications are due 4/15 for fall 2022. More information here.

Jun q'olb'elb'il te kyiy / Greetings to you all,

Looking for a course for Spring 2022? CLAS has collected a list of Berkeley courses with Latin American content: https://clas.berkeley.edu/academics/courses/spring-2022

If you have comments or suggestions for more courses to be included in the list, please write to clas@berkeley.edu.