The School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania announces the establishment of the Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies (CLALS). The center will stimulate and support research and teaching on the Latin American region and the Latinx populations of the U.S. and provide an integrated academic base for scholars, students, and programs across Penn that focus on these topics.
CLALS will build on the foundation of Penn’s 33-year-old Latin American and Latinx Studies Program (LALS), which is home to an undergraduate major and minor, a graduate certificate, and limited research activities. The center will absorb the existing program and also promote a robust research mission, featuring thematic research clusters, an expanded speaker series, support for junior faculty research, and expanded dissemination of research findings, as well as visiting professor and postdoctoral fellow positions. New support for graduate students will include research awards and a graduate student colloquium, while existing undergraduate research opportunities will be expanded.
CLALS will be led by Tulia Falleti, Class of 1965 Endowed Term Professor of Political Science. Emilio Parrado, Dorothy Swaine Thomas Professor of Sociology and formerly the longtime head of the Latin American and Latinx Studies Program, will also hold the title of founding director and oversee programming on Latinx populations.
“I am honored and humbled to lead the new Center for Latin American and Latinx Studies at Penn,” says Falleti. “It constitutes the realization of a dream we have been working towards with colleagues, students, and staff for many years.”
Read more at Penn Arts & Sciences.
