Academic Programs

Notre Dame undergraduate students may strengthen their education by electing courses towards a supplementary major or a minor in Latino studies in conjunction with any undergraduate major and from any college at the University.

Why Latino Studies?
The next generation of professionals and leaders needs to understand the Latino community. Health professionals, for example, are already implementing programs tailored to the needs of Latinos; businesses are recognizing Latinos’ growing purchasing power; and politicians and community leaders have come to realize that Latinos may play a decisive role in the future of US electoral politics. An improved understanding of the largest ethnic group in the country enhances students’ effectiveness in whatever career they choose.

Students with the supplementary major or the minor will be prepared to:

• work in a variety of professional settings;
• serve an increasingly diverse society;
• communicate better in a global community.

Latino Studies at Notre Dame
Latino studies academic programs are based in the College of Arts and Letters and are administered by the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. The programs, designed both for Latino and non-Latino undergraduates, emphasize interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to the study of US Latinos in the context of American society and its institutions. The supplementary major or the minor will deepen students’ knowledge of the culture, history, literature, religious life, and political expression of the nearly 40 million Latinos in the United States and the public policy issues affecting them.

The Institute’s academic programs acknowledge the long and rich history of Latinos in the United States and embrace the reality of today’s Latino experience and the growth and evolution of the Latino population. The programs encourage research into and analyses of new issues such as changing immigration patterns, remittances, emerging transnational communities, and cultural flows between Latinos in the United States and their families’ countries of origin. While the emphasis is on domestic Latino communities, consideration of globalization, immigration, and border issues introduces an international dimension.