The Center offers its own interdisciplinary undergraduate major and minor. We offer great flexibility in choosing courses about Latin America, the Caribbean and Diasporas in the humanities and social sciences. As a unit within the School or Arts and Sciences the courses for our major and minor intersect with many other majors and minors within SAS including Spanish/Portuguese, Anthropology, Sociology, Latino & Caribbean Studies, History, Political Science and Geography. Students from other schools including SEBS and SCI should contact me to explore how their coursework may count as elective credits in the Latin American Studies major and minor.
As Director, I provide individualized advising on course selection, fulfilling the language requirement, study abroad, and graduate school and career opportunities. As you can see from our course list, students have many options every semester and can carve out more focused regional or country-specific specialties. Our graduates have pursued many different trajectories informed by their coursework and training including public service, graduate school, public health, business and work with NGO's. We are committed to helping our students be successful in their goals.
Start-of-the-year Note--2024-2025
Dear Colleagues,
My apologies for the delayed start-of-the-year note. This note will clarify where we stand as a program and my plans for the year. Please read below for some critical information.
People and Program News
Congrats to our colleagues who received promotions at the end of last year. So far, I have identified Kenneth Sebastian Leon and Antonio Tillis. Please send us updates on tenures and promotions. I have not been able to locate an official University or SAS list or announcement. We also welcome new faculty, including Kaysha Corinealdi of Latino & Caribbean Studies.
I want to welcome our new Post-Doctoral Associate, Vierelina Fernandez, to our community. Vierelina is a recent Ph.D. in International Relations from Florida International University. Vierelina's work is about the experience of women in Colombia’s guerrilla movement and the Kurdish national movement. She also has work on Mexico. We will be hosting the usual book manuscript workshop for her at some point, and she will be helping with CLAS events and Working Groups. She is also teaching our intro course and will offer a Spring course on women in Latin America. Feel free to reach out to her (
Nancy Rosado continues to be our administrative assistant this year. Javier Gonzalez will continue helping us with our media, and Jeynelee Ortiz is our new undergraduate assistant. With their help, we will continue sending the weekly bulletin and frequent website updates and news. Please reply to their requests for information on your work and achievements.
The CLAS-affiliated program I developed in Puerto Rico (the Rutgers/Puerto Rico Archival Collaboration-PRAC) received a million-dollar grant from the Mellon Foundation this past summer. Mellon funding allowed me to recruit 40 new interns. CLAS Graduate Student Affiliate Laurian Rosa (Geography) worked as a PRAC intern at the Archivo General de Puerto Rico as part of her CLAS-funded summer research. She helped organize a major Comision de Mineria collection. Next summer, the funding will allow us to send one Rutgers graduate student and one undergraduate to work with archival materials. If you would like more information, you can visit the new website.
Administration and the Future of the CLAS
This is an important update on the existential aspects of the CLAS. I was appointed as CLAS Director late, on 9 July, and only for a one-year term, not the ordinary three-year term. I was told that SAS will implement unspecified revisions to its various Centers. Dean Wade's office provided no additional details about this decision. After receiving vague messaging from the Dean Wade’s office about impending budget readjustments for the past year, we received our regular budget very late--the third week of August. It is the same level of funding as the previous year--$19,000. This is one reason why my planning for this year has been delayed. Furthermore, SAS notified me of their intent to tax the income that CLAS generates from offering courses in winter/summer sessions. Years ago, we established an agreement with SAS that created our post-doctoral associate position and allowed us to use the income from summer/winter to cover part-time teaching and subsidize our events/programming budget. This income is effectively 50% of the funds I have as director for programs (part-time teaching, events, student labor, and research awards)
The memo explaining the 90% tax and when it will be implemented is incomprehensible, and my requests for clarification have gone nowhere. This means that I am still unsure if SAS will take nearly all of our winter/summer income this year or next, which would constitute 50% of our available funds for activities.
