Spanish & Latin American Network
The Spanish and Latin American Network (SALA) at UL Lafayette supports and promotes cross-disciplinary research and teaching on Spain and Spanish America, Portugal and Brazil, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. SALA arranges lectures and other activities and promotes study abroad while working to strengthen resources on campus for research and teaching on the Hispanic World and deepening connections with the Latino community in Acadiana.
People
All members of the Latin American Studies faculty are affiliated with the Spanish and Latin American Network, which also works closely with the entire Spanish faculty. We invite you to join our mailing list to share news of academic and community activities related to Spain and Latin America.
Our community partners and contacts include Volunteer Instructors Teaching Adults (VITA), the adult literacy program of the city of Lafayette, the Proyecto Hispano de Ayuda a la Comunidad, the La Familia Resource Center, the Hispanic Ministry of the Diocese of Lafayette, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Louisiana, the Club Cubano de Lafayette, the Asociación Cultural Latino Acadiana, and Alfa & Omega Church International, which spearheads a number of initiatives in support of immigrant communities.
Student Research & Service Learning
SALA promotes and supports undergraduate as well as graduate level research on the Hispanic world. Students engaged in this work gain experience in bibliographic research, project design, evaluation and organization of documents, grant writing, and more, while expanding their knowledge of a particular topic.
We encourage you to design your curriculum with the Latin American Studies courses so they reflect your particular interests.
Some students undertake these projects as McNair Fellows or as capstone projects in the Honors Program; others do so with SALA-affiliated faculty in their major departments. If you are interested in undertaking research projects, you should discuss options with the faculty member with whom you would like to work.
Developing internship opportunities and service learning projects is another objective of the SALA Network. Ongoing projects include literacy work with the Hispanic community through the city's VITA program. We expect to launch other service and experiential learning projects in 2017.