LALS Research Groups

Merrill College, Casa Latina 831.459.3789

Since 1992, the Research Center for the Americas (formerly the Chicano Latino Research Center) has helped make UC Santa Cruz a vibrant hub for Latin American, Latino, and migration studies. Drawing from and bringing together the social sciences, humanities, and arts, our work explores the diversity of the Americas, with a focus on the mobility of people, ideas, and commodities. We are especially interested in questions related to citizenship, class, economics, education, embodiment, everyday cultures, genders, identities, indigeneity, labor, language, nation, place, policy, politics, race, representation, sexualities, social movements, the state, and statelessness.

Faculty, graduate and undergraduate students participate in regular public seminars and lectures.

The RCA teaches UC Santa Cruz undergraduates how to think critically and helps prepare them for graduate and professional school by providing them with mentorship and hands-on research experience via our Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program. Over 2015-16, our Undergraduate Researchers helped establish Nuestras Historias: The CLRC Archive, a trove of information about the RCA's past and the vital role we play at UC Santa Cruz.