The University of Michigan Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) is committed to promoting a broader and deeper understanding of the region--its histories, cultures, and peoples. The center provides a venue for faculty, students, and the community to learn and share knowledge and partners with a host of units across campus on projects of mutual interest.
LACS
- Supports dialogue between U-M faculty, students, and the broader community by organizing and supporting conferences, lectures, and performances
- Produces outstanding scholars in a supportive environment where students have the opportunity to investigate pressing questions related to Latin America and the Caribbean
- Seeks to broaden Latin American and Caribbean studies across many disciplines by exploring issues of culture, race, ethnicity, and gender within a political and historical context
- Invites scholars from the region and elsewhere in the world to the University of Michigan to teach, collaborate, and take advantage of our outstanding libraries and research facilities
- Provides an African American focus that is distinctive among leading peer institutions. No other university offers such in-depth programming focused on African race and ethnicity in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Is a premier resource on Latin America and the Caribbean for scholars and the public at large
LACS Chronology
- 1984: Founded as an undergraduate concentration program
- 1996: Received U.S. Department of Education funds to support Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) graduate fellowships
- 1997: Established a Quechua language program that offers one of the world's only full- year, three-level courses in the most extensively spoken indigenous language in the Americas; in 2026, the Quechua summer language program that was part of our partnership with Centro Tinku in Cusco, Peru was discontinued.
- 2000: Expanded service to undergraduate students by offering a minor in Latin American and Caribbean studies
- 2001: Launched a graduate certificate program for students enrolled in U-M master's and doctoral programs
- 2006: Declared a National Resource Center by the U.S. Department of Education
