The Center for Latin American & Latino Studies (CLALS) is a multidisciplinary center harnessing expertise from throughout the American University community and with counterparts in D.C. and around the world to serve as a catalyst for the creation of knowledge about Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino communities in the United States. Its work reflects enduring commitment to social inclusion, good governance, human security, equitable international relations, and understanding of societal challenges in the region.
The Center’s goals are to:
- Empower changemakers throughout the hemisphere by giving them high quality data and analysis about Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latino communities in the United States.
- Raise the quality of debate, policy, and advocacy on and in Latin America and the Caribbean by generating and disseminating cutting-edge research.
- Deepen understanding of the dynamics within and around Latino communities as integral participants in the national political, social, and economic life of the United States.
- Promote community and inclusion among people of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and interests throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States through the open exchange of knowledge.
Message from Director Ernesto Castañeda
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Project Spotlights
Focus Areas
Center projects address Inclusion, Governance, Security, International Relations, Environment, and Regional and Country Studies. Learn more about these six key focus areas of our research below.
Inclusion
Governance
Security
International Relations
Environment
Regional-Country Studies
Announcements
2024 William M. LeoGrande Prize and Award & Prize Winners Announced
We are happy to announce the 2024 William M. LeoGrande Award for the best book or article in Latin American or Latino Studies published by a member of the AU community has been awarded to Brenda Werth and her co-editor Katherine Zien for their edited volume Bodies on the Front Lines: Performance, Gender, and Sexuality in Latin America and the Caribbean (University of Michigan Press, 2024). This volume trains a compelling spotlight on the optimistic, creative and ongoing work of feminist, queer, and trans movements across Latin America, highlighting the contrastively hopeful perspectives of this work at a moment when members of these communities are so often under attack elsewhere.
We are also pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2024 William M. LeoGrande Prize for the best book on U.S.-Latin American Relations is Stephanie Canizales for her remarkable book Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States (University of California Press, 2024). Her book tells the often heartrending story of the hardships navigated by Central American migrant youth in and around Los Angeles, in the process offering a new understanding of immigrant incorporation. This is a well-researched and timely account of the many challenges faced by unaccompanied teen migrants, including low wage work, lack of support from relatives, and often harrowing material and emotional hardships.
Religion, Migration, and Worldmaking in the Borderlands E-Forum Launched
CLALS is pleased to announce the online publication of a new forum, titled "Religion, Migration, and Worldmaking in the Borderlands." A first of its kind and the outcome of CLALS's years-long Henry Luce Foundation-funded project on “Religion and Environmentally-Induced Displacement in Latin America and the Caribbean," this forum explores intersections of religion with the experience of migration, humanitarian aid for migrants, and the increasingly securitized borderland spaces through which migrants move. Co-edited by CLALS Associate Director Rob Albro and Research Fellow Luciana Gandini, and the result of a workshop held in Tijuana, Mexico, in March of 2023, this collection of ten original essays includes a contribution by CLALS Director Ernesto Castañeda.
Funder & Partner Highlights
The Center Announces a Research Project in Collaboration with FLACSO Costa Rica
The Center has been awarded a contract to partner with the Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales - Costa Rica in efforts to disseminate findings of Vidas Sitiadas II, a multi-year, six-country research program focused on populations of vulnerable women in Latin America. With particular emphases on gender, youth, violence, and employment, the project's case studies on Costa Rica, El Salvador, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina offer fresh insights into dynamics of social and economic inclusion, and the sorts of policies and practices that might broaden opportunities for women across the region, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CLALS Receives a Grant to Study Illegal Fishing in Latin America
The Center has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of State for its “Western Hemisphere Regional Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing Assessment” initiative. Led by CLALS faculty affiliate and SIS Associate Professor Matt Taylor and CLALS Research Fellow Steven Dudley, this project assesses and maps fishing legislation; law enforcement capacity to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing); scope of crimes associated with IUU fishing; and the adverse economic and environmental impacts of IUU fishing across Latin America and the Caribbean.