Sponsoring a wide variety of activities, bringing scholars of Latin America to campus, and fostering institutional linkages

The Latin American Studies Program (LASP) is an interdisciplinary curriculum that introduces students to the cultures, arts, languages, histories, and social practices from Mexico, Central and South America, and the Caribbean, and provides students with frameworks for making sense of the social, political, and economic challenges faced in those regions. Faculty members from across the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences participate in the Latin American Studies Program as affiliated faculty members. Other University of Iowa faculty members occasionally offer courses and participate in the program's research, study, and interdisciplinary activities.

In addition to its instructional activity, LASP organizes a range of public programming activities each semester, including film series, photography and art exhibits, conferences, roundtable discussions, and lectures. Recent events include public lectures on community media and violence in Mexico and Colombia and on the cultural legacies of the 1960s in Latin America, and the annual Charles A. Hale Lecture in Latin American Studies.