LALS: Latin American and Latinx Studies at Vassar College

06/22/2025

Check out Prof. Mendiola’s Op Ed in the Guardian regarding the history of immigration restrictions, border enforcement, and anti-ICE raids across the U.S.

The primary justifications for early immigration laws were xenophobia, eugenics, and overt racism. Understanding the history of immigration is essential

08/26/2024

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert played a snippet of the speech that our LALS alum, Carlos Espina '20, gave on day 3 of the Democratic National Convention. (Scroll to min 1:44)

Stephen Colbert goes LIVE following the star-packed third night of the Democratic National Convention where Pete Buttigieg lit into the GOP's vice presidenti...

08/06/2024

LALS alum, Carlos Espina '20, featured in the NYTimes!

Carlos Espina is among a new kind of social media personalities whom politicians, especially those in the Biden White House, view as modern-day broadcasters.

04/18/2024

New LALS and ANTH seminar for Fall 2024: Ritual Language!

11/04/2021

All are invited to the Dia de Mu***os event sponsored by LSU, Strong House, and LALS are hosting this Sunday, Nov 7, from 4:00 - 6:00 pm.

11/04/2021

Greetings LALS familia!

As we near the pre-registration period, I'd like to make students aware of a little curricular project that I’m really looking forward to in this first year as director.

For the Spring 2022 semester, I'll be offering a half unit of INDP credit under LALS 298 for students who are interested in helping me create a new senior seminar, which I will teach in the Fall 2022 and Fall 2023 semesters. I have some ideas for the course topic, but I am most interested in co-creating something alongside students, so that student interests are directly reflected in the curricular offerings of our program. Having created new courses and modified existing courses with groups of students for the past several years, I have found this kind of intellectual exchange incredibly rewarding.

If any current students are interested in trying their hand at collaborative course development, send me an email at [email protected].

09/07/2021

As the new Director of the Latin American and Latinx Studies (LALS) multidisciplinary program at Vassar, I get to announce that we are hiring!

As part of Vassar’s five-position Cluster Hire Initiative in the Study of Race, Racism, and Racial Justice, LALS invites applications for a tenure-track appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor in the areas of immigration, race, and racial bias.

We seek a social scientist with a multidisciplinary perspective and research competence in the study of immigration, race, and political or citizenship rights of populations from Latin America, the Caribbean, and/or North American Latinx communities. We are especially interested in scholars whose in...

06/11/2021

The Spring 2021 LALS newsletter, compiled by our hard-working interns, Juliana Milani and Gray Guzmán:

05/19/2021

Please join us for an end -of-semester LALS celebration with Mexican food and lots of (socially distanced) good company.
Nos vemos pronto, e abraços virtuais!

04/29/2021

Thanks to the 120+ attendees who joined us today (April 28 2021) for the Spring 2021 Matthew Vassar Lecture, delivered by Professor Davíd Carrasco (Harvard U, by way of El Paso, TX).

For those who missed it, here's the link:
https://vassar.zoom.us/rec/share/Er5rZxiqj90B3x7QpoqoeRkS7KBMnoXFPHl5AYK39LuXL23zdHB4fjvyz_aSVH_u.4kVnQ5VK0DE6VCqO
Passcode: 5FXzJvN.

This lecture was sponsored by the Dean of the Faculty Office, the Departments of Religion, Anthropology, History, and Hispanic Studies, and the American Studies Program.

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, confer...

04/13/2021

04/13/2021

LALS proudly presents the Spring 2021 Matthew Vassar Lecture:

A NEW HISTORY CALLED MEXICO: GENEALOGY, JUSTICE, CROSSROADS CITY

Professor Davíd Carrasco, Harvard University

Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 5:30pm

Registration required (anyone with a Zoom account can register):

This lecture reflects on the 500th anniversary of the encounters among Spaniards, Natives, and Africans in Mexico. It focuses on the potent mixtures, tense negotiations and painful inequalities marking the origins of the ‘Americas’ in Mexico. We meet Malinche and Cortés, Cuauhtemoc and Sahagún...