ACADEMIC YEAR

Students accepted into the M.A. and Ph.D. programs in Latin American Studies are eligible for two types of aid: Tulane School of Liberal Arts University Fellowships and U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Study (FLAS) Fellowships. Although the amount of financial aid and the general policies and procedures for students holding these fellowships are the similar, there are fundamental differences.

Graduate School Fellowships
School of Liberal Arts University Fellowships provide a fellowship stipend and a tuition waiver. As a condition of this funding, each fellow must provide either service or teaching for the Stone Center. M.A. Students must serve for 6 hours per week as a Research and Project Associate and Ph.D. Candidates must either serve as a Teaching Assistant or as a Research and Project Associate.

FLAS Fellowships
With funding for the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI program, the Stone Center for Latin American Studies is able to offer a special fellowship program to a select group of students. The goals of the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship program include: assisting in the development of knowledge, resources, and trained personnel for modern foreign language and area/international studies; stimulating the attainment of foreign language acquisition and fluency; and developing a pool of international experts to meet national needs. FLAS fellowships are available to those graduate students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents, and are in need of attaining language proficiency in Portuguese, Haitian Creole, or an indigenous Latin American language. There are awards available for both the academic year and for summer intensive language study.

Academic year FLAS fellowships may be awarded to those Tulane University graduate students in Latin American Studies, Humanities, Social Sciences, or professional school programs whose program of study requires Portuguese or Haitian Creole. Benefits of an academic year FLAS fellowship include: a service-free fellowship stipend and a tuition waiver provided by the School of Liberal Arts. Only students enrolling in a graduate program within the School of Liberal Arts are eligible for the tuition waiver. Those students receiving a FLAS fellowship during the academic year must register for their required language course (most often Portuguese) over and above the normal course load of nine hours. Priority for funding of academic year FLAS fellowships goes to those students who demonstrate a need for proficiency in Portuguese or Haitian Creole. However the regular graduate application serves also as the FLAS application. There is no separate form or application for consideration of an academic year FLAS fellowship. Prospective graduate students interested in an academic year FLAS fellowship and who are applying to programs other than the Latin American Studies graduate program must request from the relevant school or program to which they are applying that their admissions application packet/materials be copied and forwarded to the Stone Center for Latin American Studies for FLAS fellowship consideration. The deadline for submitting these materials is Feb. 1 for fellowship consideration for the subsequent academic year. All prospective FLAS fellowship applicants should indicate in their graduate application statement of purpose the nature of their interest in and need for the study of either Portuguese or Haitian Creole and how the study of these languages will serve their future post-graduate career objectives.

Summer FLAS fellowships are administered separately from the academic year FLAS program and follow the guidelines and application process outlined below. Please consult the section on Summer FLAS fellowships below for more information.

Latin American Studies Graduate Student Conference Paper Presentation Travel Support
This program is exclusively for Latin American Studies graduate students at Tulane University. This program requires the actual presentation of a research paper at a recognized professional academic conference. It is intended to help offset some of the costs of travel to present at such a conference. It does not support simple conference attendance, nor does it support conference participation in any other capacity, nor does it support participation in specialized workshops, working groups, symposia, or seminars. Requests for funding must be made at least one month prior to the conference. Students are limited to no more than two conference travel grants per Academic Year. Applications will be considered on a first-come, first-serve basis for as long as funds are available. NOTE: Given the limited funding we have available for this program, and given that there are other sources of conference travel funding available on campus, students must apply to other sources of funding on campus first before applying to the Stone Center, and should indicate application to these other sources of funding on their application to the Stone Center. To apply for funding through this Stone Center program, please complete the Conference Travel Support Application Form managed through the Stone Center’s University-based WaveSync platform. Applicants can choose only one funding category between the following three options: (1) 1/2 the cost of airfare; (2) a 2-day per diem rate as calculated by the U.S. Government; or (3) conference registration.
IMPORTANT NOTE ON PER DIEM AWARDS: Per diem rates are usually a combination of separate rates for lodging and meals/incidentals, with a fixed amount allocated for lodging and another for meals/incidentals. The lodging portion of per diem rates will only be reimbursed up to, but not exceeding, either the actual costs of the lodging, or the per diem rate, whichever is lower. Please keep in mind that you will not be reimbursed the full per diem rate if the actual expense for your lodging is below the per diem rate for lodging. Likewise, the per diem amount for meals/incidentals is also fixed and may be used only for expenses related to the individual applicant. Reimbursement for meals/incidental expenses for other individuals is not permitted. All receipts for meals/incidental expenses must be submitted when the reimbursement request is made. The meals/incidentals portion of per diem rates will only be reimbursed up to, but not exceeding, either the actual costs of meals/incidental expenses, or the per diem rate, whichever is lower. Please keep in mind that you will not be reimbursed the full per diem rate if your actual meals/incidentals expenses are lower than the corresponding per diem rate. Meals are reimbursable, alcoholic drinks are not. Incidental expenses are non-meal expenses related directly to the costs of travel such as ground transport fares, tolls, etc. Conference registration is not an incidental expense related to the costs of travel and cannot be applied against the meals/incidental per diem award. Finally, the per diem award is not a guaranteed fixed amount that can be used to cover expenses beyond two days. The allocation is restricted to eligible expenses for two days. For instance, if your two-day per diem award is for $400 ($200 per day), and your actual eligible per diem expenses are $100 per day, then you are only eligible to receive $200 of the $400 award, even if your travel extends over a 4 day period. You cannot apply the $200 difference to cover expenses for the 3rd and 4th days. Please consult with us if you are driving, staying with a friend, or if there are any other special circumstances.

