The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies acknowledges that the institution is located within ancestral Munsee Lenape lands and that New York City has the largest urban Indigenous population in the United States. In addition to recognizing the enduring significance of these lands for Lenape nations, past and present, CLACS strongly believes that historical awareness of Indigenous exclusion and erasure is critically important. CLACS is committed to actively fostering this awareness in our teaching and programming, just as we are committed to participating in efforts to overcome the effect of long-lasting policies within and beyond NYU.

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) was founded in 1966, as the first area studies center at NYU. Today it is one of the premier centers of its kind in the country.

The Center’s national and international reputation derives from the strength of its approximately 130 research-active affiliated faculty. Among them are presidents of national professional associations, members of the National Academy, finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, recipients of Guggenheims, NEH, ACLS, Ford, Rockefeller, MacArthur and other prestigious fellowships and honors.

Together with Columbia University’s Institute of Latin American Studies, CLACS receives federal funding through the Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships Program. CLACS has been a past awardee of Title VI National Resource Center funding. designated Title VI National Resource Center (NRC). CLACS was selected as an inaugural member of the Tinker Foundation Field Research Collaborative.

CLACS hosts faculty and student research abroad, as well as faculty working groups and faculty-directed area studies initiatives: The Caribbean Initiative, the Brazil Initiative, and the Colombian Studies Initiative. CLACS hosts extensive public programming, from public lectures to film series and a range of events and workshops for K-12 teachers. The Center is highly regarded for its rigorous,  interdisciplinary MA program, one of the oldest and most successful in the field. We have joint MA programs with Global Journalism, Museum Studies, Law, and Library Science. The Center’s  Quechua and Haitian Creole language programs offer rigorous language training through the intermediate level.

Our graduates have worked in top organizations in the field including the Americas Society, the Washington Office on Latin America, the Huffington Post, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations; others have pursued PhDs and professional degrees at Yale, Duke, UCLA, UT Austin, and here at NYU.

Past and present CLACS students run the acclaimed news site Latin American News Dispatch (LAND). CLACS is also home to NACLA (the North American Congress on Latin America) whose quarterly Report is a longstanding voice in foreign policy analysis. 

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