Mission
The Program offers an interdisciplinary study of the region of Latin American and the Caribbean, as well as Latinx and Caribbean cultures in the United States. The minor includes offerings in the study of the history, literature, arts, cultures, geography, politics, economics, and languages across the region.
Our principal goals are to foster a comprehensive understanding of the human experience in Latin America and the Caribbean and to engage in hemispheric conversations that foster an appreciation of the region’s complex past and contemporary issues. Additionally, students are encouraged to study the language and culture of Latin America and the Caribbean both on campus and abroad.
Anti-racism statement
LACS at Muhlenberg is committed to an inclusive definition of Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinx identities. Latin America and the Caribbean include countries formerly colonized by Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the Netherlands. We are committed to engaging with the long shadow of colonization including but not limited to slavery and forced labor, land dispossession, extraction of resources, settler colonialism, and genocide. Additionally, we maintain a commitment to examining and celebrating the efficacious resistance of the formerly colonized.
Our courses and extra-curricular offerings examine the ways that race and racism have been constructed in the region, including analysis of ongoing systemic racism against Black and Indigenous populations. Our courses, programming, and public-facing materials seek to de-center nationalist constructions of mestizaje to instead center and uplift the experiences of Black and Indigenous peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. We also seek to listen to BIPOC students on ways that the program can better center these diverse perspectives.
Learning Goals
- Identify key topics of discussion taking place in Latin America, the Caribbean and their diasporas from an interdisciplinary perspective
- Demonstrate understanding of specificities of language, culture, history, and politics of various communities and sub-communities in the region.
- Examine and utilize the various methodologies and theories used by various disciplines to study Latin America, the Caribbean, and their diasporas.
- Read and write analytically in order to develop critically informed views showcased through class essays and presentations
- Learn to speak, read, and write in Spanish, French, or other languages of the region
- Understand the place of Latin America and the Caribbean on a larger geo-political stage
- Critically examine the histories of colonialism in the region and their ongoing legacies
- Examine ongoing social and systemic racism in the region primarily targeting Black and Indigenous populations.
