History of CLAS
The origins of the Latin American Studies program
The Latin American Studies program at the University of Arizona has its origins in the establishment of the Committee on Latin American Studies within the Department of Spanish in 1952. However, the first courses on Latin America were offered as early as 1908 when the Department of Spanish began offering courses on Spanish American and Mexican literature. In 1919 a course was introduced on Spanish American commerce emphasizing the importance of Inter American trade, followed in the 1920s by courses on Latin American history, archaeology and government. This early period also produced MA theses on Latin American literature and history.
Planning for a formal Latin American Studies program began after the second world war as the national reputation of the University of Arizona grew with distinguished Latin Americanists such as Russell Ewing and Edward Spicer. An undergraduate Inter American degree program was instituted in 1947 focusing on political, economic and social relations between North and South America. It was not until 1958, with the enthusiasm of Renato Rosaldo of the Spanish Department, that a formal proposal was made for a Committee on Latin American Affairs. It was established under his direction, with an undergraduate program within the Spanish department and a core course on Mexico.
In the same year he convinced the University to co-sponsor the Guadalajara Summer School and began a cultural and scientific exchange with the University of Sonora that provided the impetus for the establishment of the Arizona-Sonora commission (now the Arizona-Mexico commission). He took advantage of the surge in interest following the Cuban Revolution to obtain NDEA funding for graduate fellowships to support the new Ph.D. in Spanish and for teachers to attend the Guadalajara Summer school.
The Latin American Studies program was administered by the Spanish department and headed by professors in that department from 1958 to 1974 with a semi-autonomous budget provided in 1971. In 1974 the university administration finally supported the establishment of an independent interdisciplinary program and center. The Latin American Area Center was given space in the Social Science building and a new director was appointed, the distinguished historian Michael Meyer. He was supported by an assistant director and a part-time secretary. The program offered a BA, MA and Ph.D. minor in Latin American Studies. Activities included sponsorship of a binational conference on Mexico-United States relations, the publication of a Border guide, the co-founding of PROFMEX, regular advice to the local public television station KUAT, and the coordination of a Fulbright Distinguished Latin American lecturers program. The Center also took over responsibility for editing the Hispanic American Historical Review and organized a series of symposia for Latin American journalists. In 1982 the Center received the first set of Tinker Foundation field research grants and was identified as one of the top 10 to 15 Latin American Studies programs in the country in a report by Gilbert Merkx. By this time the BA and MA programs each had 25 to 30 majors. Budget cuts, space limitations and generally low operating funds during the late 1980s limited the activities of the Center.
Professor Meyer directed the program until 1989 at which time fellow historian Donna Guy took over as Director. She initiated several new activities including the development and funding of a Curriculum Resource Center, the hosting of a RMCLAS conference, a move to larger facilities, and operating the Secretariat for the Conference of Latin American History. Dr. Guy conducted curriculum workshops at RMCLAS (Rocky Mountain Conference for Latin American Studies), helped to purchase HAPI for the library, and supported the Center’s successful grant proposals to organize training for Colombian and El Salvadorean mayors.
Under Director Donna Guy (1989), the Center developed and funded a Curriculum Resource Center, hosted a conference of the Rocky Mountain Consortium for Latin American Studies (RMCLAS), moved to larger facilities and operated the Secretariat for the Conference of Latin American History. The Center was reviewed several times during the early 1990s, including internal and external Academic Program Reviews in 1990-91, a strategic planning exercise in 1992 and a university-wide strategic planning effort in 1993-94
In 1994, under Acting Director Dr. Oscar Martínez, and following a strategic planning exercise, the graduate program was moved from the Interdisciplinary Programs office to the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS). SBS agreed to increase the Center’s annual operating budget fivefold, provide 1.0 FTE of teaching assistantships for LAS graduate students, support a second academic professional, and conduct a national search for a director.
Director Diana Liverman arrived in January 1996, having secured commitments from the administration for a larger space on campus and share of indirect costs from grants, and $10,000 a year from the VP for Research to support the graduate program and faculty research. In return, the director aggressively sought extramural funds, and the Center successfully obtained more than $1 million in grants within the center and made contributions to collaborative grants across campus totaling more than $20 million. The Center developed an introductory Latin AmericaModern Latin America, A Social Science Perspective, which now enrolls approximately 300 undergraduates per semester, and improved the quality of the graduate and undergraduate programs. course in response to the University’s revamped General Education requirement, The Center successfully competed for two three-year U.S. Department of Education Title VI grants in 2000 and 2003, and for the past ten years has provided years travel funding for graduate student summer research in Latin America, through two three-year cycles of Tinker Foundation Grants (1998-2000, 2003-2005) and interim funding (2001-02 and 2006-07) from Tinker roll-over money, the Hewlett Foundation, CLAS, and the Colleges of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences.
Following Dr. Liverman’s resignation in October 2003 to become Director of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford University, Dr. William Beezley, an internationally recognized historian of Mexico, agreed to serve as Interim Director, pending an international search for a new permanent Director. The new Director, Dr. Scott Whiteford, arrived in Fall 2005, and he has continued and strengthened the Center’s interaction and collaboration with the professional schools and units across campus, with particular attention to those outside of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS).