Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies
Alejandro Heredia is a writer from The Bronx. He is the author of LOCA, a finalist for the 2025 Center for Fiction First Novel prize, and You’re the Only Friend I Need, winner of the Gold Line Press Fiction chapbook contest. He has received fellowships from Lambda Literary, VONA, the Dominican Studies Institute, Kenyon Review, Trinity College, and UNLV’s Black Mountain Institute. Heredia’s work has been featured in Teen Vogue, LitHub, American Short Fiction, and elsewhere. He received an MFA in fiction from Hunter College.
Heredia currently serves as an artist in residence at Trinity College, where he teaches creative writing.
Join us to celebrate graduating majors and minors in Latino and Caribbean Studies and the Center for Latin American Studies. Food, refreshments, and music! We will also recognize department honors and graduates who complete requirements for the Certificate in Latino and Caribbean Studies.
Bebo, a teenager from a coastal Puerto Rican town, lives with his brother in a public housing complex. They fish for a living, but growing desperation drives them to illegal dealings that promise easy money. When a job goes wrong, and blood is spilled, Bebo flees with Lola, a wealthy girl seeking to escape her troubled reality. As they navigate the labyrinthine mountains, they encounter remnants of a fading way of life, contrasting with the violence that follows them. As his inner demons rise, Bebo must confront his choices and decide if redemption is possible, or if the sea will be their final escape.
Q&A w/ Producer & RU Alum Daniel Torres
Attend “Jueves de Cine” at Rutgers Cinema for a screening of Selena y los Dinos from 7pm to 9pm and join us for a Q&A with Producer Dan Torres after the film. (105 Joyce Kilmer Ave, Piscataway, NJ)
This presentation explores the largest living archive of Black Cuban oral histories, based on 95 interviews with Black Cubans in the United States.
Come to this event to learn about a dynamic digital humanities project by two interdisciplinary scholars of Black Central America.
Food and beverages will be served!
Come meet LCS & CLAS Faculty!
Faculty will be present from 4:30 - 6:30 PM.
With a focus on showcasing the cutting edge and innovative work of scholars in Latinx and Caribbean Studies, this speaker series highlights the work of scholars who have utilized a wide array of topical, narrative, digital, community-centered, and stylistic approaches in ways that unsettle disciplinary boundaries.
Join the editors, aldo A. Lauria Santiago and Ulla D. Berg, and the 20 contributors of the first book on Latinos in NJ!
This collection brings together innovative and empirically grounded scholarship from different disciplines and interdisciplinary fields of study and addresses topic including the demographic history of Latinos in the state, Latino migration from gateway cities to suburban towns, Latino urban enclaves, Latino economic and social mobility, Latino students and education, the New Jersey Dream Act and in-state tuition act organizing, Latinos and criminal justice reform, Latino electoral politics and leadership, and undocumented communities.
Dr. Curiel explores cultural productions that expose some of the deadliest immigration enforcement strategies in the U.S., Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Moreover, she reckons with the ethics of constructing migration narratives, the position of collective trauma in the study of immigration, and the possibilities of community healing through art and grassroots economies.
Help us recognize and celebrate graduating majors and minors in Latino and Caribbean Studies
Join us for a timely and thought-provoking Symposium at Rutgers University in New Brunswick where we will delve into the past, present, and future of Elizabeth Detention Center. This symposium features both academic, policy, detainee, and activist perspectives on the challenges surrounding the struggle to end immigrant detention in New Jersey and the United States.
The symposium is coordinated by the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies in collaboration with American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), First Friends of NJ and NY, and Detention Watch Network, and with the support from the following Rutgers units: School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), Institute for the Study Global Racial Justice (ISGRJ), Global Latinx New Jersey, the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS), the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies (LCS), Rutgers Center for Immigration Law, Policy, and Justice, the Department of Sociology, Rutgers Institute for Critical Caribbean Studies (RAICCS), and the Program in Criminal Justice.
During the 2023-2024 academic year, the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies will be hosting events to celebrate 50 years of teaching, research, and service.
Join us and check back throughout the year for more events!
Scarlet Speakers from the Heart of New Brunswick:
COVID Impacts on Migrant Detention and Deportation
in New Jersey
An intimate virtual gathering with President Jonathan Holloway, The Center for Latino Arts and Culture and Latinx Alumni Association of Rutgers University (LAARU)
As you may know, the department has a beautiful tradition of celebrating Día de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and unfortunately, this year our students and community could not gather to make a department altar. This year, the Henry Rutgers Term Chair in Latino Studies wanted to share a photo of the simple altar she made at home to remember and honor her grandparents, great grandmother, and uncles who have all passed. We join Professor Lilia Fernandez in wishing you all a happy Day of the Dead as we think about and honor our ancestors.
This is a space where LCS students, faculty and our friends at the CLAC meet virtually after dinner to relax, and catch up over "un cafecito".
Dr. Decena will reflect on how the intersectionality of diversity and inclusion has impacted and played a role in his life and scholarship. Join us!
On Tuesday, May 1, 2018, the Department of Latino and Caribbean Studies, the Center for Latin American Studies, the Henry Rutgers Term Chair in Latino Studies and Rutgers Advanced Institute for Critical Caribbean Studies held it's annual reception to celebrate 2018 graduates who majored or minored in Latino and Caribbean Studies and Latin American Studies and those who successfully completed the Departmental Certificate in Multicultural Competence.
