DIRECTOR OF THE PROGRAM: Associate Professor Saldaña

Latino Studies, administered by the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis (SCA), offers multidisciplinary courses in Latino history and contemporary experiences in the United States and the Americas. The category Latino includes people of Latin American descent in the United States. The most numerous Latino populations are of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban ancestry, but groups of other national origins are an increasing presence. Latinos are studied in comparative perspective (comparisons within Latino groupings and with other ethnic groups), as well as in transnational perspective in the Americas.

Among central issues in Latino studies are the following: race and racialization across the spectrum of African American, white, and indigenous; sexuality and gender formation; immigration and migration in a climate of increased policing of international borders; electoral politics as the Latino vote has increased numerically; social movements for labor, education, and language rights; Latino/a presence in media and film; expressive and popular culture in music and the arts; language retention and invention in the United States in relation to English, Spanish, indigenous languages, and their combinations; and the failures and successes of schooling for Latinos, including bilingual education and levels of educational attainment.

Faculty

Dávila, Dopico, Ferrer, Lopez (Law), Muñoz (Tisch), Noguera (Steinhardt), Ochoa, Ospina (Wagner), Piñon (Steinhardt), Poitevin (Gallatin), Pratt, Rodríguez (Law), Rosaldo, Suarez-Orozco (Steinhardt), Taylor (Tisch)