Mentor 1
Professor Natasha Borges Sugiyama
Location
Union Wisconsin Room
Start Date
29-4-2016 1:30 PM
End Date
29-4-2016 3:30 PM
Description
The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2015. This research project is an institutional history, with the aim of answering: What motivated the creation of the Center; how did the Center reflect the educational and political context of the day; and how has it evolved over time? To answer these questions, I conducted archival and bibliographic research, and original interviews with university officials. The motivation behind the creation of the Center for Latin American Studies (the Caribbean being added in 2000) were varied. They reflected faculty expertise, as well as the United States’ government's needs to train Peace Corps volunteers, and later deepened expertise on the region. The Center emerged in the Cold War era, and was among the few area studies centers to be an early recipient of Title VI funding through the National Defense of Education Act. Today, CLACS is one of the longest continuously funded Title VI centers in the nation. Over time, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies has continued to adapt to federal area studies funding mandates, deepened community ties, expanded dialogue between the North and the South, and broadened its geographic focus.
An Institutional History of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Union Wisconsin Room
The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2015. This research project is an institutional history, with the aim of answering: What motivated the creation of the Center; how did the Center reflect the educational and political context of the day; and how has it evolved over time? To answer these questions, I conducted archival and bibliographic research, and original interviews with university officials. The motivation behind the creation of the Center for Latin American Studies (the Caribbean being added in 2000) were varied. They reflected faculty expertise, as well as the United States’ government's needs to train Peace Corps volunteers, and later deepened expertise on the region. The Center emerged in the Cold War era, and was among the few area studies centers to be an early recipient of Title VI funding through the National Defense of Education Act. Today, CLACS is one of the longest continuously funded Title VI centers in the nation. Over time, the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies has continued to adapt to federal area studies funding mandates, deepened community ties, expanded dialogue between the North and the South, and broadened its geographic focus.