Based on this administrative and financial landscape, I have delayed some decisions regarding programming and budgeting. I am starting with a minimalist approach that keeps our different programs in place, even with reduced funds. This is what I can plan for with certainty:
- Fulfill our obligations to our new Postdoctoral Associate (modest research fund, manuscript workshop)
- Organize the yearly CLAS research conference (for November). Graduate students and faculty will be invited to present. We will continue to cover lunch!
- Assign $750 in programming funds to each of the Faculty/Grad Student Working Groups.
- We will host a symposium in the Spring term on old and new sources of violence in Latin America.
- We will continue the lunch-time advanced graduate student presentations.
- We will continue the (low cost!) Rutgers Faculty talks.
- We will host talks this year by:
- Julie Greene, Professor, University of Maryland. Julie works on the history of the Panama Canal, Caribbean labor, and US imperial practices.
- Grazzia Grimaldi, Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Princeton University. Grazzia works on carceral and anti-carceral politics in Central America.
If the 90% tax on our winter/summer session income is implemented in the current budget year:
- We will likely have to cancel our lecturer-taught spring section of 101. We pay for that course with our funds.
- We will have to cut our graduate student research awards in half. I intend to pursue continued collaboration with the returning director of the Caribbean Institute and encourage them to contribute to Caribbean-based research projects. The Executive Committee will discuss whether we should proceed by lowering the amount offered for each award or providing fewer awards.
- We cannot provide funds for co-sponsored events originating in other programs. We will continue to cosponsor programs and encourage attendance and participation.
- We will have to be mindful of student labor costs.
CLAS Needs Support
- We need a School-wide faculty expression of support for our Centers and more vigilance (and involvement) specific to our Center and Latin America/Caribbean-oriented programs at Rutgers.
- We need volunteers for our Executive Committee.
- We need faculty and/or graduate student coordinators for the Working Groups. I will send a note to those groups to caucus and appoint (or dictate) coordinators soon.
- Please communicate with our Post-Doctoral Associate, Vierelina Fernandez (
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ), about links and involvement with your department or programs. - If you have ideas for programming, please reach out directly or via the Working Groups.
- We are looking for a Graduate Students Rep. In the past years, Laura de Moya (History) had served in this capacity, and we are thankful for her support.
As most of you know, we have refined the art of doing a lot with little, and we will continue to apply this principle to our program for this year.
We have other news items on our website: Rutgers CLAS people at LASA, graduate student recognitions and awards, new books by faculty, and more. CLAS.rutgers.edu
Please inform us of any events, seminars, or workshops that should be shared with colleagues…and of new faculty and graduate students in your programs. Send Jeynelee (
And thank you, Grammarly.
Saludos,
Aldo LS
Director
The Rutgers Center for Latin American Studies
Annual and Term-end Report, 2023-2024
Aldo A. Lauria Santiago, Director
Introduction
This is my third yearly report as CLAS director and marks the end of my appointed term. Despite numerous challenges, I firmly believe in the value of investing in building a community of students focused on Latin America at and around Rutgers. I hope our efforts have laid a strong foundation for further improvements and support from the School of Arts and Sciences. I am deeply grateful for the collective work of faculty, graduate students, and administrators in fostering both community and knowledge sharing.
Events and Co-sponsorships
This year, the CLAS organized thirteen events, including those initiated by our faculty/student working groups. We also co-sponsored six programs, including major initiatives, with funding support. Additionally, we facilitated seven meetings of the Princeton/Rutgers History of Latin America Workshop, coordinated by Rutgers History graduate student and CLAS Program Assistant, Javier Gonzalez.
Highlights from these events include attendance ranging from ten participants for smaller events to over 50 for colloquia and formal presentations. We spent a total of $10,000 on these events (covering speakers and food).
The CLAS also promoted dozens of other events, including many online events sponsored by sister centers and institutions within Rutgers and other universities. Our community can be proud of the hundreds of participants in our events this year, including significant involvement from individuals in New Jersey, other states, and Latin America.
