Find your path in Latina/Latino Studies
- The Department of Latina/Latino Studies is pleased to announce that Lydia Socorro Alvarez has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to serve as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Spain for the 2024-2025 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Alvarez is a TA for LLS 100: Intro to Latina/Latino Studies and an LLS undergraduate alumna. She is a second-year graduate student in... Read full story TA Lydia Socorro Alvarez receives Fulbright U.S. Student award for 2024-2025
- An annual study of recent alumni reports 80% of sociology, anthropology, and interdisciplinary cultural studies graduates secured their first destination within six months of commencement. Latina/Latino studies majors were included in the data along with African American studies, gender and women’s studies, individual plans of study, and Latin American studies. Read full story 80% of recent Latina/Latino studies majors secure first destination
- The Department of Latina/Latino Studies is proud to announce that Professor Elizabeth Velásquez Estrada has been appointed as a National Humanities Center Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. Chosen from 492 applicants, Professor Velásquez Estrada is part of the cohort of the 47th class of 31 fellows selected this year. The National... Read full story Professor Elizabeth Velásquez Estrada appointed as a 2024-25 National Humanities Center Fellow
Intro Latina/Latino Studies
Interdisciplinary introduction to the basis for a Latina/Latino ethnicity in the United States.
Puerto Rican Diaspora
This course will examine the social, political, and cultural history of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans across the diaspora, from 1898 to the present.
Race, Gender and the Body
Focuses generally on the relation between power and the body. In western culture, the body is typically thought of as a natural, biological entity. However, as a number of social theorists have pointed out, the body can never be reduced to mere biology.
Race, Medicine, and Society
The idea of race has historically been central to how Western cultures conceptualize and think about human difference. This course examines the historical significance of race through one domain of knowledge: medicine.
Upcoming events
Alumni spotlight: Juan Mora, PhD, '13 - Assistant Professor, Department of History and Latino Studies Program, Indiana University, Bloomington
Juan Mora, PhD, earned his BA in History and Latina/Latino Studies in 2013. He arrived at UIUC as an undergraduate majoring in History. For his first two years at Illinois, he struggled to find the specific areas of studying history that could encourage him to succeed. As he explained, “It was when I combined Latina/o Studies with History that I was able to thrive.” Courses with Dr. Adrian Burgos Jr. and Dr. Mireya Loza, like Caribbean Latina/o Migration and Latino Social Movements, respectively, were instrumental to his development as a student and shaped his decision to eventually major in...