Connect with CLACS
About CLACS
The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) serves students, faculty and scholars from across the University of Illinois campus, along with communities across Illinois and the Midwest, by promoting innovative research, specialist teaching, and public awareness of the Latin American and Caribbean region. CLACS is a designated National Resource Center for the 2022-2026 period, supported by the Department of Education under Title VI funding.
- On Friday, February 7th, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) held its annual Student Graduate Research Fellowship (SGRF) Conference at the Campus Instructional Facility (CIF). The event brought together students from various fields to explore pressing topics surrounding... Read full story Summer Graduate Research Fellowship (SGRF) Conference 2025 Recap
- En respuesta a la creciente preocupación y confusión que existe entre las comunidades a las que servimos, deseamos informarles que hemos creado un nuevo espacio en nuestra página web llamado "Community Resources", el cual se... Read full story Nueva Página de Recursos Comunitarios / New Community Resources Page
- In a recent article, Kasia Szremski, Associate Director of CLACS at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was interviewed about a groundbreaking study that used a laser-based technique to reveal intricate tattoos on mummies from Peru’s Chancay culture. Published on January... Read full story Dr. Kasia Szremski Discusses Breakthrough Study Revealing Ancient Tattoos on Peruvian Mummies
Dr. Juan Salamanca's Installation: "Coalescing Currents" at SCD Gallery
Inaugurated in October 2022, this stunning 60-foot mural was researched, fabricated, and installed by Dr. Juan Salamanca (Graphic Design) and a diverse team of researchers, designers, artists, and makers. It celebrates over a century of interdisciplinary collaboration at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, bringing together 50 groundbreaking innovations—spanning technologies, methodologies, processes, and knowledge frameworks—that have shaped the university’s legacy. A defining feature of the mural is its array...
Upcoming Events
CLACS at Illinois Facebook
LAST 170: Que Pasa in Latin America? Cultures, Histories and Politics South of the Rio Grande.
Introduction to Latin America offers an interdisciplinary introduction to the ways of life of Latin American peoples, their origins, historical legacies, and current cultural expressions.
QUEC 410, CRN 77348: Beginner Quechua 1
An introduction to the largest indigenous language family of the Americas. This course focuses on the Southern Quechua variety, spoken from southern Peru through Bolivia, up to northern Argentina.
LAST 210, CRN 78201: Life in the Andes
An overview of contemporary Andean culture, as practiced by the people in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
LAST 395: Archaeology Field School in Peru
This course is an archaeological field school where students will have the opportunity to engage in innovative original research at the archaeological site of Cerro Blanco, a Chancay Administrative Center located in central Peru.
REL 511: The Jewish Atlantic
The course will cover quite a bit of material on Jewish history and culture in the Caribbean after 1500, including Suriname, Barbados, and Jamaica. The course will also engage theory and historiography as it related to the Atlantic as a scholarly lens more broadly.
ArtH / LAST 343: Arts of Modern Latin America
This course is an introduction to the major, critical debates concerning the visual cultures of Latin America from the early years of independence through contemporary creations and performances
Law 657: International Human Rights Law
Based primarily on a series of contemporary “real world” problems, the course introduces the student to the established and developing legal rules and procedures governing the protection of international human rights.
ARCH 490: Special Topics in Contemporary Architecture section GS (CRN 77300) Gender, Space & Critical Spatial Practice.
This seminar-workshop introduces students to diverse manifestations of feminist liberation movements from the Americas and the Caribbean, focusing on decolonial feminism, mutual aid, and community as forms of rebellion.
ARCH 403: Special Topics in Arch History section CN (CRN 77318)
Counter-Narratives of Architecture: Thinking Architectural History from/with the Americas and the Caribbean. This course challenges the dominant narratives of modern architecture, which often overlook the impact of colonialism, imperialism, and neocolonialism—factors central to discussions in fields like art and literature.
ANTH 405 - Contemporary Central America
Explores cultural, political and historical processes in 20th- and 21st-century Central America--focusing on Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala--through an anthropological lens.
SPAN 535: Realisms in Latin American Cinema
In this course students will acquire knowledge of the periods of Latin American cinema history and a familiarity with film theory pertaining to realism. Students will also develop the capacity to speak and write about film analysis in both narrative and technical terms.
UP 494 KS SP25 INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND GOVERNANCE OF URBAN CONFLICTS
In this course students explore how a range of local regulatory agencies invoke international institutions in the governance of urban conflicts. Specifically, we will study and map how urban inhabitants mobilize narratives of international human rights to collectively reclaim collective forms of belonging and social citizenship.
SPAN 326: Mexican National Cinema
This course explores how Mexican cinema, from its beginnings at end of the 19th century through 21st century production, has commented on and participated in major social and national processes such as the Mexican Revolution, the (re)construction of national identity, modernization, as well as the negotiation of changing conceptions of class, gender, and race.
NRES 598: Gender & Environment in the Amazon
Scholarship across environmental justice, political ecology, gender studies, and environmental politics is increasingly drawing attention to the problem of violence against land and environmental defenders. In addition to creating a theoretical foundation, this course will provide an opportunity for students to be involved in organizing and hosting a workshop with women defenders from Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil in May 2025