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Interdisciplinary academic field

Latino studies is an academic discipline which studies the experience of people of Latin American ancestry in the United States. Closely related to other ethnic studies disciplines such as African American studies, Asian American studies, and Native American studies, Latino studies critically examines the history, culture, politics, issues, sociology, spirituality (Indigenous) and experiences of Latino people. Drawing from numerous disciplines such as sociology, history, literature, political science, religious studies and gender studies, Latino studies scholars consider a variety of perspectives and employ diverse analytical tools in their work.

In academia, Latino Studies stemmed from the development of Chicana/o Studies and Puerto Rican Studies programs in response to demands articulated by student movements in the late 1960s in the United States. These movements unfolded amid a nationwide climate of heightened social and political activism, incited by opposition to the Vietnam War, the American Feminist movement, and the Civil Rights Movement. Yet others advocate for the absorption of Latino Studies into broader comparative disciplines such as ethnic studies, American studies, and Latin American Studies. Accordingly, the status of Latino Studies significantly differs from institution to institution in terms of nomenclature, pedagogical practice, and disciplinary location—with examples ranging from degree granting autonomous departments to interdisciplinary (and multidisciplinary) programs to university affiliated research centers. Initially named the Mexican American Studies Program, the program was instituted at CSULA as the Chicano Studies Department in 1971. Similar initiatives developed simultaneously at other California universities. In 1969 at a statewide conference held at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Chicano students, activists and scholars drafted the Plan de Santa Bárbara a 155 page manifesto for the implementation of Chicano Studies in institutions of higher education in California. While the Regents of the University of California did not formally adopt the manifesto as an institutional mandate, it served as a blueprint for the establishment of Chicano Studies programs across public universities in the state. However, in calling for the establishment of comprehensive Chicano Studies programs—including departments, research centers, a Chicano studies library—and recommending the adoption of a host of institutional practices, many California universities implemented only certain elements of the plan. While Chicano studies programs proliferated across campuses in California, Texas based institutions also played pivotal roles in development of early Chicano Studies programs, including the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin in 1970 and the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at the University of Texas at Arlington founded in 1993.

In 1969, a parallel wave of student activism took place at City University of New York (CUNY) south campus, spearheaded by the efforts of Puerto Rican and African American Students. These efforts culminated in the spring of 1969 when students staged the Open Admissions Strike. The students' central demand was the adoption of a non competitive open admissions policy. The expanded admissions policy would, in effect, diversify the student body by guaranteeing placement at CUNY for all New York City high school graduates. In addition to demands for an open admissions policy, student activists demanded academic programs in Black and Puerto Rican Studies. In response, CUNY created the Department of Urban and Ethnic Studies. With continuing student activism, the Department of Puerto Rican Studies was formed in 1971, followed by the establishment of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies as a university based research institute in 1973. Student activism related to the demand for Puerto Rican Studies was not limited to CUNY, and effervesced across New York public campuses including Brooklyn, Lehman, Queens and Bronx Community Colleges. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, dozens of universities across the country followed suit and established academic programs and departments (see list of major departments) in Latino Studies. He comments that "The academic foreignization directs literacy itself toward English and away from Spanish in a way that pushes many communities toward political and social obligations that shape not only literacy and graduation rates but also access to public funds, democratic participation, and the nature of belonging and citizenship.” As Spanish and Spanish language cultures are "externalized as 'foreign,' such cultures and languages are commonly conceptualized as non generative, ungrammatical, impure, and/ or contaminated—and thus invalid vis à vis their equivalents in Spain. While these local cultures have profound histories, traditions, aesthetics, narratives, and myths, the structures of the academy require (if these materials appear in pedagogy, which does not regularly occur) that they be studied, recognized, and institutionalized as minor and unimportant in comparison to Spain.”

While Latino Studies is sometimes encompassed under the umbrella of ethnic studies, it is important to note that the discipline's course of development in different areas of the United States has been shaped by regional demographics, including the demographic composition of a college campus' student body. In the case of Latino Studies, the American northeast and southwest have served as especially salient battlegrounds for these debates to unfold. Staunch critics of ethnic studies programs include Ward Connerly, former University of California Regent, who was involved in the successful effort to ban affirmative action in California places of employment and higher education in 1996 with California Proposition 209. Connerly accused ethnic studies programs of being "divisive" and balkanizing. More recently, Latino Studies faced legal challenges in Arizona with House Bill 2120 which (echoing the Arizona ban on ethnic studies effectuated in Tucson public schools in 2011) sought to prohibit public universities in the state from activities and classes including those that "promote division, resentment or social justice toward a race, gender, religion, political affiliation, social class or other class of people"; "are designed primarily for students of a particular ethnic group"; or "advocate solidarity or isolation based on ethnicity, race, religion, gender or social class instead of the treatment of students as individuals." (On January 17, 2017 Arizona House Education Committee Chairman Paul Boyer denied a hearing, effectively killing the bill.)

