Training + Professional Programming
Our goal is to reimagine U.S. Latino/a/x Humanities Studies and develop a collective effort for a strong comparative and interdisciplinary humanities and humanistic social science research agenda.
We aim to engage faculty and Ph.D. students in broader topics and in the creation of comparative Latino/a/x Studies knowledge in subfields and strategic areas of inquiry. We seek to move away from single group regional perspectives in order to think more broadly on public and engaged scholarship and pedagogy.
Our training of doctoral students through mentoring, seminars, and workshops, guide them through a pathway to successful dissertation completion and academic careers. We offer four programs:
Summer Institute
The Institute’s goal is to equip participants with increased competence to enable scholarly innovation and expanded views of the field of U.S. Latino/a/x Humanities Studies before advancing to candidacy. The Institute becomes a site for intellectual exploration, exchange, and intense dialogue on theoretical, methodological, and epistemological models. Facilitating original, fresh, and unique approaches, it makes a timely intervention when participants are at a stage in which they have completed coursework and are developing and articulating new ideas and formulating research questions for successful humanities dissertation projects in U.S. Latino/a/x Studies.
Our annual Summer Institute aims to enhance doctoral students’ comparative research skills, intellectual breadth, creativity, and critical thinking skills. Emphasis is placed on exploring and reimagining a comparative framework that moves beyond the single-nationality paradigm. The Summer Institute features lectures, seminar discussions, workshops, and presentations with leading Latino/a/x Studies faculty and guests.
2024 Summer Institute
Mentorship Program
Summer Institute participants take part in a nine-month mentorship program to engage and support pre-doctoral students and encourage their academic and professional development.
Mentees choose a mentor outside their own universities with whom they share mutual areas of scholarly and intellectual interest. Mentors provide advice, guidance, and support mentees as they move through the specific stage of the dissertation proposal and early research stage.
Mentees gain new intellectual perspectives, share professional goals, and expand networking opportunities.
Professionalization Program
From demystifying the transitioning to ABD to mastering the craft of academic writing to submitting articles to journals, and preparing the dossier with cover letters, CVs, teaching and research statements for fellowships and academic jobs, our professionalization workshops support doctoral students as they move through the pipeline and on to the next stage of their PhD and dissertation completion.
Crossing Latinidades Mellon Research Fellows
Our eleven-month fellowships (fall, spring + summer) create opportunities for pre-dissertation graduate students to train with a broad range of senior faculty doing humanistic research in U.S. Latino/a/x Studies across institutions. Fellowships seek to ensure that doctoral students participate in our Crossing Latinidades research working groups conducting significant Latino Studies humanistic projects while addressing critical issues of our time that are either comparative in scope, informed by comparative methodologies and perspectives, or both.