Stone Center Funding Opportunities for Undergraduate Students in Latin America and the Caribbean
The Stone Center for Latin American Studies invites all Tulane University undergraduate students engaged in the study of Latin America or the Caribbean to apply for funding for one of four possible grant categories: (1) Academic Conference Attendance/Presentation (2) Independent Research; (3) Summer Internship; and (4) Intensive Summer Language Study. Brief descriptions of each of these programs appear below.
Conference Presentation/Attendance Funding
The Stone Center’s Conference Presentation/Attendance Grants program will fund travel expenses for undergraduate students who to present at or attend undergraduate research conferences or professional and/or academic meetings.
Applications Due: ROLLING DEADLINE
How to Apply
- Download the Proposal Guidelines.
- Download the Sample Application.
- Complete the online application form.
Summer Funding
Independent Research Funding
The Stone Center provides grants to undergraduate students in the pursuit of independent research projects that align with the Stone Center’s mission of expanding understanding of Latin America and the Caribbean. These grants encourage the collaboration of undergraduate students and faculty in the production of new knowledge through individual and/or group research. Research may require exploring archives or libraries in other cities or countries, conducting an interview with an expert or practitioner, or engaging in fieldwork to collect data for subsequent analysis. Students may request up to $2,000 to offset the cost of travel and/or subsistence. Subsistence allowances follow the domestic per diem rates provided by the U.S. General Services Administration and foreign per diem rates provided by the U.S. Department of State.
Applications Due: February 01, 2025
Summer Internship Funding
The Stone Center’s Summer Internship Grants program provides support for students who are pursuing unpaid or minimally-paid internships that have a significant focus on Latin America or the Latin American diaspora in the US or elsewhere. Students may request up to $2000 to assist with summer living expenses, internship travel, or other associated expenses. Students must address how their internship contributes to the Stone Center’s mission of expanding understanding of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Applications Due: February 01, 2025
Intensive Summer Language Study Funding
Intensive Summer Language Study funding supports undergraduate students who participate in the Stone Center-sponsored Summer in Brazil program (Brazilian Portuguese) or the Summer Mayan Language Institute (Kaqchikel Maya or K’iche’ Maya). This funding program acts as a scholarship covering the cost of program fees and is issued directly to the program administrators. The award does not provide a cash disbursement to awardees. Exceptional participants may be referred for FLAS funding from our partner institution Vanderbilt. If you would like to be considered for FLAS funding, you must apply by the February 1 priority deadline.
NOTE FOR SUMMER IN BRAZIL STUDENTS: The Stone Center has a very limited budget to support Portuguese language study. We encourage students to apply directly to the Foreign Language and Area Studies grant competition at Vanderbilt University. The application deadline is February 1, 2025.
Applications Due: February 01, 2025
How to Apply
- Download the application guidelines.
- Prepare required materials.
- If applying for Independent Research or Intensive Summer language study, locate a faculty sponsor to recommend you.
- Complete the online application.
Questions? Join us for an online information session at 4:00 pm CDT on Monday, December 9, 2024 or email lastadv@tulane.edu.
Other Campus wide Funding Opportunities for Undergraduates
The Stone Center offers guidance and mentoring for applying for a wide variety of University fellowships to further pursue research, participate in conferences and to conduct national and/or international internships. Fellowships are available through various campus sources for independent research and internships. https://grantfunding.tulane.edu/ Latin American Studies strongly encourages students to seek our fellowships and pursue such activities as they represent valuable pedagogical and pre-professional experience.
Funding for Study in Latin America
For year and semester programs, the Newcomb-Tulane College Dean’s Office offers the Corasaniti Study Abroad Grant, providing $2500 toward the cost of a Newcomb-Tulane Study Abroad Program for a student majoring in political science, economics, political economy, or a modern foreign language. Grants are awarded on the basis of both merit and financial need. See the website for more information. For more information on study abroad funding check with the Center for Global Education.
Departmental Awards
The Stone Center for Latin American Studies has competitions annually for the best academic paper in the Social Sciences (The M. Karen Bracken Award) and in the Humanities (The Alberto Vázquez Award) by an undergraduate major or minor. The competition is decided in late spring by a standing committee which judges submissions forwarded by the faculty. The Prize Committee considers work produced in either semester of an academic year. A full listing of all Stone Center Academic Awards, including links to most of the prize winning papers, can be accessed on our Stone Center Awards and Prizes Webpage.
Student Conferences and Opportunities
TUSCLA
The Stone Center’s annual TUSCLA conference is an interdisciplinary student symposium in which seniors from the Latin American Studies undergraduate core seminar, first-year graduate students in the graduate Latin American Studies core seminar and undergraduates in Newcomb-Tulane College conducting original research on Latin America present their individual research projects. TUSCLA was formally launched as TUCLA in Fall of 2003 as a means to provide Latin American Studies undergraduates with an opportunity to present papers in the style and atmosphere of an academic conference. In 2006 it was transformed into a public, all-day event with faculty discussants and in 2017 expanded into the current TUSCLA conference, to include graduate students and the wider undergraduate community. The conference is designed to enlist all Tulane undergraduates, graduate students and faculty interested in the region in a shared discussion of the region, its society and its cultures.
