People
Our faculty and staff bring a wealth of knowledge, interdisciplinary perspective, and lived experience to their work in the Latin American and Latino Studies Department. Our department has a majority of people of color at all levels, with the highest concentration of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups of any department at UCSC. We are 80% BIPOC faculty, of whom 30% are the first generation in their families to graduate from college, and 66% BIPOC staff.
Our staff have won awards for their unique contributions to building belonging in our department and promoting the academic success of our students. Our graduate students make substantial contributions to both research and campus initiatives on student success, mentoring of under-represented groups, and improving the experience of first-gen students.
Meanwhile our faculty have won numerous domestic and international fellowships and regularly publish with leading academic journals and university presses. They are often tapped for their expertise by news media and by global policy entities like the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. LALS faculty have won campus teaching awards and awards for research excellence from academic societies, private foundations, and other organizations.
