Regional Scope, Global Impact

WPI’s Latin American and Caribbean Studies program brings together a scholarly community from across the Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM fields to engage with critical issues that affect the region and its relations with other parts of the world.

Practitioners in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at WPI focus their attention especially on issues related to:

  • Environment, sustainability, ecocriticism, and climate adaptation
  • Migration, mobilities, diaspora, and transregional communities
  • Intercultural understanding, literary and cultural studies, ethnicity and race, and social activism

Steering Committee

John Starosta Galante

Co-Director, Latin American & Caribbean Studies

Associate Professor of Teaching, Humanities & Arts 

Aarti Smith Madan

Co-Director, Latin American & Caribbean Studies

Associate Professor, Humanities & Arts

Director, Buenos Aires Project Center

Laureen Elgert

Department Head, Integrative & Global Studies

CoDirector, Ecuador Project Center

Ángel Rivera

Professor, Humanities & Arts

Director, Paraguay Project Center

William San Martín

Assistant Professor, Integrative & Global Studies

Affiliated Faculty

Joe Aguilar

Humanities & Arts

Melissa Belz

Integrative & Global Studies

Director, Costa Rica Project Center

Grant Burrier

Integrative & Global Studies

John-Michael Davis

Integrative & Global Studies

Co-Director, Puerto Rico Project Center

Courtney Kurlanska

Integrative & Global Studies

Co-Director Ecuador Project Center

Ingrid Matos-Nin

Humanities & Arts

Lina Muñoz

Humanities & Arts

Aaron Sakulich

Civil & Environmental Engineering

Director, Panama Project Center

Mimi Sheller

Dean of the The Global School

Michael Timko

Chemical Engineering

Director, Brazil Project Center

Faculty Lightning Talks