Students interested in a self-designed major in Latin American and Caribbean studies should contact the LACS chair, Jorge Torres at torresg@lafayette.edu
Please see below for the new LACs minor requirements. New requirement for the LACS minor will go into effect for the ’25-’26 Academic Year.
The LACS minor consists of six approved courses, one of which must be an upper-level course, an independent study, internship, or thesis directed by a faculty member affiliated with the minor.
See the list of approved courses
Students are asked to demonstrate intermediate level language proficiency in a language relevant to the study of Latin America and the Caribbean. Spanish or French is recommended.
The LACS minor consists of six approved courses including LACS 101: Introduction to Latin American & Caribbean Studies; LACS 201: Perspectives & Debates in Latin American & Caribbean Studies plus three more approved LACS electives, one must be at the 300 or 400 level. Students must demonstrate Spanish- or French-competency up through the intermediate level or above by taking SPAN 112 or FREN 112 as their sixth course to fulfill the minor requirements.*
It is also strongly recommended that students participate in one of the many approved study abroad programs in Latin America and the Caribbean, and/or in non-traditional LACS-related experiences like Engineers without Borders, Alternative Spring Break, problem-based learning, or community-based learning.
As per College policy, students can count up to three courses in their major toward the LACS major or minor as long as they are on the approved list of LACS courses. Students majoring in Spanish can count up to two major courses toward the LACS minor.
*Many languages are spoken throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, most of which Lafayette College does not offer courses in. For this reason, the LACS major will require advanced language requirements in the two languages spoken in the region that the college does offer: Spanish and French. The LACs programs recognizes and values all languages spoken in the region and wants to encourage students to study them (i.e.. Portuguese, Kreyol, Dutch, Quechua, Nahuatl, and the 600 other Creole and Indigenous languages spoken in the region.) We believe that in addition to language proficiency, learning new languages also exposes students to new ways of thinking about the world and understanding the people who speak them, even at the introductory levels. Therefore, language courses outside of French and Spanish (even at the introductory level) can count as electives towards a LACs major. In rare cases in which a student wants to gain proficiency in a language from the region other than French or Spanish to meet their requirement for intermediate language study, the LACS faculty will support assessment.