DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER:
Professor Thomas A. Abercrombie

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) at New York University is an interdisciplinary teaching, research, and public information program. It is a Title VI National Resource Center, offering FLAS fellowship support for graduate students and support for faculty and graduate student research, a panoply of colloquia and conferences, and outreach programs focusing on primary and secondary education in the New York area. The Center opens channels of communication and encourages the sharing of ideas and observations across disciplinary boundaries, to the mutual benefit of both faculty members and students. Over fifty NYU faculty members and a varying number of visiting and adjunct professors each semester constitute the directly associated staff of the Center. The Center and its consortium partner, the Institute for Latin American Studies (ILAS) at Columbia University, formed NYCCLAS, the New York City Consortium for Latin American Studies.

Faculty affiliated with CLACS work in many disciplines and most of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, with special strengths in the circum-Caribbean, the Andes and Central America, Brazil, and the Southern Cone. The Center has a special interest in coordinating a comparative and relational hemispheric orientation toward Latin American and Caribbean issues of the past and present. It also seeks to promote transatlantic approaches to the complex interplay of European, African, and Amerindian social and cultural backgrounds in the genesis of these regions’ hybrid postcolonial realities. Areal scholarship at NYU is especially deep at the border between the humanities and the social sciences, where literature, music, the arts, and communicative media find their context in embodied social experience. Center faculty have special expertise in cultural policy, performance, memory and heritage, narrative, indigenous social movements, race and nationalism, neoliberal policies and movements opposing them, populism, migration and social justice, and the study of urban life. Within the region’s cities and across its diasporas, many study the striking coexistence of deeply stratified populations and widespread cosmopolitanism and avant-garde sensibilities, which can be found equally among the very rich and the very poor. Rather than simply providing a window through which North Americans may observe Latin America and the Caribbean, the Center seeks to serve as a bridge to them. This is especially appropriate for an institution located in New York City, a cosmopolitan hub of migration, communications, and decision making involving and directly affecting Latin America and the Caribbean.

CLACS offers a Master of Arts program in Latin American and Caribbean studies with five options: (1) Latin American and Caribbean studies; (2) Latin American and Caribbean studies with a concentration in museum studies; (3) Latin American and Caribbean studies with an advanced certificate in museum studies; (4) a dual degree M.A.-J.D. program with the NYU School of Law; and (5) a joint M.A. program with the Department of Journalism. Each of these options has slightly different admission requirements, so applicants are encouraged to check with each of the programs of interest before applying.

Faculty

Thomas A. Abercrombie, Associate Professor, Anthropology; Director, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Ph.D. 1986 (sociocultural anthropology), M.A. 1978, Chicago; B.G.S. 1973 (philosophy/Asian art history), Michigan.
Cultural history/historical anthropology; colonized societies; postcolonial situations; nationalism; ethnohistory of social movements; gender and sexuality in the Hispanic world; Andes; Spain.

George Yúdice, Professor, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures, Program in Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Ph.D. 1977 (Romance languages), Princeton; M.A. 1971 (Spanish and Portuguese), Illinois; B.A. 1970 (Spanish and chemistry), Hunter College (CUNY).
Transnational politics and cultural policy studies; globalization; civil society.

Carmen Medeiros, Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow. Ph.D. 2005 (anthropology), CUNY; M.A. 1981 (sociology), Catholic (Louvain); B.A. 1978 (social sciences), University Faculties Saint-Louis Brussels.
Critical development theory; indigenous movements; multicultural citizenship and the neoliberal project; Latin American postcolonial theory; the Andes.

Rafael Sanchez, Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow. Ph.D. 2004 (social sciences), Amsterdam; M.A. 1985 (anthropology), Chicago; B.A. 1981 (sociology), California (Santa Barbara).
Social and cultural anthropology; colonial/postcolonial studies, media, modernity, globalization; nationalism, ethnicity, the state; Venezuela, Latin America.

AFFILIATED FACULTY IN OTHER DEPARTMENTS

Gerard L. Aching, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Asale Ajani, Gallatin School of Individualized Study; Helene M. Anderson, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Miriam de Mello Ayres, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Gabriela Basterra, Comparative Literature, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Lauren Benton, History; Renée Blake, Linguistics; Kamau Brathwaite, Comparative Literature; Barbara Browning, Performance Studies; Alejandro Cañeque, Gallatin School of Individualized Study; Youssef Cohen, Politics; Juan E. Corradi, Sociology; J. Michael Dash, French; Arlene Dávila, Anthropology (American Studies); Ana M. Dopico, Comparative Literature, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Georgina Dopico-Black, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; James D. Fernández, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Raquel Fernández, Economics; Ada Ferrer, History; Sibylle Fischer, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Juan Flores, Social and Cultural Analysis (Latino Studies); Shepard Forman, Center on International Cooperation; John J. Gershman, Robert F. Wagner School of Public Policy; Jeffrey R. Goodwin, Sociology; Gregory Grandin, History; Jeff D. Himpele, Anthropology; Guillermina Jasso, Sociology; Aisha Khan, Anthropology; Kenneth L. Krabbenhoft, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Jo Labanyi, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Jill Lane, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Christopher Mitchell, Politics; Sylvia Molloy, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Jairo Moreno, Music José Esteban Muñoz, Performance Studies; Robin Nagle, Draper Program; Judith K. Némethy, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Pedro Noguera, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; Ana Maria Ochoa, Music; Sonia M. Ospina, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; Marta C. Peixoto, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Mary Louise Pratt, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Adam Przeworski, Politics; Cristina Rodriguez, NYU School of Law; Silvia N. Rosman, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Kathleen A. Ross, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; María Josefina Saldaña-Portillo, Social and Cultural Analysis (Latino Studies); John V. Singler, Linguistics; Lok C. D. Siu, Anthropology, Social and Cultural Analysis, Asian/Pacific/American Studies; Robert P. Stam, Cinema Studies; Jason Stanyek, Music; Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; Eduardo Subirats, Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literatures; Edward J. Sullivan, Art History; Constance Sutton, Anthropology; Diana Taylor, Performance Studies; Sinclair Thomson, History; Barbara Weinstein, History.

VISITING FACULTY

Jorge Castañeda, Global Distinguished Professor of Politics and Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

AFFILIATED ADJUNCT FACULTY

Carlos Decena, Adjunct Lecturer, CLACS. Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. Ph.D. 2004, New York; B.A. 1995, Pennsylvania.
Gender and sexuality; Caribbean migrations.

Anthony de Palma, Adjunct Professor, CLACS.
New York Times reporter; specialist in Cuba, Cubans in the United States.

Patricio Navia, Master Teacher, Politics, General Studies Program. Ph.D. 2003, New York; B.A. 1992, Chicago.
Electoral systems; democratization and democratic institutions.

Arturo Porzecanski, Adjunct Lecturer, Economics. Ph.D. 1975, Pittsburgh; B.A. 1971, Whittier College.
International finance; emerging markets; Latin American economics.

Albor Ruiz, Lecturer, Journalism. M.A. 1970, B.A. 1969, Florida.