Working Groups
We expanded to six working groups this year, with the Andean, Colombia, and Indigenous Studies groups being the most active. These groups initiated various events and organized multi-sponsored events.
Post-Doctoral Associate
Our postdoctoral associate, Briana Nichols, served three terms of her four-term appointment. She taught three sections of our 101 course and one section of a topics course. We held an intensive book manuscript review session with her, supported by Prof. Berg and an external reader. Dr. Nichols is negotiating a contract for her manuscript with a publisher. Besides supporting the Center’s events, she organized a colloquium on migrant mobilities in Central America. She resigned to accept a non-teaching appointment at the University of Pennsylvania.
We conducted a search for a new postdoctoral associate for the 2024-2026 term, receiving over fifty highly qualified applications. Our offer to FIU graduate student Vierelina Fernandez was accepted. Dr. Fernández’s work focuses on women in armed revolutionary movements in Colombia and the Kurdish national movement.
Website and Communications
We have emphasized improvements to our website and communications. This year, we added a Directory of New Jersey-based Latinamericanists and made frequent updates. We also posted dozens of news items from faculty, graduate students, and other affiliates.
Undergraduate
This year we offered four sections of our 101 course during the Fall and Spring semesters, and three during winter/summer session. We also offered one topics course on Central America and Mexico, taught by our post-doctoral associate. Enrollments ranged from good to excellent, with the online asynchronous spring term section leading the enrollments. Geisa Rocha continued to teach one section of our 101 in fall and spring. CLAS continued to pay for one section while SAS paid for a second in person section as well as the single spring semester asynchronous online section. Gabriel Aleman taught our online section of 101 in the spring semester.
CLAS continued to support undergraduates in other majors and minors interested in Latin America and the Caribbean. We listed and cross-listed all courses on Latin America and the Caribbean offered by departments and our faculty affiliates. Advising of majors and minors included a dozen Zoom sessions, with one major and six minors, graduating two minors this academic year.
We collaborated with the Spanish/Portuguese Department and the Department of Latino & Caribbean Studies to cross-promote undergraduate recruitment. Our strongest faculty presence is from Spanish/Portuguese, History, Latino/Caribbean Studies, and Geography, but we have significant weaknesses in sociology, anthropology, political science, and various interdisciplinary fields.
Support for Graduate Research
RAICCS Acting Director Kathleen Lopez joined CLAS in supporting graduate student research grants. We funded nearly twenty graduate students for summer research, dedicating $12,000 to student grants ($5,000 from SAS and $7,000 from our own summer/winter session income). RAICCS spent $7,000 on Caribbean-focused proposals.
CLAS sponsored a half-day research symposium with presentations from past grant recipients and other students. We also promoted smaller lunchtime presentations by advanced graduate students, hosting talks by Jian Ren from History and Carolina Sanchez from Spanish/Portuguese.
Special Projects
CLAS continued its partnership with the Puerto Rico Archival Collaboration, contributing $420 to labor costs for a graduate student intern in Puerto Rico. The PRAC leveraged support from external grants and research accounts of faculty colleagues at Rutgers, Yale, and the University of Connecticut. We were recently approved for a $1,000,000 three-year grant from the Mellon Foundation. The grant will fund participation in the archival summer program by one Rutgers undergraduate and one Rutgers graduate student, with additional support from the New Jersey Latino Studies fund directed by Professor Lopez.
Our "Latino Studies for Latinamericanists in Latin America" lecture program, funded by a grant from Global Rutgers, was postponed for a year. Graduate students Javier Gonzalez and Nathan Darmiento will implement a revised model of talks about Latino communities in the US for audiences in Latin American institutions.
Professional Networks
CLAS continued to share information on in-person events in the tri-state area and important online events. Our graduate students formed an ongoing partnership with their peers at Princeton, running a historian’s workshop that will continue next year. We also coordinated the creation of a directory of Latinamericanists in New Jersey institutions, which has grown to nearly 60 colleagues.
