KU News Release

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences introduces new Latino/a studies minor

LAWRENCE — With the impact of the growing Latino community becoming ever more prevalent in U.S. society, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas is offering a new Latino/a studies minor this fall.

The interdisciplinary program, hosted by the American Studies Program, offers students the opportunity to study what census reports have identified as the largest minority group in the United States and Kansas. That change in population statistics combined with faculty and student interest in the field were factors in the creation of the minor.

“The establishment of the Latino/a studies minor is part of ongoing efforts in the College to ensure programs are relevant for today’s student and our rapidly changing world,” said College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Joseph E. Steinmetz. “I’m pleased our curriculum reflects current population trends and vast social and political effects of the ‘largest’ minority on contemporary American culture.”

Steinmetz added that the minor may help with recruitment efforts of Latino/a students to the university, further diversifying the student body.

Traditionally, these programs have been on the East and West Coasts or in the Southwest, said Latino/a studies adviser Marta Caminero-Santangelo. With Latino populations growing in Midwestern states, KU is fulfilling a need in the region for Latino/a studies programs. Other universities with similar programs include Columbia University, Iowa State University, Arizona State University and several University of California campuses.

The effort to establish the new minor was spearheaded by Caminero-Santangelo, who is also an associate professor of English and U.S. Latino/a literature scholar. The opportunity to create the minor was made possible through expansion of faculty with expertise in Latino/a topics.

Many of those faculty were involved in the first-ever, national, interdisciplinary U.S. Latino/a studies conference, “Nuestra America in the U.S.?,” which was held at KU last February and coincided with the launch of the new minor.

Caminero-Santangelo said the new minor complements several majors and career paths, including political science and anthropology.

“It signals an interest and training in issues having to do with what is now, statistically, the largest minority ‘group’ in the U.S., so of course it would be very valuable to a wide variety of career paths that require knowledge of the diversity of U.S. cultures,” she said.

In order to provide a comprehensive curriculum on the importance of the Latino community’s broad impact on U.S. culture, society and politics, courses for the minor are spread out among several departments. These include American studies, anthropology, English, political science, Spanish and Portuguese, social welfare, sociology, geography, history and Latin American studies.

The incorporation of Latin American studies in the minor distinguishes KU’s program from other universities’, said Ruben Flores, assistant professor of American studies.

“One thing that makes KU different, I would argue, is the extent of our emphasis on Latin America as a component of Latino studies, which traditionally has been U.S.-centered,” Flores said.

Several faculty members involved with the minor specialize in Latin American subjects: Flores and Stuart Day, associate professor of Spanish and Portuguese, study Mexico; Tanya Golash-Boza, assistant professor of American studies and sociology, studies Peru; Brent Metz, assistant professor of anthropology, studies Central American indigenous cultures; and Yajaira Padilla, assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese, studies Salvadoran literatures from El Salvador.

For more information about the Latino/a studies minor, contact Marta Caminero-Santangelo at (785) 843-2394 or camsan@ku.edu.

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