Bachelor of Arts - Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Latin American nations account for almost two thirds of the total population of the Western Hemisphere. Today, Latinos and Latin-Americans represent the largest minority group in the United States, accounting for sixteen percent of the population. Knowledge of Latin American and Caribbean cultures, environment, and society are crucial to U.S. hemispheric relations and world understanding. For over fifty years, the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies (CLACS) has provided the University of Kansas students the opportunity to study this region and its peoples and encourage the development of foreign language, research, writing, and critical thinking skills.

Students learn how to critically examine Latin America and the Caribbean and its diverse populations by exposing them to different frameworks of study each offering a unique critical lens. Latin American & Caribbean Studies offers students interested in Latin America the opportunity to take a wide range of classes drawing from different departments and disciplines.

A student interested in environmental issues in Latin America or the Caribbean might take classes in History, Environmental Studies, and Anthropology. Another student might take classes in Spanish and Portuguese, Music, and Film and Media Studies to explore contemporary Latin American film and theater.

With more than 100 core, affiliate, and research faculty members associated with the Center, students will cultivate a knowledge of Latin America and the Caribbean that will help them develop cultural fluency, intellectual flexibility, problem-solving skills, and a breadth of knowledge about Latin America. Most majors further their education by participating in study abroad, and have the opportunity to study languages of the region, including the indigenous ones.

The program offers a range of opportunities for students from most academic disciplines to study this region. The University of Kansas has particular depth in Central America, Mexico, Haiti, the Andes, Paraguay, and Brazil and professors and courses concerned with much of the rest of Latin America. The university has an excellent library collection on Latin America and is one of the few U.S. universities teaching Haitian Creole, Andean Kichwa, and the Miskitu language of the Central American coast.