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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.
- The IGI Series on Global Responsibilities brings multidisciplinary and global perspectives to major contemporary questions. For calendar year 2025, our spotlight is on Palestine in the world today. The events in this series are being sponsored by the following: Center for... Read full story An IGI Series on Global Responsibilities: "Palestine in the World
- On March 7th and 8th, CLACS hosted the 51st Annual Midwest Conference on Andean & Amazonian Archaeology & Ethnohistory. The conference provided a space for scholars to share their current research on Andean and Amazonian studies. We sincerely thank all presenters, participants,... Read full story Event recap "51st Annual Midwest Conference on Andean & Amazonian Archaeology & Ethnohistory"
- 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
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
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Spring B Last 395: Topics in Q'anjob'al Language and the Community
This course is an introduction to the Mayan language and community of Guatemala known as Q’anjob’al. It is designed to provide students with an overview of the Q’anjob’al speakers and their complex everyday sociocultural interactions.
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 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.
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.
LAST 210, CRN 78201: Life in the Andes
An overview of contemporary Andean culture, as practiced by the people in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
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
REL 494, CRN 76930: Modern Judaism: Religion, Culture, Politics
What is the relation of Judaism and the individual Jew to the modern world? Is Judaism a religion, a nationality, an ethnicity, or a combination of these? This course explores various answers to these questions by examining various historical and cultural formations of Jewish identity in Europe, the Americas/Caribbean, Asia, and Africa.
ARTH 342, LAST 342: ARTS OF COLONIAL LATIN AMERICA
Embark on a journey through the history, stylistic evolutions, and thematic movements of Latin American visual cultures from the 16th to the early 19th centuries.The course brings into focus themes like pictorial constructions of race, indigenous workshops and traditions, the emergence of art academies, pictorial portrayals of gender, and the birth of creole nationalist identities.
ARTH 495: Senior Seminar MEXICAN MURALISM
This seminar dives into the origins, forces, and creative boom of paintings that defined the Mexican Mural Renaissance of the early 20th century. While spotlighting the movement’s famed figures such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, we also explore the overlooked contributions of women muralists and the lasting impact on later artists and artistic collectives.