About Us

 

Meet the Director

 

GREETINGS FROM THE DIRECTOR

Welcome to the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) at The University of Texas at Austin.

LLILAS is one of the nation’s leading centers for Latin American Studies, rooted in the College of Liberal Arts and sustained by more than eight decades of interdisciplinary scholarship, teaching, and public engagement. It is, above all, a place where ideas, people, and partnerships come together to deepen our understanding of Latin America and its global significance.

In the present moment, LLILAS continues to foster research and dialogue that speak to the urgent questions shaping our societies and our shared future. Much of our collective energy is guided by several interconnected priorities:

Living Landscapes and Planetary Futures, advancing inquiry that foregrounds ecological interdependence, environmental wellbeing, and the distinct ways Latin American communities envision sustainable futures.

Digital Worlds, Human Realities, examining how Latin America both shapes and is shaped by emerging technologies, from infrastructures and labor to creative innovation and governance.

Civic Imaginaries and Collective Futures, nurturing myriad forms of belonging across the Americas and imagining more interconnected societies.

As both an academic unit and a university-wide resource center, LLILAS serves as a powerful platform of support for faculty and students alike, strengthening research, teaching, fieldwork, and public initiatives across the humanities, social sciences, and creative fields.

A defining strength of LLILAS is its strategic partnership with the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, one of the world’s premier repositories of Latin American materials. The LLILAS Benson partnership integrates extraordinary archival and digital resources into scholarship and learning, enabling new forms of preservation, discovery, and hemispheric exchange.

LLILAS is deeply grateful for the generosity of benefactors, alumni, and friends whose support has sustained its mission across generations. The extraordinary gift of Joe R. Long and Dr. Teresa Lozano Long remains foundational to the institute’s strength and future, alongside the guidance of an engaged Advisory Council and a vibrant alumni community.

Across decades of global change, the institute has remained an enduring presence at the university, renewed by the energy of its students, the dedication of its staff, and the faculty community whose scholarship continually reshapes the field. I invite you to explore our programs and initiatives, and to join us in imagining the futures Latin America helps make possible.

With best wishes,

Adela Pineda Franco
Director, Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies
Lozano Long Professor of Latin American Literary and Cultural Studies