According to UConn today, affordable housing in Connecticut is difficult to find. Associate professor of history and Africana Studies, Fiona Vernal, has developed a housing exhibition in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. This exhibit focuses on on the struggles Hartford Country residents face when trying to find affordable housing. The exhibition has examples of emergence of ethnic communities in Hartford that was documented by the Press. The exhibition also includes issues of overcrowded neighborhood and changing of life. The research for the exhibit has given new ideas on how to use information gathered for the project such as how to track African American, Puerto Rican and West Indian communities from their initial settlement in Hartford. The exhibit will be on display in the Dodd Research Center until April 29th to read the article click here

As the successor organization to UConn’s former Institute of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, El Instituto places Puerto Rico and its diaspora at the center of our teaching mission. We support both undergraduate and Masters level courses and programs of study.
The Institute of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies (IPRLS) was a multipurpose interdisciplinary research and teaching program with a comparative focus on the Puerto Rican, Mexican, and other Latin American origin populations in Connecticut, the northeast, and other regions of the continental United States, as well as in Puerto Rico.

Established in 1994, the Institute’s specific goals were: (1) to promote, sponsor, and promulgate the results of comparative, interdisciplinary research on Puerto Rican and other Latino peoples in the United States, emphasizing Connecticut and the northeastern region; (2) to develop and coordinate a multi- and inter- disciplinary academic program, including an undergraduate concentration (minor), as well as graduate courses, in the field of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies; (3) to promote a more culturally diverse and aware university environment through a colloquia and publications program addressing the diverse contributions of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos to U.S. history, society, and culture; (4) to provide institutional links among Puerto Ricans, other Latinos, and non-Latinos at this University and throughout the state of Connecticut on academic issues related to the Puerto Rican and Latino experience; (5) to produce, diffuse, and promote knowledge and information on public policy issues with special impacts on Puerto Ricans and Latinos; and (6) to foster ties between the University and the external Puerto Rican/Latino community by serving as a resource center for issues affecting that community.

We stand by these aims today. UConn is home to the Secretariat of the Puerto Rican Studies Association and El Instituto supports research on the politics, culture, history and society of the island and its diaspora. Connecticut’s storied place in the Puerto Rican diaspora and its vibrant Boricua communities of today are the cornerstones of our commitments to making diverse voices from the island heard at UConn and sponsoring research and information sharing aimed at preserving the Puerto Rican heritage and advancing Puerto Ricans’ well-being in Connecticut and nationwide.
We welcome students in pursuing coursework and research specific to Puerto Rican lives. The following Puerto Rico-relevant courses may be taken as part of UConn’s minor in Latina/o Studies or major in Latina/o and Latin American Studies:

• LLAS 1190 Introduction to Latin America and the Caribbean (Also offered as Hist 1600)
• LLAS 1190/W Introduction to Latin America and the Caribbean
• LLAS 2474 Economic development in Latin American and the Caribbean (Also offered as Econ 2474)
• LLAS 3029 The Caribbean (Also offered as Anth 3029)
• LLAS 3211 Puerto Rican/ Latino studies research
• LLAS 3241 Latin American Minorities in the United States
• LLAS 3265 Literature of Puerto Rico and the Spanish Caribbean
• LLAS 3270 Latino Political Behavior
• LLAS 3327 Power and health in Latin america and the Caribbean
• LLAS 3619/W History of the Caribbean (Also offered as Hist 3619/W)
• LLAS 3667 Puerto Rican politics and culture (Also offered as Pols 3667)
• HIST 3620 Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Spanish Caribbean (Also offered as AFRA 3620)
• Afra 3619 History of the Caribbean

Writer and Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut, Daisy Reyes, was featured on insidehighered.com, for her book “Learning to be Latino”, in which Reyes advocates for a core curriculum diversity requirement in universities to create racially literate individuals. We are very proud to have her as part of our faculty at El Instituto. Click the link here to view the rest of her article.

2019 UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic Fellowship

Sponsored by the UConn Honors Program, El Instituto: Latina/o, Caribbean & Latin American Studies Institute, CT Area Health Education Center & the UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic

The UConn Migrant Farm Worker Clinic fellowship is a competitive award that allows students with an interest in migration studies and/or medicine to spend part of the summer working with a team of UConn medical professionals to provide services to migrant farmworkers. It includes direct service as well as the opportunity to assist in a research study. Honors students who speak Spanish and whose undergraduate research would be enhanced by work with migrant populations will be given preference.

This fellowship is complemented by an internship that allows the fellow to train for the clinic in the late spring, and contribute to the fall course LLAS/HIST 1570 Migrant Workers. The fellowship during the summer comes with a stipend of $1,000 to cover traveling expenses. For more detailed information, please see

Deadline for letter of interest: Friday, March 15th, 2019 to anne.gebelein@uconn.edu

In January 2019, El Instituto and the Department of Public Policy (DPP) debuted two new joint Masters degree programs in Public Administration (MPA) and Latina/o & Latin American Studies and Public Policy (MPP) and Latina/o & Latin American Studies.

The objective of the joint MPA/MPP and Latina/o & Latin American Studies degree programs is to prepare students with functional skills and knowledge in public administration and public policy and at the same time engage them in interdisciplinary study and in-depth research related to Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American worlds.

These joint Masters degree programs permit students to complete the requirements for the two MAs in three years rather than the four years it would take to complete both degrees separately.

Exciting research opportunities are available for students in this program to devise their own studies and contribute to UConn faculty research into the status of Latinx and Latin American populations. Our aim is to graduate Latinx and Latin American community-serving applied researchers, who are endowed with both the analytic and intercultural/international skills to address the information needs of policymakers, social service providers, and intergovernmental and non-governmental human development and social justice organizations.

If you are interested in applying for one of these joint Masters degree programs, you need to apply to, and be accepted to, both El Instituto’s and DPP’s graduate programs. Graduate stipends and tuition waivers from El Instituto are competitively available to students admitted to our International Studies MA with a concentration in Latina/o and Latin American Studies. Support through El Instituto is also competitively available for exploratory field research (typically done in the summer after year one in the Latina/o and Latin American Studies program). In year three of the program, DPP offers funding for students to do internships with employers in their preferred public administration or public policy area of specialization.

For more information please write to El Instituto: elinstituto@uconn.edu, or the Department of Public Policy: dpp@uconn.edu.