Early Chicano Studies and Puerto Rican Studies programs developed in a parallel fashion: both emerged from activist struggles, developed within nation bound analytical frameworks and drew influences from economic liberation, antiracism, and critical consciousness theories. However, Pedro Cabán argues that the two schools of thought differed in one significant way: "Whereas the Chicano historiography and the emerging social science literature primarily explored the Chicano experience in the US, early Puerto Rican Studies was heavily invested in reinterpreting the economic history of Puerto Rico under US colonial domination." In the 1980s and 1990s, newly formed Latino Studies programs tended to emphasize interdisciplinarity and transnationalism. A number of pre existing programs were restructured, consolidated or renamed to encompass this broader scope. Scholars in the field have identified the 1990s as a turning point in the discipline's history, as scholarship shifted away from "male centered nationalistic discourse" and became increasingly influenced by intersectional identity formation theory, including feminist and queer theory.

The following is a working list of programs throughout the United States associated with "Latino Studies" in chronological order of establishment. In cases of name changes, the order reflects the date of establishment of the program's first iteration. Programs with no date of establishment listed on their homepage are located at the end of the list. Department of Latina/Latino Studies at San Francisco State University, originally established as the Department of Chicano Studies in 1969 within the newly instituted College of Ethnic Studies. The name was quickly changed to "La Raza Studies" followed by "Raza Studies" in 1999, finally gaining its present title in 2011. Department of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University, originally established as the Program in Puerto Rican Studies in 1970 in response to student demands, which soon became the Department of Puerto Rican Studies in 1973. Subsequent name changes included: Department of Puerto Rican and Hispanic Caribbean Studies (mid 1980s), Department of Latino and Hispanic Caribbean Studies (2005 2006), followed by Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies as of January 2016. The department offers an undergraduate major and minor. Department of Latin American and Latino Studies, University of California Santa Cruz, originally established in 1971 as the Program in Latin American Studies. In 1994, the program name changed to its current title, and in 2001, the program gained departmental status. The department offers an undergraduate major and minor, in addition to a Ph. D. program (see following section). Department of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota, originally established as the Department of Chicano Studies in 1971/1972. Adopting its current title in 2012, the department offers an undergraduate major and minor. The Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies at Wayne State University, established in 1972 as the Center for Chicano Boriqueño Studies. The program offers an undergraduate two year core curriculum program and a co major. Latino Studies Program at Indiana University, originally established as the Chicano Boriqueño Studies Program in 1976. The program became the Latino Studies Program in 1999, offering an undergraduate minor and a Ph. D. minor. Latina/Latino Studies Program at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, established in 1984. The program offers an undergraduate major and minor, as well as a graduate certificate. Department of Latin American, Caribbean and U. S. Latino Studies at the University at Albany, SUNY, established in 1984. The department offers an undergraduate major and minor, as well as a MA, Ph. D. and certificate graduate programs. Latino Studies Program at Cornell University, established in 1987. The program offers an undergraduate minor and a graduate minor. El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean and Latin American Studies at the University of Connecticut, originally established in 1994 as the Institute of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies. In 2012, El Instituto was inaugurated, merging the former Institute of Puerto Rican Studies with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. El Instituto offers undergraduate BA and graduate MA concentrations. Department of Latina/Latino Studies at University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, established in 1996. The department offers an undergraduate minor and major, as well as a graduate minor. Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame, established in 1999. The Institute offers an undergraduate supplementary major and minor. Latino Studies at Millersville University, established in 2003. The program offers an undergraduate minor. Latina/o Studies Program at Northwestern University, established in 2008. The program offers an undergraduate major and minor. Program in Latino Studies at Princeton University, established in 2009. The program offers an undergraduate certificate. Latino/Latina/Latin American Studies at Rochester Institute of Technology. The program offers an undergraduate minor. Department of Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine. The department offers an undergraduate major, minor and certificate, as well as a graduate emphasis. Department of Latin American and Latina/o Studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (at CUNY). The Department offers an undergraduate major and minor. Latino/a Studies Program at Williams College. The program offers an undergraduate concentration. Latino Studies Program at New York University. Located in the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis, the program offers an undergraduate major and minor. Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Pennsylvania. The program offers an undergraduate major and minor. Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. The program offers an undergraduate major, minor, and certificate.

Ph. D. in Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz
Ph. D. in Latin American, Caribbean, and U. S. Latino Cultural Studies at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany
Ph. D. in Chicano/Latino Studies at Michigan State University
Ph. D. Program in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin