Find your path in Latina/Latino Studies
- The Department of Latina/Latino Studies is proud to announce that Professor Elizabeth Velásquez Estrada has been appointed as a National Humanities Center Fellow for the 2024-2025 academic year. Chosen from 492 applicants, Professor Velásquez Estrada is part of the cohort of the 47th class of 31 fellows selected this year. The National... Read full story Professor Elizabeth Velásquez Estrada appointed as a 2024-25 National Humanities Center Fellow
- The Department of Latina/Latino studies is pleased to announce that Professor Nic Flores was recently accepted to participate in three year Knowledge of AIDS (KOA) Research Collaboration Network. The KOA is a Research Community Development project supported by a collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation and Science and Technology Studies Program. The KOA seeks to form scholarly community for social scientific, humanistic, and... Read full story Professor Nic Flores to participate in Knowledge of AIDS Research Collaboration Network
- The Department of Latina/Latino Studies is pleased to announce that Professor Mirelsie Velázquez and Lydia Socorro Alvarez, a LLS 100 TA and LLS undergraduate alumna, have each been awarded the Legacía Award for La Casa Cultural Latina’s 50th Anniversary. The Legacía Award is a special recognition awarded to 50 outstanding individuals who have shaped the legacy of La Casa and our Latina/o/x/e communities over the past 50 years... Read full story Professor Mirelsie Velázquez and Lydia Socorro Alvarez awarded Legacía Award for La Casa Cultural Latina’s 50th Anniversary
Intro Latina/Latino Studies
Interdisciplinary introduction to the basis for a Latina/Latino ethnicity in the United States.
Puerto Rican Diaspora
This course will examine the social, political, and cultural history of Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans across the diaspora, from 1898 to the present.
Race, Gender and the Body
Focuses generally on the relation between power and the body. In western culture, the body is typically thought of as a natural, biological entity. However, as a number of social theorists have pointed out, the body can never be reduced to mere biology.
Race, Medicine, and Society
The idea of race has historically been central to how Western cultures conceptualize and think about human difference. This course examines the historical significance of race through one domain of knowledge: medicine.
Upcoming events
Alumni spotlight: Antonio Ortega ’14 – Instructional Technologist, School of Professional Studies, Northwestern University
Being a first-generation college student, I remember electing Latina/Latino Studies 100 as one of my initial courses during my first fall semester at the University of Illinois. I was so enthralled by what I was learning. The history of the Latino/Latina population in the United States. Subjects and topics that were never discussed in my elementary and high school history classes. The history of “mi gente.” I was so fascinated that I chose Latino/Latina Studies as my second major to go along with my History major. I became an elementary school teacher in the South side of Chicago and took...