Graduate Certificate

The University of Chicago is a premier institution for research, teaching, and graduate study in the histories, cultures, politics, economies, and languages of Latin America and the Caribbean. Our faculty’s research helps shape the disciplines of history, anthropology, literary criticism, political science, and art history, as well as interdisciplinary fields such as human rights, migration, and Latinx studies. More than 50 faculty members from throughout the graduate divisions and professional schools of the University focus their teaching and/or research on Latin America and the Caribbean, offering a wide range of disciplinary and regional coverage.

The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at the University of Chicago offers a certificate (or option, for students enrolled in MAPH) in Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS), open to all graduate students within the University. The LACS certificate/option provides proof of area studies specialization and will be noted on the transcript.

Interested students are encouraged to meet with LACS program adviser Diana Schwartz Francisco as soon as they decide to pursue the certificate/option so that she can provide guidance and answer questions.

MA applicants are strongly encouraged to meet early in their program with Prof. Schwartz Francisco to discuss their plan for completion of certificate requirements, cultivate their research interests, and work with her to identify a faculty adviser for the master’s thesis.

We ask students to submit their certificate/option application no sooner than two quarters prior to, and no later than the end of the first week of, the intended quarter of graduation. Please complete the LACS Graduate Certificate/Option application and submit it to CLAS Student Affairs.