Grant sparks interest in Latin American studies

Money makes the world go ’round—so goes a saying particularly relevant for the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. A $1.6 million endowment for undergraduate teaching and research the center received in 2002 has propelled the expansion of its increasingly popular offerings for undergraduates in the classroom and beyond the University’s borders.

The center received the endowment after raising matching funds needed to earn a challenge grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, which has been a financial supporter of Latin American studies in the Triangle since the early 1990s. This money has provided grants for undergraduate research, brought in visiting professors and helped to spur the creation of a new FOCUS program, Global Americas, this fall.

Funding from the Mellon Foundation over the past decade has also helped the center, in conjunction with the Duke-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Consortium in Latin American Studies, to expand its funding of local events, including the annual Latin American Film and Video Festival now in progress.

“We owe an enormous debt to the Mellon Foundation for their visionary support in helping to make this happen here at Duke,” said John French, professor of history and director of the consortium.

Undergraduates are already beginning to taste the fruits of the 2002 endowment. This past summer marked the third year of the Mellon Undergraduate Travel Awards, and 12 students received funding for their research trips to countries ranging from Mexico to Chile.

Ashley Dennis, a junior who spent her three-and-a-half weeks in Mexico investigating the impact of telenovelas on women’s perceptions of their gender, said the funding was vital to her scholarship. “I would definitely not have been able to pay for all of my expenses had I not gotten the grant,” she said.

The center’s additional resources also brought Brazilian professor Paulo Fontes to the University in Spring 2004 as the first Mellon visiting professor in Latin American and Caribbean studies. Steve Ellner of the Universidad Central de Venezuela will hold the visiting professorship this coming spring.

One of the two courses Ellner will teach is the capstone seminar that is the final component of the undergraduate certificate in Latin American studies. Since its introduction in 1997, the certificate has attracted increasing numbers of students, said Jenny Williams, the academic program coordinator for the center. She added that the center anticipates that enrollment will increase following this fall’s introduction of the Global Americas FOCUS program.

“It’s a major piece of our outreach activity,” French said. “Last year, about 7,500 people attended the films.”

French said he still sees plenty of room for future growth. He would like to break down the disciplinary boundaries that divide students interested in Latin America. The center is required by some of its funding sources to be strictly international, but French hopes to see the creation of a Latino studies program that could coordinate its work with the center.

Mignolo also emphasized the importance of promoting Latino studies at the University, particularly in light of how many people of Latin American descent now live in the United States.

“Latin America is no longer ‘over there’ but is ‘over here,’” he said.