The study of Mexico and of US-Mexico relations has a venerable history at the University of Chicago, dating back to Robert Redfield's pioneering anthropological work in the 1920s and to some of the first analyses of US-Mexican diplomatic relations. Hewlett Foundation support for Mexican Studies helped to make the 1990s a decade of unparalleled productivity. As a result, the University's efforts in Mexican and US-Mexican studies are internationally recognized.

Guided by priorities in faculty research, Mexican Studies has turned attention to a cluster of themes of particular import for understanding current governance, economic and environmental policy issues as well as larger social processes. Specific lines of research include the history and sociology of the public sphere; the history of violence, peace and social movements; the social study of migration and of transnationalism; macroeconomic issues in Mexican development and North American integration; comparisons between Mexico-US integration and Caribbean-US integration; and democratic consolidation.

Established in 1968 to coordinate University interests in research and teaching on Latin America, the Frietz Katz Center of Mexican Studies has evolved to become a locus for intellectual exchange and innovation in Latin American studies.

We provide interdisciplinary and individualized instruction through an undergraduate concentration (major) in Latin American Studies and a Master of Arts Program in Latin American & Caribbean Studies.

The Center also: regularly coordinates workshops, seminars and conferences; sponsors student and faculty travel; hosts visiting scholars; subsidizes library acquisitions;offers outreach workshops for area school teachers;and supports the teaching and development of curricular materials in the lesser-taught languages of the region.

In consortium with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, CLAS is a National Resource Center (NRC) for Latin American Studies funded by the U.S. Department of Education, through the Title VI program. Title VI funding provides a wide range of support for curricular development, outreach programs, conferences, workshops, summer programs in the lesser taught languages (e.g., Portuguese, Aymara, Nahuatl, as well as fellowships such as the Summer Visiting Scholars Program and the Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS).

Through these programming efforts, CLAS aims to foster Latin American scholarship not only in the University of Chicagoís four Divisions and six professional schools, but throughout the Midwest region and the broader intellectual community at large.