Energized by the impending arrival of a permanent director and a recent financial windfall, Columbia’s Institute for Latin American Studies is gearing up for the prospect of offering an advanced degree for the first time.
The institute submitted a proposal for a master’s degree program in Latin American studies to begin at the School of International and Public Affairs in September 2009. The University Senate, the University at large, and the New York State Department of Education must all approve the proposal before it can take effect.
ILAS currently offers only a Master of Public Affairs degree with a specialization in Latin America through SIPA. Competing schools like the University of Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles already offer master’s programs in the area, although many other Ivy League schools such as Yale and Harvard do not.
“We think the program, although small, will be highly selective and draw national attention to the strengths of the University in Latin America, especially historical and social science approaches,” Thomas Trebat, executive director of ILAS, wrote in an e-mail.
The creation of a master’s program has become realistically achievable due to a combination of factors.
ILAS has experienced a financial windfall that began three years ago when it re-initiated its consortium with New York University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. In 2005, ILAS and CLACS petitioned jointly for a Title VI National Resource Center grant from the United States Department of Education, and they were awarded $2 million. The consortium allows students at both universities to cross-register for Latin American studies courses.
The arrival of acting SIPA Dean John Coatsworth, who will preside over the direction of ILAS at the end of the academic year, has led to some unexpected benefits for ILAS as well. With Coatsworth’s arrival, the University granted ILAS an Academic Quality Fund of $500,000 over a five-year period.
Coatsworth is a scholar of Latin American economic and international history and the founder of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard. Acting ILAS Director José Moya will continue to be involved, serving on the Institute’s Executive Committee.
In addition to its AQF and Title VI grants, ILAS was awarded a $30,000 in 2006 by the Tinker Foundation. This grant will fund graduate student travel and research in Latin America.
ILAS is already one of five university Latin American studies institutes in the nation that receives funding for an endowed visiting chair from the foundation, a dedicated patron of Latin American and Antarctic studies. This year, the endowment has paid for two visiting professorships from Latin America, that of Dr. Lila Caimari of the Universidad de San Andres in Argentina and Dr. Lilia Moritz Schwarcz of the Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil.
The materialization of a master’s degree program, along with the surge in financing ILAS has experienced, will allow the institute to prioritize for the more distant future. Eventually, it hopes to offer a Bachelor of Arts degree in Latin American studies.
Currently, an undergraduate interested in Latin American studies must major in Hispanic studies with a specialization in Latin American studies through the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, or major in regional studies with a specialization in Latin America through ILAS.
ILAS is also looking for ways to grow more independent of SIPA. By doing so, they would achieve a more cross-disciplinary focus on Latin America and a less public policy and international affairs-oriented approach to the region.
“It would give us more room to maneuver, a little more independence,” Moya said of the desire for more independence. “It would give us the freedom to do things that are not of particular interest to SIPA, like a cycle of films or novels or more little issues in the humanities and the arts,” But, he clarified, “It’s not a divorce.”
lisa.hirschmann@columbiaspectator.com