SUMMER FUNDING

Stone Center and Tinker Foundation Summer Field Research Grants
Application Deadline: February 26, 2021

The Stone Center for Latin American Studies invites all Tulane University graduate students engaged in the study of Latin America or the Caribbean to apply for funding to conduct field research outside of the United States during the summer of 2021. Funding is provided partly through the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and partly through the Tinker Foundation. These field research grants are not to be used for dissertation research, but rather to provide graduate students who have little to no field research experience with an opportunity to explore the feasibility of a particular field research project and to gain experience in conducting preliminary hands-on field research abroad.

NOTE ON COVID-19 SITUATION: Given the current travel restrictions in place as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, any future travel is subject to approval by the university. If for some reason, field research travel is not possible, there may be additional opportunities for non-travel summer research funding. Students who would like to propose an alternative backup plan for non-travel summer research should submit an addendum that outlines the scope, timeline, and research goals of the alternative project, as well as a modified budget request for lodging, meals, and supplies expenses related to the alternative project.

For a successful grant proposal in the field of Public Health, click here.
For a successful grant proposal in the Natural/Biological Sciences, click here.
For a successful grant proposal in the Humanities, click here.
For a successful grant proposal in the Social Sciences, click here.

The Stone Center staff held an on-line information session on Wednesday, January 27, 2021. You can access the video and PowerPoint presentation here:

SUMMER FIELD RESEARCH APPLICATION MATERIALS for 2021

The process to apply for the Stone Center and Tinker Foundation Summer Field Research Grants is completely online. Both the Summer Field Research Application Guide and the SAMPLE Graduate Student Summer Field Research Application 2021 are available as downloadable PDFs below.

Direct links to on-line Stone Center and Tinker Foundation Summer Field Research Grant application forms:

All application materials, including the faculty recommendation form, proposal narrative, and transcript, should be submitted on-line according to the application guidelines. Please review the Summer Field Research Application Guide carefully.

For questions regarding this grant program, please contact Dr. Jimmy Huck by email at jhuck@tulane.edu OR Valerie McGinley at vmcgmar@tulane.edu.

Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS) 2021 Summer Field Course Grant Program: The Stone Center sponsors only one graduate student each summer to participate in an OTS Summer Field Course in Costa Rica. Information on available OTS Summer Field Courses can be obtained at the OTS Graduate Programs website. Only OTS programs offered over the Summer (May-August) are eligible for funding consideration. This opportunity is open to any Tulane graduate student. Please use the Summer Field Research Application in order to apply. For more information, please contact Jimmy Huck .

FLAS Summer Fellowships
Application Deadline: February 19, 2021

The Stone Center for Latin American Studies receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI program for Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships. Summer FLAS fellowships administered by the Stone Center are available to graduate students for the intensive study over the summer of Kaqchikel Maya, Portuguese, or another less-commonly taught Latin American language. Graduate students wishing to engage in intensive study of such a language are encouraged to apply for one of these fellowships. Only U.S. citizens or permanent residents are eligible to apply, and only intensive summer language programs that meet the FLAS guidelines will be considered. A listing of some of the approved programs is prepared by CLASP and available on-line. . The guidelines of this program are very specific, please read the FLAS Application Guide 2021 carefully before applying.

The Stone Center staff held an on-line information session on Friday, January 22, 2021. You can access the video and PowerPoint presentation here:

FLAS SUMMER APPLICATION MATERIALS for 2021

The process to apply for the Summer FLAS fellowship is completely online. Both the FLAS Application Guide and the SAMPLE Summer FLAS Fellowship Application 2021 are available as downloadable PDFs below.

Direct links to on-line Summer FLAS application forms:

All application materials, including the faculty recommendation form, proposal narrative, and financial need statement or FAFSA EFC, should be submitted on-line according to the application guidelines. Please review the FLAS Application Guide 2021 carefully.

