The Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies
Widely regarded as the best Latin American studies program in the country, the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) is the largest and oldest of the University’s interdisciplinary programs. Established in 1940, the Institute coordinates an extensive instructional program dealing with Latin American civilization and development at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and supports research on Latin American topics by faculty members and graduate students. Courses related to Latin American studies are offered in several departments of the College of Liberal Arts. Graduate dual degree programs are available to combine Latin American studies with business administration, communication studies, community and regional planning, global policy studies, information studies, journalism, law, public affairs, and radio-television-film. Important work related to Latin America is also done by the Population Research Center, the Center for Mexican American Studies, and the Benson Latin American Collection. Latin American research occupies a significant place in several other colleges, particularly in the areas of fine arts, information studies, education, law, and architecture.
The Institute has formal relationships with many institutions in Central and South America. Reciprocal exchanges or affiliated agreements are maintained with institutions in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Spain. The Institute also has faculty-led agreements with Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Mexico. More information is provided by the University’s Study Abroad Office at http://www.utexas.edu/student/abroad/ .
LLILAS has four visiting professorships: the Edward Larocque Tinker Chair in Latin American Studies, endowed by the Tinker Foundation, for distinguished Latin American scholars; the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Visiting Professorship for distinguished professors on Latin American topics, endowed by Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long; the UT-Fulbright Visiting Professorship in Environmental Sciences and Policy, under an agreement with the Fulbright Commission of Brazil; and the Matías Romero Visiting Chair in Mexican Studies, under an agreement between the University and the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Throughout the year, the Institute sponsors symposia and lectures by visiting and resident specialists; maintains a substantial publications program, including a book series copublished with the University of Texas Press; coordinates outreach for kindergarten through grade twelve; and offers public service activities to foster greater knowledge of Latin America around the state and the nation.
LLILAS also includes two area centers. The Mexican Center is dedicated to developing and coordinating academic programs and activities focused on Mexico and carried out by University faculty members, students, and visiting Mexican scholars. The Mexican Center regularly organizes binational academic conferences on a variety of themes. Through its C. B. Smith Fellowship Program, the Center offers travel scholarships for Mexican scholars to take advantage of the University's library resources. With more than fifty affiliated faculty, the Brazil Center is the largest and most diversified center for Brazilian Studies in the United States. Our faculty are represented in all colleges and almost all disciplines offered at the University of Texas, making the Brazil Center an ideal place for research and graduate studies.
The Institute also houses the Argentine Studies Program to facilitate scholarly exchange between Argentina and the University. The Institute’s Center for Indigenous Languages of Latin America (CILLA) promotes research and training programs about indigenous languages, which form an important part of the society and culture of Latin America. The Institute also houses AILLA, the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America, a digital archive of recordings and texts in a wide range of genres that includes a wealth of language documentation materials.
Also within LLILAS is the Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) at http://lanic.utexas.edu/ . LANIC’s objective is to facilitate access to Internet-based information to, from, and about Latin America. One of the primary functions of LANIC is the creation and maintenance of directories or guides to Internet-based resources in the field of Latin American studies. Since going online in 1992, LANIC has remained the most comprehensive and frequently used information system for Latin American studies on the Internet.
The Institute is located in Sid Richardson Hall, in collaborative partnership with the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, one of the most comprehensive holdings of its kind in the world. Substantial demographic data pertaining to Latin America are found in the Population Research Center, while other supplementary information resources are located in the Perry-Castañeda Library and the Tarlton Law Library. The University’s holdings of modern Latin American art are outstanding, and the Photography Collection also contains photographic documentation of relevance to Latin Americanists. Additional information is available through the LLILAS Web site, http://www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/llilas/ .