Latin America & the Caribbean
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Countries and Areas in this Region
Countries and Areas in this Region
  • Anguilla
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • Argentina
  • Aruba
  • Bahamas
  • Barbados
  • Belize
  • Bolivia
  • Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
  • Brazil
  • British Virgin Islands
  • Cayman Islands
  • Chile
  • Colombia
  • Costa Rica
  • Cuba
  • Curaçao
  • Dominica
  • Dominican Republic
  • Ecuador
  • El Salvador
  • Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
  • French Guiana
  • Grenada
  • Guadeloupe
  • Guatemala
  • Guyana
  • Haiti
  • Honduras
  • Jamaica
  • Martinique
  • Mexico
  • Montserrat
  • Nicaragua
  • Panama
  • Paraguay
  • Peru
  • Puerto Rico
  • Saint Barthélemy
  • Saint Kitts and Nevis
  • Saint Lucia
  • Saint Martin (French Part)
  • Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Sint Maarten (Dutch part)
  • Suriname
  • Trinidad and Tobago
  • Turks and Caicos Islands
  • United States Virgin Islands
  • Uruguay
  • Venezuela
Fast Facts
  • 3,000 + Penn alumni located in Latin America & the Caribbean
  • 287 Penn students on average reported studying abroad annually in Latin America & the Caribbean
  • 390 + Penn faculty reporting more than 770 projects and activities in the region
  • 27 active agreements with institutions in Latin America & the Caribbean

Penn’s relationship with the countries of Latin America & the Caribbean stretches back nearly two centuries. In 1829, Joseph M. Urquiola from Cuba became the first Latino to receive a degree from Penn and in 1836, Auxencio Maria Pena became the first student from Venezuela to graduate from the Medical School. In the early 1900s, Penn faculty members conducted groundbreaking archaeological research in the region, and by the middle of the century, the University had become home to the first center outside of Washington, D.C. to provide intensive training in Latin American languages and area studies. Today, Penn students have a wealth of opportunities to engage with Latin America & the Caribbean both in the region and on campus, and faculty from across multiple disciplines are collaborating to produce innovative research on this vitally important part of the world.

Shreya Subramanian, Wharton '21 Océano Patagonia - Puerto Piramídes, Argentina

 

 

"PLAC" superimposed on an abstract illustration of Latin America and the Caribbean
Penn in Latin America and the Caribbean (PLAC)

Penn's efforts in the region are bolstered by a cross-campus, interdisciplinary group, made up of faculty and administrators, the Penn in Latin America and Caribbean (PLAC) Steering Committee. Together, members of this diverse group seek to foster and highlight engagement in the region by organizing annual symposia, supporting student opportunities like the Pulitzer International Reporting Student Fellowship, and facilitating networking opportunities among colleagues whose work focuses on the region. 

Student Voices
Faculty Engagement
Research
Discriminatory Discourse and Aggressive Language in Digital Communication
Mércia Santana Flannery
Linguistics

As discriminatory discourse continues to rise both domestically and globally, Dr. Flannery, an expert in sociolinguistic analysis who is fluent in Portuguese, is engaged in studying the discourse across social media platforms in Brazil. Her work includes mapping narratives and reactions to important current events in Brazil’s culture, society and politics online via social media platforms news forums and examining them against longstanding views and stereotypes in Brazilian culture. Better understanding of the manifestations of Brazil’s discriminatory discourse on digital platforms will help activists and policymakers in addressing the behavior.

Updated November 2020

Research, Consulting
Asylum from Central America
Fernando Chang-Muy
Law

Professor Chang-Muy, an expert in refugee law and policy, is responding to the call for legal assistance at the US-Mexico border, where tens of thousands of asylum-seekers await decisions on whether they may take refuge from violence and persecution in Central America. Professor Chang-Muy’s research into instances which legitimize claims for asylum, running the gamut from gang violence to femicide, aims to confirm the legitimacy of refugees’ claims: he leverages this work in his consulting support and training of government agencies as well as local and national philanthropic groups, and by serving as faculty advisor to student groups which focus on human rights and refugees. In the summer of 2019, he traveled with Adam Garnick (L'21) to provide Know Your Rights talks throughout Honduras.

Updated November 2020

Research
Study on Impact of Warning Posters for Sugary Drinks
Laura Gibson & Christina Roberto
Health Policy

In a study led jointly with Guatemala’s Universidad Rafael Landivar’s Joaquin Barnoya, Professors Roberto and Gibson, together with Professor Stephens-Shields are researching the impact of sugary drink warning posters on adolescent purchases in Guatemalan schools. Given that Guatemalan teens consume a high amount of sugary drinks, Professors Roberto and Gibson’s research will assist in curbing the obesity epidemic in Guatemala, and their findings may also assist other Latin American countries combatting similar obesity epidemics. In addition, their assessment of non-communicable disease research capacity at a Guatemalan hospital has identified gaps that leadership is now working to address.

Updated November 2020

Research
The Politics of Climate Change
Daniel Aldana Cohen
Sociology

Daniel Aldana Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology in the School of Arts and Sciences works on the politics of climate change, investigating the intersections of climate change, political economy, inequalities of race and social class, and political projects of elites and social movements in global cities. His work on social equity and urban sustainability appeared in Nature in 2016. 

Research
Tihosuco Heritage Preservation and Community Development
Richard Leventhal
Anthropology

The Tihosuco Heritage Preservation and Community Development Project, supported in part by the Global Engagement Fund, works with a Maya community in the Yucatan, Mexico on the development of a very different heritage story of their past. It is a story not about the ancient Maya pyramids and tourist sites, but rather a story tied to a massive rebellion against Mexico in the 19th century. The project’s focus has been defined by the local community and is tightly integrated with small-scale economic projects. This is a major shift in how archaeology is conducted and the connection of archaeological research, not just about the past, but for the creation of communities in the 21st century. Equally groundbreaking, the project follows a bottom-up model of heritage and economic development.

Updated November 2020

Research
The Genographic Project
Theodore Schurr
Anthropology

In 2015-'16, Theodore Schurr conducted research exploring the genetic and migration history of populations from the Dominican Republic, as part of a broad survey of Caribbean population diversity. This work was initiated under the umbrella of the Genographic Project, a study launched in 2005 by the National Geographic Society that was designed to map historical human migration patterns through the analysis of genetic variation in populations from around the world.

Updated November 2020

Research
Cognitive Processing Therapy in Haiti
Torrey Creed
Psychiatry

Torrey A. Creed, PhD, who is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and Director of the Penn Collaborative for CBT and Implementation Science, has been a Health and Policy Advisor with Partners in Health (PIH) since 2018. In this role, she partners with Haitian mental health leadership to implement Cognitive Processing Therapy, an evidence-based practice for trauma symptoms, throughout the country’s mental health services. She has also worked with the mental health system in Rwanda to strengthen infrastructure related to the pre- and post-service training of mental health providers across the country. In addition, she provides consultation and support for PIH's cross-site mental health efforts, including implementation of evidence-based mental health practices in 11 low- and middle-income countries. She also travels nationally and internationally to deliver training, consultation, and implementation support for transdiagnostic Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which has included work in China, Mongolia, and with First Nations people in Canada. 

Updated November 2020