Rollins College Symposium
The Latin American and Caribbean Studies program at Rollins College organizes the Latin American Latinx Studies Symposium. Undergraduate students will share their research on domestic and foreign issues concerning Latin America and the Latinx population.
Stone Center Policies and Procedures
Advising
The Stone Center’s Director of Undergraduate Affairs is available to assist any student interested in Latin American Studies with decisions regarding coursework, independent studies, internships, study abroad programs, career counseling, grants and fellowships and extra-curricular opportunities. While it is not compulsory to seek advising, it is an integral part of the Latin American Studies degree program and all majors and minors in Latin American Studies are encouraged to meet with the Stone Center’s Director of Undergraduate Affairs each semester to evaluate their course of study. In the weeks before any registration period, course information listing Latin American offerings in cooperating departments is compiled and made available in the Stone Center offices and on the Center’s website. After considering the list, students should make an appointment to discuss the offerings and learn the recommendations of the department. The Stone Center’s Director of Undergraduate Affairs is your first stop for information on the Latin American Studies program.
Grades
Students must maintain a 2.0 average in the major program to satisfy the degree requirements of Latin American Studies. The grade-point average is determined by dividing the total number of quality points by the total number of quality hours (see Undergraduate Catalogue for more information on quality points).
Federal law prohibits the release of grades or other confidential information to third parties, including parents and guardians, unless the student provides written authorization for release of such information to the associate dean. Such as request may be made by the student at any time.
Grievances and Grade Changes
When students have a complaint to register about a particular class, professor or grade, they should make an appointment with the Assistant Undergraduate Advisor.
In most cases grievances grow out of courses. It is important to understand that grievances attach to the department in which a course is offered. Thus, if a student in the Latin American Studies interdisciplinary program seeks to resolve a problem arising from a Sociology course, it must be pursued through the Sociology Department. Courses which originate in the Center for Latin American Studies will be handled by the appropriate Center administrators. In every case disputes are handled at the lowest level first (discuss the problem with the professor) and then move up the Center and, finally, college level.
The university grievance policy is available either in the Center or in the college division office. It is a lengthy document which describes procedures to be followed when the Center procedures have not worked to satisfy all parties.
The Center for Latin American Studies policy is as follows:
- The Executive Director designates the Undergraduate Advisor to serve as the chair of the grievance committee in the case of an undergraduate level grievance.
- If the Undergraduate Advisor is the object of the grievance hearing or if some other conflict of interest arises, then the Executive Director of the Center will serve as the chair of the grievance committee.
- If a complaint cannot be resolved by informal mediation within seven days of its referral to the Undergraduate Advisor, the student will be informed of their right to bring the matter before the Center grievance committee. The student will be granted 24 hours from the time of notification of right of grievance hearing to notify the chair of the committee of their decision to seek redress through the committee. The chair will schedule the hearings, if requested, within 48 hours of such notification.
- Requests by parties involved in the grievance process for extensions of the above time limits shall be entertained by the chair and granted only in extreme cases.
- The Center grievance committee shall consist of three faculty members. At least one will be a Latin Americanist faculty member with a departmental affiliation. Members of the grievance committee will be appointed by the Executive Director and will serve for a term of three years.
- The chair of the committee will advise the committee members of the name of the student and shall notify the student of the composition of the committee at least 24 hours before the hearing.
- Requests by the student to remove a faculty member from the committee for cause or by committee members to remove themselves for cause shall be entertained by the chair of the committee and granted only in extreme cases.
- The chair of the committee will not serve as a committee member but shall serve as moderator of all grievance hearings.
- Both the student and the instructor have the right to submit written statements of their opinions concerning the grievance to the grievance committee and shall be encouraged to do so. Both parties shall also have the right to appear before the committee during the hearing and shall be encouraged to do so. Neither party is obligated to submit a written opinion nor to appear. Choice regarding these options shall not be weighed in committee deliberations.
- Instructors against whom grievances are filed are obligated to submit to the committee all written materials (test, papers, record of grades, attendance and records, and so forth) which bear directly on the grievance case.
- Parties giving testimony in a hearing shall be segregated before and during testimony.
- Testimony, but not committee deliberation during a grievance, shall be tape-recorded and tapes kept on file for six months after the hearing.
- The committee shall render a decision in the grievance matter within three days of the hearing. Committee records should contain not only the decision but an explanation of the grounds upon which the decision was reached. Summary statements of decisions and their grounds shall be sent by the chair of the committee to the student, the faculty member against whom the grievance was filed, and the dean of the college division.
- If the Center grievance procedure does not achieve a mutually satisfactory conclusion, the student will have recourse to the university’s appellate procedures.
Graduation Information
Application for Degree
A student expecting to receive a degree in May must register as a candidate for graduation in the associate dean’s office during the fall semester. A student expecting to receive a degree at any other time should consult the associate dean’s office for appropriate information. Commencement ceremonies are held only in May; August and December graduates may, however, participate in ceremonies held the following May. All May graduates are expected to attend commencement unless the awarding of the degree in absentia has been approved by the associate dean.
Certification
In the final semester of your senior year the Stone Center is contacted by your dean’s office to certify that you have completed all of the requirements to graduate with the Latin American Studies major. Therefore, the advising appointment that you have with the Undergraduate Advisor before your final registration also includes a review and audit of your transcript to make sure that everything will be in order when graduation occurs.
