About Us

Latin American Studies at Penn State is a dynamic community of faculty and students built around degree programs, a running Lectures Series, and other related events. Our program offers three degrees—an Undergraduate Major, an Undergraduate Minor, and a Graduate Minor. The courses for these degrees are drawn from curricula across the College of the Liberal Arts and other colleges, helping the Latin American Studies program to act as a bridge connecting multiple departments, programs, centers, and faculty and students across the university.

The Latin American Studies program functions in parallel with the Latina/o Studies program. Its affiliated faculty have home departments across the College of the Liberal Arts and in other colleges. Those units include Anthropology, Art History, Communications, Comparative Literature, Economics, Geography, History, Labor and Employment Relations, Landscape Architecture, Philosophy, Political Science, Recreation, Park, and Tourism Management, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies.

The program’s mission is therefore to embrace a broad definition of Latin America and a diverse community of scholars and students, and to promote and encourage the research and teaching of Latin American Studies in the spirit of interdisciplinary inclusivity.