Mission & Priorities
LLILAS is committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of Latin America through interdisciplinary research, teaching, and public engagement.
The LLILAS Mission
We believe that the study of Latin America’s past and present realities offers valuable insights into critical global challenges, and our mission is to expand the contributions of faculty and students to this knowledge.
In a constantly shifting world order, LLILAS supports scholarship that is deeply rooted in Latin America while engaging the most pressing challenges of our time, from environmental interdependence and planetary futures to the social and cultural implications of digital transformation, to evolving forms of civic life and collective imagination across the Americas. We embrace hemispheric, transnational, and interdisciplinary perspectives, and we understand the most meaningful academic inquiry as one that remains connected to public life, engages communities beyond the university, and contributes to broader global conversations.
As a degree-granting academic unit, LLILAS equips students with the intellectual tools and adaptability needed to address complex regional and global questions. Our programs foster specialists who combine deep regional expertise with an awareness of the interconnected forces, political, economic, cultural, and historical, that shape Latin America and its place in the world.
As a university-wide resource and research center, LLILAS is distinctive in its ability to connect faculty, students, and partners across disciplines, methodologies, and institutions. By breaking down academic silos and creating platforms for collaboration, LLILAS strengthens innovative scholarship and meaningful public impact across the Americas.
A defining dimension of this mission is our strategic partnership with the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection. This partnership integrates archival and digital resources into research and teaching, supports cultural preservation, and expands access to one of the world’s most important collections of Latin American materials.
Current 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 miscellaneous forms of belonging across the Americas and imagining more interconnected societies.