For questions regarding the FLAS Fellowship, please contact Dr. Jimmy Huck by email at jhuck@tulane.edu OR Valerie McGinley at vmcgmar@tulane.edu.

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Laura Anderson Barbata: Transcommunality Exhibit K-12 Educator Orientation

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Join us for an evening with Tom Friel, Coordinator for Interpretation and Public Engagement as he walks through an innovative tool developed to share the Newcomb Art Museum’s latest exhibit, Laura Anderson Barbata: Transcommunality. The program is designed to introduce K-12 educators to Laura Anderson Barbata’s work and focus on specific elements of the exhibit that connect deeply to the K-12 classroom. While the exhibit is open to limited public access, it plans to open to the public and school visits by Fall 2021. Educators from across the country will find this online introduction to Barbata’s work a valuable resource as the virtual exhibit serves as a unique tool for online learning.

Read more about this exhibit from the Newcomb Gallery of Art About the Exhibit page below:

“The process-driven conceptual practices of artist Laura Anderson Barbata (b. 1958, Mexico City, Mexico) engage a wide variety of platforms and geographies. Centered on issues of cultural diversity, ethnography, and sustainability, her work blends political activism, street theater, traditional techniques, and arts education. Since the early 1990s, she has initiated projects with people living in the Amazon of Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Norway, and New York. The results from these collaborations range from public processional performances, artist books and handmade paper, textiles, countless garments, and the repatriation of an exploited 19thcentury Mexican woman ‘” each designed to bring public attention to issues of civil, indigenous, and environmental rights.

In Transcommunality, work from five of Barbata‘s previous collaborations across the Americas are presented together for the first time. Though varying in process, tradition, and message, each of these projects emphasize Barbata‘s understanding of art as a system of shared practical actions that has the capacity to increase connection. The majority of the works presented are costumed sculptures typically worn by stilt-dancing communities. Through the design and presentation of these sculptures, Barbata fosters a social exchange that activates stilt-dancing‘s improvisational magic and world history. At the core of this creative practice is the concept of reciprocity: the balanced exchange of ideas and knowledge.

The events of this past year ‘” from the uprisings across the country in response to fatal police shootings to the disproportionate impacts of Covid-19 among Black and brown communities to the bitter divisiveness of the 2020 presidential election ‘” have renewed the urgency for Barbata‘s multifaceted practice. In featured projects such as Intervention: Indigo, participants from various backgrounds reckon with the past to address systemic violence and human rights abuses, calling attention to specific instances of social justice. In The Repatriation of Julia Pastrana, Barbata‘s efforts critically shift the narratives of human worth and cultural memory. The paper and mask works presented in the show demonstrate the impact of individual and community reciprocity, both intentional and organic. Through her performance partnerships in Trinidad and Tobago, New York, and Oaxaca, represented throughout the museum, onlookers are invited to connect to the traditions of West Africa, the Amazon, Mexico, and the Caribbean and the narratives these costume sculptures reflect on the environment, indigenous cultures, folklore, and religious cosmologies.

By encouraging diverse collaborators to resist homogenization and deploy the creative skills inherent to authentic local expressions and their survival, Barbata promotes the revival of intangible cultural heritage. Transcommunality horizontally values the systems of oral history and folklore, spirituality, and interdisciplinary academic thought that shape Barbata‘s engaging creations, celebrating the dignity, creativity, and vibrancy of the human spirit.”

An Evening with Multi-Award Winning Author Elizabeth Acevedo

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Join us for an evening with Elizabeth Acevedo. Acevedo presents her third book, Clap When You Land, and discusses her writing process and performance background. The discussion will be followed by a reading.

Poet, novelist, and National Poetry Slam Champion, Elizabeth Acevedo was born and raised in New York City, the only daughter of Dominican immigrants. She is the author of Clap When You Land, (Quill Tree Books, 2020); With the Fire On High, (Harper, 2019); the New York Times best-selling and award-winning novel, The Poet X. (HarperCollins, 2018), winner of the 2018 National Book Award for Young Adult Fiction, the 2019 Michael L. Printz Award, and the Carnegie Medal; and the poetry chapbook Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths. (YesYes Books, 2016), a collection of folkloric poems centered on the historical, mythological, gendered and geographic experiences of a first-generation American woman. From the border in the Dominican Republic, to the bustling streets of New York City, Acevedo’s writing celebrates a rich cultural heritage from the island, inherited and adapted by its diaspora, while at the same time rages against its colonial legacies of oppression and exploitation. The beauty and power of much of her work lies at the tensioned crossroads of these competing, yet complementary, desires.

