Latin American and Latino Studies

Degree Options: Major, Minor
Locations: Lincoln Center, Rose Hill
Visit the Latin American and Latino Studies

Explore the diverse cultures of Latin America in New York City, the United States, and the world.

Students visiting a church in Latin America

From its beginning, Fordham has been a favored university—and a home-within-a-home—for Latin Americans and for Latinos in New York City, whose diverse Spanish-speaking communities are among the largest in the world. As a Latin American and Latino studies major at Fordham, you’ll join an intellectually and culturally engaged community exploring the Latin American and the U.S. Latino experiences.

This unique interdisciplinary major is offered by Fordham’s Latin American and Latino Studies Institute (LALSI), whose faculty is composed of scholars from nine academic departments. You’ll work with them to develop a highly individualized course of study that includes the humanities, social sciences, history, and the arts.

Our program is rigorous, creative, socially-engaged and passionate, and so are our students. They conduct research and win fellowships, study in Latin America and Spain, and participate in community engaged learning around the city and the world. Join them.

As you learn about the Latin American and Latino experiences here, you’ll also study philosophy, theology, economics, sociology, anthropology, political science, mathematics, language and literature, ethics, science, and the performing arts through Fordham’s common core curriculum, the centerpiece of our liberal arts education.

We want you to excel in your field—and as a human being.

  • As a Latin American and Latino studies major, you take 10 required courses. It’s an individualized, interdisciplinary major, so there’s a lot of flexibility. You’ll take:

    • 2 Social Sciences
    • 2 Humanities/Arts
    • 3 Electives
    • 2 Histories, including the introductory core course Understanding Historical Change: Latin America
    • Capstone Seminar

    Internships

    We connect you with a remarkable array of internship opportunities in a city where 27 percent of the population is Latino. Whatever your interest—from the arts to IT—there’s likely an internship for you where you can engage with the Latino community in New York. Some of the organizations you can work with:

    • El Museo del Barrio
    • Pachamama Peruvian Arts
    • United Nations Children’s Fund
    • Americas Society and Council of the Americas
    • Lawyers Without Borders
    • Balleto Hispánico
    • Center for International Policy
    • International Center for Transitional Justice

    Study Abroad

    We highly encourage you to spend a summer, semester, or year abroad. Our students have enrolled in programs throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and Spain.

    We have two programs in Spain:

    • Spanish Language and Culture in Granada: spend a summer exploring one of the most beautiful cities in the world. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Granada is the hometown of Federico Garcia Lorca—and a center of flamenco culture.
    • Fordham in Granada: spend spring semester studying Spanish literature and culture at the Centro de Lenguas Modernas of the University of Granada, in the lovely 16th-century Santa Cruz palace. The student journal Por Granada publishes the students' final project of the course "Spain in Context" taught by Rafael Lamas, PhD, at Fordham in Granada.

    We regularly offer short-term travel courses in Latin America where you can get an in-depth, on-site study of the history, arts and culture of the region as well as engage in service-learning projects. Past short-term travel courses have focused on conflict resolution in Bogota, Colombia, migration in Puebla, Mexico, and art and architecture in Havana, Cuba.

    Find many other ways to immerse yourself in Latin American, Latino and Spanish culture around the world through Fordham’s International and Study Abroad Program.

    Chat with your classmates and increase your knowledge of Latino culture, education, and politics through events and lectures hosted by student clubs, Academia Hispania at Rose Hill and Sol at Lincoln Center.

    The student journal Por Granada publishes the students' final project of the course “Spain in Context” taught by Rafael Lamas, PhD, at Fordham in Granada.

    Chat with your classmates and increase your knowledge of Hispanic culture, education, and politics through events and lectures hosted by the student club Academia Hispania.

  • In addition to offering a major and minor, the Latin American and Latino Institute provides an intellectual home for students and faculty who are interested in Latin America and the Latino experience in the United States and sponsors:

    • Conferences
    • Lectures by distinguished scholars
    • Film series
    • Performances
    • a newsletter, Boletín, which acts as a clearinghouse for information for faculty and students and documents the program’s events and the research, educational and service activities of its faculty, students and alumni.
    • Cultural History of Latin America
    • Aztec Art
    • Latin America and the United States
    • Writing Violence: Peru, 1980-2000
    • New York in Latino/a Literature and Film
    • Latino/a Images in the Media
    • Latino/as and Public Policy
    • Latino/a Theology
    • The Spanish Diaspora

  • Some of the fields our recent graduates work in:

    • International relations
    • Business and finance
    • Social work
    • Foreign service
    • Teaching
    • Media and communications
    • Publishing

    Among the institutions that have hired our recent graduates:

    • Puerto Rican Legal Defense & Education Fund
    • NYC Mayor’s Office
    • UBS
    • NYC office of the Brazilian Mercantile and Futures Exchange
    • Quaker
    • United Nations
    • Teach for America
    • Peace Corps

    They pursue graduate studies in many fields and specialized schools, including:

    • Social work
    • Medical school
    • Law school
    • Graduate school in fields such as history, language and literature, sociology, anthropology and political science

    Recent LALS graduates are enrolled at:

    • Fordham
    • Yale
    • NYU
    • New School
    • CUNY Law School

    Our career services tap Fordham’s ties with more than 3,500 companies. We offer:

    • Post-graduation career search
    • Resume development, Interviewing practice
    • Networking skill development
    • Hands-on case-study sessions with industry executives
    • Field-specific advising/coaching

    You also get access to our powerful (and Fordham-loyal) network of alumni, who want to see you succeed as they have.

Latin American and Latino Studies Degree

Visit the Latin American and Latino Studies Department