About

Director’s Welcome

Welcome to the Center for Latin America and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. CLACS serves as a home for community members, students, teachers, and scholars interested in Latin America and the Caribbean. We are proud to serve as a Title VI National Resource Center (NRC), jointly funded by the U.S. Department of Education in consortium with the UW-Madison Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program.

As you browse through our website, you will get to know the breadth and depth of UWM’s expertise in Latin America and the Caribbean. Our faculty and staff have wide-ranging teaching and research interests related to the region, whether it is in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, creative arts, or the professions. Their passion translates into our courses, academic programs, and programming on campus and beyond.

CLACS is proud to serve as an educational resource for the local, national, and international community. Our regional faculty network includes over 100 scholars throughout the upper Midwest with Latin American Studies expertise. CLACS regularly sponsors cultural events, public lectures, workshops for K-16 teachers, curricular resources, scholarships and grants for field research, and so much more.

We hope you’ll take the time to learn about what we do here and consider joining our community.

Natasha Borges Sugiyama
Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS)
Professor of Political Science

About the Center

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) plays a unique role at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and beyond. Supported by the UWM College of Letters and Science and the U.S. Department of Education, CLACS serves each in an intertwined and overlapping way with Latin America and the Caribbean at its core. At UWM, CLACS hosts academic offerings such as the LACUSL major and the Latin American and Caribbean Studies certificate, and provides program and financial support for faculty and students with research-travel monies. CLACS serves a large body of faculty across schools/colleges at UW-Milwaukee and from public and private institutions in the upper midwest region. Teacher training support for the greater K–16 community, public engagement with community organizations, course development, and library support are all major pillars of its federal grant funding.

CLACS History

The CLACS foundation is interwoven with the creation of a Peace Corps training center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM).

The Peace Corps formally requested that UWM devise a 10-week program, beginning in January 1963, to train volunteers to develop savings and loan operations in Peru. Additional contracts were received to train volunteers for work in rural cooperatives and agricultural extension in Panama and Colombia as well as Ecuador and Brazil.

In 1963 the Peace Corps entered into a long-term training contract that designated UWM as a year-round Peace Corps Training Center, one of only four universities so recognized and the only one that would undertake training for world regions. UWM was now able to make long-range plans and commitments for administration and instruction; significantly improve foreign language teaching laboratories and library resources; recruit foreign nationals from the host countries to enrich the programs; and arrange permanent housing for the trainees.

In the following years UWM’s Peace Corps partnership was extended to include federal funding of faculty research and overseas travel; development and publication of innovative foreign language intensive instructional materials; evaluation of training within the context of volunteer performance overseas; and training by UWM faculty in the host country. Over a six-year period, 44 Peace Corps projects (including Latin America) training over 1,500 volunteers, were completed.

The UWM Peace Corps relationship was highly beneficial to UWM. UWM and its faculty received national and international recognition for their strength in international studies. The Peace Corps connection facilitated faculty recruitment; improved instructional resources, especially in the foreign language area; enriched the student body (and faculty) with returning volunteers; and led directly to additional federal grants, such as one in 1965 to establish a Center for Latin America under the National Defense Education Act.

The Center has continued to receive federal funding which is now under Title VI of the Higher Education Act. In 1973, it formed a Title VI consortium in partnership with what is now the UW-Madison Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies Program (LACIS). In 2000 the Center’s name was changed to the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies to better reflect the scope of faculty research and teaching expertise. In 2015 CLACS celebrated 50 years of continuous National Resource Center funding.

Edited from a history written by former CLACS staff member, Cheryle Darmek.

National Resources Center (NRC) Mission

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee develops, supports, and promotes teaching, research, and public engagement about Latin America and the Caribbean.

Services and resources are available to UWM faculty, staff and students; K-12 teachers and post-secondary educators; professional groups; and the community. CLACS seeks to promote informed, culturally sensitive perspectives for Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest and the United States.

Other Title VI Centers

Learn more about the programs supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) Office, including international and area studies National Resource Centers (NRCs), Language Resource Centers (LRCs) and Centers for International Business Education (CIBEs) by exploring this interactive IFLE Grantee site.

Advisory Committee

Read the list of Advisory Committee members

Join Our Listserv

WISLAS-list (Wisconsin Latin American Studies) serves as a statewide and regional instrument for sharing events, resources and opportunities related to Latin America and the Caribbean.

Who should subscribe?

• K-12 teachers
• 2 and 4 year college faculty
• Undergraduate and graduate students
• Community members
• Anybody and everybody interested in Latin American and Caribbean language and area studies

What kind of information will I receive and can I share with others on the list?

• Information on professional development opportunities for educators (K-16) available locally and nationally
• Details on conferences, cultural performances, film series and other events throughout the region
• News of available resources for teaching and learning about the Americas

To subscribe, please send an email to Monica Vanbladel at vanblade@uwm.edu