Projects & Initiatives
CLAS provides a rich research environment to members of its community and supports the research efforts of Georgetown faculty and students. The Center is dedicated to encouraging ongoing and active engagement with and by renowned academics and practitioners focused on Latin America and welcomes scholars and practitioners from the region to become affiliated with CLAS as they advance their research endeavors in Washington, D.C.
States and Institutions of Governance in Latin America (SIGLA)
SIGLA is an online multilingual database that provides systematic information on legal and political institutions in Latin America. Free to use, SIGLA democratizes access to data about governance in the region, enhancing government transparency and empowering scholars, government actors, business leaders, and civil society organizations in the region and around the world to conduct empirical research and make well-informed policy, commercial, and advocacy decisions. The project has been completely developed by Georgetown undergraduate and graduate students who serve as RAs for SIGLA each semester. SIGLA is generously supported by Georgetown University and the National Science Foundation.
Democracy in the Americas
The Democracy in the Americas project is led by a faculty working group comprising Diana Kapiszewski (department of government), Erick Langer (department of history), Hans Noel (department of government), Alvaro Santos (Georgetown University Law Center), and Michael Shifter (Center for Latin American Studies), together with Alice Taylor (assistant research professor) and Denisse Yanovich (managing director of the Georgetown Americas Institute, GAI). The project, supported with generous funding from various internal grants and from the GAI, and it involves virtual conversations and in-person workshops and gatherings. Faculty working group members are developing a joint research project examining how social movements, assemblies, and collectives — particularly youth movements — drive both democratic inclusion and democratic backsliding, including cross-regional influences on those dynamics.
Program on the Political Economy of Latin America and the Caribbean (ProPELAC)
ProPELAC is a multidisciplinary research group of faculty, practitioners, and students interested in the relationship between economics and politics (broadly defined) in the region. ProPELAC aims to encourage, help, and support Georgetown University faculty and students who conduct research on the political economy of Latin America and the Caribbean. Read more about ProPELAC here.
Transit Migration in the Americas
Transit Migration in the Americas is a research initiative jointly undertaken by the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM) and the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), both within Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, to study recent trends in transit migration in the Americas. With support from the Georgetown Americas Institute, the research will be based on field research in the region as well as analysis of publicly available data. Read more on the initiative here.
Brazil Studies Initiative
Georgetown’s Brazil Studies Initiative serves as an umbrella for Brazil-focused events, activities and research happening at Georgetown and beyond. A collaboration among the Center for Latin American Studies, the department of history, the department of Spanish and Portuguese, and other faculty colleagues across the university, the multi-disciplinary program serves as a focal point for faculty, students and practitioners interested in Brazil, at Georgetown and in the broader D.C.-Maryland-Virginia (DMV) area. The initiative aims to catalyze discussion and debate about, inspire and promote research on, and offer and publicize events examining Latin America’s largest country — geography, economically and with regard to population.