The main functions of CELAC are:

l) to promote and facilitate research and scholarship dealing with Latin America and the Caribbean and the U.S. immigrant populations from these regions;

2) to provide the necessary infrastructure for generating linkages and collaborative agreements with other relevant public and private institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean and the United States, with the goal of promoting research, training and educational exchanges of faculty, students, and resources;

3) to engage in the publication of monographs, occasional papers, instructional materials and other projects pertinent to these regions;

4) to house a database which will gather and disseminate information on research publications focusing on Puerto Rican women;

5) to disseminate information through newsletters and directories and make research information more widely available to scholars, educators, the business community and other organizations;

6) to provide technical and consultant resources in specialized areas to public and private institutions in the U.S. and abroad;

7) to organize conferences, lectures, and workshops that enable scholars to discuss and advance the current state of research on a particular topic or to provide specialized training to particular constituencies (e.g., social studies and foreign language teachers, policy makers);

8) to provide a vehicle for the faculty to seek external funding for individual and collaborative research projects; and

9) to encourage greater communication and cooperation among Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. communities, and a greater appreciation of Latino multicultural diversity within U.S. society.

The Institute for Urban and Minority Education (IUME)
Teachers College, Columbia University

The Center for Puerto Rican Studies/ Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños (Centro) is a university-based research institute whose mission consists of two components. One is to collect, preserve and provide access to archival and library resources documenting the history and culture of Puerto Ricans and Latinos. The other is to produce, facilitate, and disseminate interdisciplinary research about the diasporic experiences of Puerto Ricans and to link this scholarly inquiry to social action and policy debates.

 Centro is the only university-based research institute in the United States devoted to the interdisciplinary study of the Puerto Rican experience and the oldest and largest Latino research and archival institution in the Northeast. Founded in 1973 by a coalition of faculty, students and community leaders, Centro seeks to link scholarly inquiry to social action and policy debates through its network of education, research, archival, advocacy and community-based partners. Centro research bears important implications for the study of Puerto Ricans, Latinos and other racial and ethnic communities in the U.S. Centro is also a founding member of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research [IUPLR] since 1989. The IUPLR, currently composed of 16 affiliate centers, is the most extensive consortium of Latino research centers in the US.

As a university-based Puerto Rican research center, Centro staff and researchers are interested in a comprehensive understanding of the Puerto Rican diasporic experience in the US and in relevant socioeconomic and historical aspects regarding Puerto Rico. Given its history and role within CUNY, the Centro is particularly interested in New York's Puerto Rican and ethnic communities. One of the most important units at Centro is the Library and Archives: the principal Puerto Rican Studies research collection in the United States and the most extensive Latino research and archival facility in the Northeast. It is also the only library and archives in the State of New York exclusively dedicated to Puerto Rican and Latino documentation. Over the years the Library and Archives has evolved to meet the needs and demands of an ever-expanding constituency. It is open to the public and serves diverse users, scholars and the general public from the New York area, from other parts of the U.S. and from abroad.

Latino Studies Program , Cornell University

Plans for a Latino Studies Program at Cornell University began in the early 1970s, when professors and students lobbied for a Puerto Rican Studies Program. Although their efforts were not successful, this led to a stronger campaign in the 1980s at a time when Chicano studies and Puerto Rican studies programs were visible at other leading universities. With a new emphasis on the Hispanic, or Latino, population as a whole, the Hispanic American Studies Program (HASP) came into being at Cornell in 1987. HASP became part of the College of Arts and Sciences in 1995, additional faculty lines were added, and the name was changed to Latino Studies Program (LSP) to reflect the widespread sentiment that the term Latino better encompasses all of the different cultures, languages, and traditions that exist within Latino communities in the United States.

In 1994 Cornell created the Latino Living Center, a program house for undergraduate students.

Director:

Vilma Santiago-Irizarry
Associate Professor, Latino Studies/Anthropology
212 McGraw Hall
Phone: (607) 255-6773
Email: vs23@cornell.edu
http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/Anthro/faculty/faculty_VSantiago-Irizarry.php

Core Faculty:

Maria Cristina Garcia
Associate Professor, Latino Studies/History
455 McGraw Hall
Phone: (607) 255-6598
Email: mcg20@cornell.edu
http://www.arts.cornell.edu/history/faculty-department-garcia.php

Ronald Mize
Assistant Professor, Latino Studies/Development Sociology
320 Warren Hall
Phone: (607) 255-2024
Email: rlm65@cornell.edu
http://devsoc.cals.cornell.edu/cals/devsoc/people/faculty.cfm?netId=rlm65

Arturo-Ignacio Sanchez
Assistant Professor, Latino Studies/City & Regional Planning
307 West Sibley Hall
Phone: (607) 255-6226/4331
E-mail: as875@cornell.edu

Pilar Parra
Lecturer, Latino Studies Program
3M7 MVR
Phone: (607) 255-0063
Email: pap2@cornell.edu
http://www.human.cornell.edu/che/bio.cfm?netid=pap2

Vilma Santiago-Irizarry
Associate Professor, Latino Studies/Anthropology
212 McGraw Hall
Phone: (607) 255-6773
Email: vs23@cornell.edu
http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/Anthro/faculty/faculty_VSantiago-Irizarry.php

Dominican Studies Institute, City University of New York

The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute  (CUNY DSI) is an interdisciplinary research unit of the City University of New York devoted to the study of Dominicans in the United States and other parts of the world, as well as in the Dominican Republic. The Institute is housed at The City College of New York in Upper Manhattan, a campus bordered by the City's historic Washington Heights and Inwood neighborhoods, which are home to the largest concentration of Dominicans in the country.

The mission of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute is twofold: (1) To gather, produce, and disseminate academic knowledge, from an interdisciplinary as well as a comparative perspective, on the human experience of people residing in the United States who trace their ancestry to the Dominican Republic; and (2) To advance research and teaching at the City University of New York, focusing on the Dominican population in the United States and elsewhere. CUNY DSI’s primary goal is to further the understanding of the history, culture, socioeconomic, and political status of Dominicans in the United States. The Institute sponsors academic research projects in the areas of education, migration, language, literature, history, economics, women's issues, politics, youth, cultural identity, sports, performance and visual arts, among many others.

Faculty:

Ramona Hernández, Ph.D.
Director

Anthony Stevens-Acevedo, M.A.
Assistant Director

Sarah Aponte, M.L.S., M.S.Ed.
Head Librarian

Idilio Gracia Peña, B.A.
Chief Archivist

Melissa Martinez, B.A.
Administrative Assistant

Nelson Santana, B.A.
Assistant Archivist/ Assistant Librarian

Lincoln Restler, B.A.
Research Associate and Coordinator