This online program is free and open to the public. It is part of our ongoing series of public engagement programs with Latinx writers that explore Latin America, race, and identity. Read more about Acevedo’s work in this recent article from The Atlantic.

Sponsored by the Stone Center for Latin American Studies and the Newcomb Institute.

Other Supported Events

March 16, 2021 – An Evening with Dominican Musician and Poet, Fermín Ceballos. Sponsored by the Center for the Gulf South
March 25, 2021 – Open Mic Night In Celebration of Elizabeth Acevedo. Sponsored by the Tulane Black Student Union (tBSU) and the Office of Multicultural Affairs

Please help us to support local bookstores by purchasing any copies of Acevedo’s books at Tubby & Coo’s.

For more information, please email crcrts@tulane.edu or call 504.865.5164.

Kaqchikel/K'iche' Language Table: Sociolinguistic Language Variation

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Join fellow students, teachers, and native speakers to practice your Kaqchikel language skills and deepen your understanding of Kaqchikel culture. This event is held on the last Thursday of each month for the duration of the Spring 2021 semester.

The March 25th session will focus on sociolinguistic variations within the Kaqchikel language. It will be facilitated by Rebecca Moore.

Kaqchikel/K'iche' Language Table: K'iche' Language Learning

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The April 29th session will focus on K’iche’ language learning with guest speaker Nela Petronila Tahay Tzay. It will be facilitated by Ignacio Carvajal.

Global Read Webinar Series Spring 2021

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The Stone Center for Latin American Studies coordinates the annual CLASP Américas Award for Children’s and Young Adult Literature and is excited to collaborate with other world area book awards on this exciting online program. Join us this spring 2021 as we invite award winning authors to join us in an online conversation about social justice, the writing process and an exploration of culture and identity across world regions. This annual Global Read Webinar series invites readers of all ages to join us as we explore books for the K-12 classroom recognized by world area book awards such as the Africana Book Award, the Américas Award, the Freeman Book Award, the Middle East Outreach Council Book Award, and the South Asia Book Award.

Each webinar features a presentation by an award-winning author with discussion on how to incorporate multicultural literature into the classroom. Be sure to join the conversation with our webinar hashtag #2021ReadingAcrossCultures.

SPRING 2021 SCHEDULE – Read more about the program here.
All webinars are at 7:00 PM EST.

January 12 – The Américas Award highlights the 2020 Honor Book, The Moon Within by Aida Salazar
February 3 – The Children’s Africana Book Award highlights the 2020 book award winning, Hector by Adrienne Wright
March 11 – The Middle East Outreach Award presents 2020 Picture Book award winner, Salma the Syrian Chef by Danny Ramadan, illustrated by Anna Bron
April – Freeman Book Award, a project of the National Consortium for Teaching Asia will present a book TBD.
May 13 – South Asia Book Award presents The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani

All sessions are free and open to the public. All times listed refer to Eastern Standard Time (EST). Sponsored by the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs, the South Asia National Outreach Consortium, the Middle East Outreach Council, and African Studies Outreach Council, The National Consortium for Teaching about Asia.

Reading Latina Voices Online Book Group for High School Educators

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This spring 2021 we invite all K-12 educators to join us once a month in an online book group. This past year has been a challenging one for everyone but especially K-12 educators. Sign up and join us as we explore the stories of women confronting identity as Latinas in the United States. Tulane University’s Stone Center for Latin American Studies, AfterCLASS and the New Orleans Public Library partner to host this online book group. The books selected are recognized by the Américas Award and focus on the Latina experience. The group begins with the work of award-winning author and poet, Elizabeth Acevedo who will speak in a unique online format on March 23rd presented by Tulane University’s Stone Center for Latin American Studies and Newcomb Institute.

B) Free – you find your own copies of the books at your local library.

REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS JANUARY 29, 2021

Reading Schedule – Thursdays at 6:00 PM CST

February 11 – Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
March 18 – The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
April 15 – American Street by Ibi Zoboi
May 13 – The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano by Sonia Manzano

Sponsored by AfterCLASS and the Stone Center for Latin American Studies at Tulane University and the New Orleans Public Library.

Welcome to the Roger Thayer Stone Center for Latin American Studies

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About Us, Programs & Resources

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Tulane University, 100 Jones Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118 (504) 865-5164 rtsclas@tulane.edu

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Upcoming Events

Laura Anderson Barbata: Transcommunality Exhibit K-12 Educator Orientation

An Evening with Multi-Award Winning Author Elizabeth Acevedo

Kaqchikel/K'iche' Language Table: Sociolinguistic Language Variation

Kaqchikel/K'iche' Language Table: K'iche' Language Learning

Global Read Webinar Series Spring 2021

Reading Latina Voices Online Book Group for High School Educators