Welcome to the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program Home Page!

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LACS Director and Program Chair, Dr. Jose Antonio Lucero, comments on Latin America (and the world) today

Professor Tony Lucero reflects on the new pope and the death of Hugo Chavez from Jackson School Staff on Vimeo.

The Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program

The University of Washington's Latin American and Caribbean Studies program in the Jackson School of International Studies was established in 1992 and is committed to the advancement of scholarship and applied knowledge about Latin America.  Faculty, staff and students work in close collaboration to fulfill the program’s mission through research, interdisciplinary education, experiential and service learning, and community outreach.

The Latin American and Caribbean Studies major has become one of the largest and fastest-growing area studies programs in the School of International Studies. Graduates from this program go on to successful careers in business, government, education, non-governmental organizations, law, and other fields. Many also use the degree as a step toward graduate study in history, business administration, economics, anthropology, and other fields at top universities. The major’s popularity stems from an interdisciplinary curriculum that combines the strengths of regional and comparative international studies with study and research opportunities in specific academic disciplines. Students graduate with both a comprehensive understanding of Latin America and a rich knowledge of the global processes affecting the region and its people. Students can also pursue practical training in a thematic area of choice such as Media Studies, NGO Management, Immigration, or Gender Studies.

Check out the links to the left to find out more about our work, who we are, and what we can do for you!

John E. Sawyer Seminar in Comparative Cultures, 2012-2013 -  B/ordering Violence: Boundaries, Gender, Indigeneity in the Americas

The 2012-2013 University of Washington Mellon Sawyer Seminar on the Borderlands builds upon the work of a multi-year, multidisciplinary collective. The Sawyer Seminar undertakes an interdisciplinary exploration of Borderlands, understood as the contact zones, imagined geographies, and discourses that produce both order and violence.

Taking as our point of departure Gloria Anzaldúa’s influential characterization of borderlands (small “b”) as historically and spatially specific sites and Borderlands (capital “B”) as ideological projects, the UW Borderlands project contributes to a comparative and interdisciplinary understanding of the political and cultural power of boundaries and boundary-crossings. With Anzaldúa, we are concerned with the complexities of multiple Borderlands that characterize the politics of belonging in national states, diasporic and Indigenous communities, and even the domains of nature and society.

This project seeks to shed light on how borders are both seen and not seen, with special attention to the themes of border-making practices, gendered violence, and Indigenous perspective on borders. More concretely, it also hopes to remap the Borderlands of scholarly production at University of Washington by generating sustained interdisciplinary and interdepartmental collaboration across the humanities and social sciences, and between undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty.

For more information about the Sawyer Seminar and events visit www.borderingviolence.com