CLAS hosted three visiting scholars: UCLA graduate student Jennifer Carcamo and Sociologist Elena Sabogal. Former post-doctoral associate Briana Nichols also joined the Center as a visiting scholar.
Administrative Support
This year, CLAS transitioned to sharing the time of a newly hired administrator, Nancy Rosario, with other SAS area studies centers. This dedicated administrative support has been crucial in handling our tasks. Undergraduate and graduate assistants have been vital to our communications. Hely Dodia and Javier Gonzalez Cortes continued to work on our website, social media, and events coordination. Cheyenne Menezes worked with us during the Fall semester. We spent about $6,000 on student assistance, with $2,000 provided by SAS. Hely is graduating, and we have recruited sophomore Jeynelee Ortiz as her replacement.
Executive Committee
The executive committee met twice this year and provided the Director with advice and suggestions. The executive committee recommended that next year we support a faculty research fellow with a modest stipend.
At the end of this year three members cycled out of the EC while two were elected to the EC. Non-New Brunswick faculty contributed significantly to our EC.
Executive Committee, 2023-2024
- Ulla Berg, Departments of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies; Anthropology
- Laura Cuesta, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
Outgoing members:
- Kenneth Sebastian León, Assistant Professor, Department: LCS and Criminal Justice Program
- Andrea Marston, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
- Isaias Rojas-Perez, Associate Professor, Department: Sociology and Anthropology Rutgers-Newark
Newly elected members:
- Kenneth Sebastian León, Assistant Professor, Department: LCS and Criminal Justice Program
- Isaias Rojas-Perez, Associate Professor, Department: Sociology and Anthropology Rutgers-Newark
I thank all faculty involved with the EC for their support of the Center’s activities.
Social Events
CLAS co-hosted an end of the year graduation celebration and reception with the Department of Latino & Caribbean Studies with over 75 people in attendance.
Facilities
This year, we hosted nearly half of our events in the Academic Building of the College Avenue Campus. On Livingston, we continued to be hosted by the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies, which provides one office to the Center. With the change in configuration of administrative staff, we lost one office, which we have requested back from the Department. Currently, we have an office for a post-doctoral associate, various meeting rooms, one classroom, and one shared office for part-time faculty. We also co-host a digitizing lab with the Department.
Budget and perspective
Our events and labor budget continue to be sourced from an SAS allocation and shared revenue from our courses in winter/summer sessions. SAS funded salaries for our post-doctoral associate, two part-time lecturer courses, and the Director’s salary and research supplements.
Three-year Perspective
These three years have been both thrilling and frustrating. Our achievements are evident, but our challenges need to be addressed. We have over fifty faculty affiliates on three campuses yet very modest faculty participation. We rely heavily on about a dozen faculty colleagues who serve in the EC and the working groups. I have been elected to a second term as director, which I welcome, but with a small number of votes. Funding also continues to be contentious, with the promise of a funding cut that, if implemented, will reduce our program and labor budget by 50%.
Appendices
I. Graduate Student Grant Recipients
1. Anderson de Andrade, Sociology
2. Tamara Velasquez Leiferman, Global Studies, Newark
3. Diana Iturralde, Art History
4. Jian Ren, History
5. Gabriela Duncan, Regional Planning
6. Nathan Darmiento, History
7. Leonardo Calzada, Geography
8. Sandra Acocal, History
9. Gloria D'Alessio, Anthroplogy
10. Clive Echague, Anthroplogy
11. Daniela Mosquera, Geography
12. Javier Gonzalez, History
13. Nia Cambridge, Geography
14. Dalia Grinan, History
15. Laurian Rosa Rosa, History
16. Mildred Lopez Escudero, Spanish/Portuguese
17. Javiera Barrientos, English
II. Events (see PDF)
September 2023 Welcome Message
June 2023 Annual Report
September 2021 Welcome Message
