University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Institute of Latin American Studies

The Institute of Latin American Studies was established in 1940 as the Inter-American Institute; it kept the latter name until 1947. The Institute's initial purpose was to expand the university's research materials on Latin America. Its first major program was the School for Latin Americans, which it ran from 1941 to 1945 and which brought scholars from Latin America to the Chapel Hill campus. From its beginning, the Institute has received significant funding from foundations, allowing it to expand its programs and activities to include curriculum development, aid to graduate students, support for travel by scholars, publication of research, and the planning and coordination of conferences. Currently the Institute is organized as a program in the College of Arts and Sciences and is administered by a director and advisory board.

The Institute of Latin American Studies was established by Consolidated University of North Carolina President Frank Porter Graham in 1940 as the Inter-American Institute. It grew out of the efforts of Professor Sturgis E. Leavitt to expand the university's research materials on Latin America. The Rockefeller Foundation provided funds for the acquisition of these materials and the use of this funding was supervised by the Inter-American Institute with Leavitt as director.

During the early years of the program, the major activity was the winter summer school for Latin Americans. From 1941 through 1945, the grant-funded schools brought hundreds of Latin American scholars to the Chapel Hill campus. In 1947, the Carnegie Corporation funded expansion of the program and the name became the Institute of Latin American Studies. With the Carnegie and subsequent foundation support, the Institute broadened its efforts to include curriculum development and coordination, graduate student support, funding of travel by Latin American scholars to the United States and of American scholars to Latin America, support of professional organizations such as the Southern Conference on Latin American Studies and the Latin American Studies Association, and support for publication of research papers and translations.

More recently, the Institute has operated the Mexican Visiting Scholars Program. Under a grant from Pepsi Cola of Mexico, twelve scholars were selected in 1979 for advanced study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The following year, the program was expanded to include six Venezuelans in addition to twelve Mexicans. This program continued through the spring semester of 1983. In 1989, UNC-Chapel Hill joined with Duke University to create the Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Currently, the Institute is organized as a program within the College of Arts and Sciences and is supervised by a director and an advisory board. It is composed of historians, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, economists, and linguists actively engaged in the study of Latin American life and culture. Through the activities of the Institute, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has become recognized as one of the major centers of Latin American studies in the United States.

Directors of the Institute have been: