Undergraduate

Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies (LALACS) is an interdisciplinary department that brings together Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Latino Studies. LALACS courses cross the humanities, the social sciences, and interdisciplinary studies. LALACS offers an exchange program in Havana, Cuba, along with experiential learning courses working with local immigrant communities.

Mission Statement

The Department of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies is committed to fostering a collaborative environment for students, faculty, and staff in which they can produce and share knowledge about Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean languages, cultures, societies, politics, geographies, and histories, LALACS makes great effort to reflect Dartmouth's history of excellence in liberal arts under graduate education, independent student research, international understanding, and community service. Our interdisciplinary curriculum allows faculty and students to work across more established disciplinary boundaries while at the same time promoting the rigorous demands of scholarly methodologies, theories, and critical approaches. Most of LALACS's classes are small and provide direct student-professor interaction. In addition, the affiliated faculty members regularly work with students on independent research projects and honors theses.

 LALACS Majors and Minors who study abroad in the Spanish and Portuguese Department's Foreign Study Programs (FSPs) in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Salvador, Brazil receive credit toward their electives, and students can also participate in Georgetown University's summer programs in Buenos Aires and Santiago, Chile for major and minor credit. LALACS also offers an exchange program in Havana, Cuba, and experiential learning courses in Latino Studies.

Students who major or minor in LALACS leave with the analytical tools to conduct interdisciplinary research, the adaptability to engage with various types of communities (regional, ethnic, language-based, academic, business, etc.), and an acute awareness of the regional and transnational complexities of the Latin American, Latino and Caribbean experience.