Building Bridges with Latinx Studies

The LALS curriculum aims to elucidate the social, political, economic, and cultural processes that have given shape to the Latinx experience and give students the analytical foundation to build diverse and fulfilling careers devoted to social equality, antiracism, and human rights. As the headquarters for the Crossing Latinidades consortium—established by a $5 million grant from Mellon in 2021—LALS brings together a network of 16 research-intensive Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) for interdisciplinary, collaborative research and doctoral student training.  

With help from a new $100k grant from Mellon, LALS will implement a wide range of programming, events, and other initiatives to expand on the department’s role as an intellectual hub for LALS scholarship. Grant activities to come include speaker series, writing retreats, public events, funding for student research, and more—all geared toward enriching the LALS curriculum.  

LALS will build on the program’s long history of bringing its scholarship out of the classroom with an Anti-Racism Artist-in-Residence program and a monthly Spanish language radio series and podcast to educate migrants on their rights as workers. LALS chair Jonathan Xavier Inda explains that the program is “highly committed to engaging with and helping others to understand Latinx communities in Chicago.” In early 2024, LALS also held a teach-in focused on recent migrants to the city, most of whom arrived via bus from the US-Mexico border, “to contest the narratives of crisis that dominate public discourse.” 

LALS plans to hold the Student Activism and the Founding of the Latina/o Studies Symposium in fall 2024 to celebrate 50 years of groundbreaking research, world-class learning, and tireless bridge-building with Latinx communities throughout Chicago.