Center for Latino Studies in the Americas

The Center for Latino Studies in the Americas contributes to the understanding of Latino/a communities in the United States and throughout Latin America and promotes scholarly communication across national boundaries. CELASA fosters the interdisciplinary analysis of the social, economic, political and cultural realities of Latin Americans and of Latina/as in the United States.

CELASA bridges USF's academic, community, and international programs focused on Latin America and Latino/as in the United States. It supports research, teaching, and service opportunities for faculty, students, community members, and visiting scholars. It functions as a central coordinating unit for academic majors and minors, study abroad and international exchanges, a visiting scholars program, student organizations, faculty research initiatives, and the Pan-American Society. CELASA connects USF to the San Francisco Bay Area community and to Jesuit networks throughout Latin America.

CELASA embodies USF's Jesuit tradition as an academic, service, and research center to advance the understanding of Latino/a communities in the United States and Latin America. It promotes open dialogue across community and national boundaries to create scholarly work that includes the multiple experiences of people in the Americas. The Center fosters an interdisciplinary analysis of the social, political, cultural, and educational realities of Latin Americans and of Latino/as in the Americas as the product of historical events, migration, and globalization. CELASA encourages scholarship and service to create a more humane and just world.

Activities

Jesuit Migration Research Network

CELASA is part of the Jesuit Migration Services - Central and North America - a group of researchers from Jesuit universities in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Central America. The network meets once a year to share research and plan cross-border collaborative projects.

CELASA is currently conducting immigration studies with researchers from the Universidad Iberoamericana in Santa Fe, Mexico, Loyola University Chicago, Rafael Landivar University in Guatemala, and the Central American University in Managua, Nicaragua.

Globalization Working Group

A research, reading and writing group of USF faculty who approach the phenomenon of globalization from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Issues addressed by USF faculty include human rights, international law, media, religion and identity, the role of the state, and business and diplomacy.

The Social Identities Reading Group

A research and reading group of USF faculty who address issues of identity, including Latino/a and Chicano/a identity. Explores how race, gender, ethnicity, and sexualities influence the experience of Latino/as in the United States.