Bolivar House
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Mission and History

Arcade on the Quad

Who we are

The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at Stanford University is the university’s hub for interdisciplinary research on the region. CLAS is a U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center committed to outreach to the scholarly community in California and the United States.

Located in the historic Bolivar House on Alvarado Row, we support faculty and student initiatives, including teaching, scholarly travel, and language study. Our partnerships include several private foundations and grant-making agencies. We also collaborate with distinct programs on campus focused on cultural studies, political science, the Latin American diaspora, environmental studies, history, public service, and many others.

Latin America being more than the sum of its parts, CLAS features state-of-the-art scholarship from different subregions and nations, with special attention to their complex interrelations. Our purview is vast, from Mexico to Patagonia and from Rappa Nui to Barbados. Our linguae francae are English, Spanish and Portuguese. We are also grounded in Creole and in indigenous languages, especially Quechua and Nahuatl. 

CLAS' origins go back to the 1940s when a group of Stanford faculty developed the Hispano-American Studies Program. By fall of 1965, the University established the Center for Latin American Studies and it has been operating since then.

We are committed to promoting "the public welfare by exercising an influence on behalf of humanity and civilization,”  per Stanford University’s founding grant. In particular, CLAS seeks to advance scholarly knowledge towards social, economic and environmental justice, inclusion, and democracy in Latin America.

What we do

The Stanford Center for Latin American Studies draws on the strengths of faculty and students in Stanford University’s seven schools. The Center's academic programs encourage multidisciplinary approaches and draw on the expertise of active affiliated faculty members representing Stanford's various departments. CLAS offers two degree programs: an Undergraduate Minor and a Master of Arts degree.

Every year the Center hosts a number of Tinker Visiting Professors and offers a rich program of lectures and other events, often in collaboration with different campus partners. CLAS actively supports Stanford University Libraries in strengthening its substantial Latin American and Iberian collections, which are valuable resources for students, faculty, and visiting researchers alike.

As a Latin America National Resource Center (NRC), supported by the U.S. Department of Education under the auspices of Title VI, Section 602(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, CLAS serves to strengthen access to and training in the major languages of Latin America, and to broaden Latin-America area studies training across all disciplines.