UC Santa Cruz
The Huerta Center is the first in the University of California system to advance a broad program of interdisciplinary research that brings together Chicanx/Latinx and Latin American Studies, including over 90 faculty and hundreds of students at UC Santa Cruz.
Since its founding in 1992 by faculty in Latin American and Latino Studies, the Huerta Center’s scope has been hemispheric.
The Huerta Center supports multidisciplinary research and community initiatives, mentors and creates professional development opportunities for primarily under-represented and/or first-generation students, and hosts thought-provoking public events about issues and questions that matter to both scholars and the communities in which we live and work.
Programs & Initiatives
The Huerta Center provides small grants for research for graduate students and faculty, and supports the creation of collaborative research clusters. We host a variety of informal events for the creation of intellectual community as well as more public gatherings. We support a Legislative Fellowship program in which undergraduate students intern in local legislative offices as well as an undergraduate research apprenticeship initiative. We publish a handful of research reports and are relaunching our occasional blog series.
Research initiatives
Current director, Jessica Taft, is engaged in multiple projects that focus on the institutional impacts of Chicanx/Latinx and Latin American student and youth activism.
- One strand of research aims to unearth, document, and share the history of Chicanx/Latinx student activism at UC Santa Cruz.
- The second strand is a collaboration with the Campus+Community Center and engages with local youth to explore youth voice and power in Santa Cruz County.
- A final strand is a partnership with McGill University and others on young feminist activism, Gender Transformation, and the global development sector.
The Center also houses Dr. Sylvanna Falcón’s Human Rights Investigations Lab.
Email the Huerta Center: huerta [at] ucsc.edu
