The Latina/Latino Studies Program was established at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign campus in 1996 as a result of vocal student activism for an academic program to provide courses, recruit faculty, and do community outreach around Latina/o issues, research, and scholarship. Since then, the Program has grown and developed, offering undergraduates a minor in Latina/Latino Studies as well as an interdisciplinary major. The Program now offers thirty-three courses, including several graduate level courses. A host of students have received a Minor in Latina/Latino Studies. Some of these students have gone on to pursue graduate work in Latina/o Studies.
In its ten-year history, the program has made significant strides in recruiting and attracting well-known scholars across the humanities and social sciences. The Program now has twenty-three faculty and faculty affiliates. In 2001, the Program began offering postdoctoral fellowships. Since then, seven postdoctoral fellows have spent an academic year at the Program conducting research and teaching classes. Latina/Latino Studies faculty have been particularly concerned with making links to local communities and constituencies in Illinois, and thus, some have conducted research among Illinois Latinas/os. Others have supervised graduate and undergraduate student research in Latina/o communities. In addition, some of the Program’s curricular offerings have focused on Latinas/os in the Midwest and in Chicago specifically, home communities of many of our undergraduates.
The Latina/Latino Studies Program has hosted several national conferences and invited Latina/o Studies scholars who are prominent in their respective fields to give public lectures. These events, as well as the hiring of distinguished faculty in the field of Latina/Latino Studies, have continued to enhance the Program. The Program aims to serve University of Illinois students, the campus more broadly, and the wider population of the state of Illinois.
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