Contact:
Jorge Coronado
Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portugese
1860 Campus Drive, Room 2-163
e-mail: jcoronado@northwestern.edu
phone: 847-491-8129

• How to Participate
• Courses and Requirements
• Programming and Events

Program Description
The Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) Cluster draws on the expertise of more that two dozen Northwestern faculty members from different disciplines who have shared interests in this region.  Building on this strong faculty base and on growing interest in the region, the LACS cluster aims to help graduate students to think of familiar questions in unfamiliar ways that will foster innovation within the traditional disciplines, as well as provide students with a much deeper understanding of the region than they might otherwise achieve.  The LACS cluster is one of the first initiatives in the country to offer a formal structure for interdisciplinary training in Latin American and Caribbean studies.  The cluster also provides a much needed intellectual community for participating students, as the number of students in each department who are interested in the region is relatively small.  The LACS cluster does this in three specific ways.  First, it is built around a core curriculum consisting of courses taught in any one of three core areas of inquiry, chosen because of their enduring interdisciplinary importance.  Second, the cluster runs an ongoing faculty and graduate colloquium in which students at all levels of the program present their works in progress.  Students who complete courses from each of these three areas, and attend the colloquium for credit, are be awarded a Graduate Certificate in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.  And third, the cluster seeks to strengthen formal ties between Northwestern and partner institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to promote graduate and faculty research and exchange.

Students interested in pursuing a PhD in Art History, Communication Studies, Comparative Literary Studies, History, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Religion, Sociology, and Theatre and Drama are encouraged to find a second intellectual “home” in this interdisciplinary cluster.

Advising
All of LACS Cluster students are assigned an advisor from the Cluster's core faculty.  Students construct their program in consultation with this advisor.  It is suggested that students include a program faculty member from outside his or her home department on their dissertation defense committee.

Program Faculty
Josef Barton (History), Paul Breslin (English), Sherwin Bryant (History and African-American Studies), Jorge Coronado (Spanish & Portuguese), Brodwyn Fischer (History), Frank Safford (History) Lucille Kerr (Spanish & Portuguese), James Mahoney (Sociology and Political Science), Yarí Pérez Marín (Spanish & Portuguese), Ben Schneider (Political Science), Ed Gibson (Political Science), and Mary Weismantel (Anthropology)