LACLxS offers small grants to support summer research and travel in Latin America and the Caribbean. Grants are awarded on a competitive basis, and the competition is open to all graduate students of Johns Hopkins University.

LACLxS supports projects from all disciplines. The primary purpose of the travel grant scheme is to enable students to pursue academic research on a topic related to Latin American, Caribbean, and/or Latinx Studies. Applications are judged on the basis of the quality of the proposal submitted, the student’s academic standing, and the relationship of the proposed travel and summer research to the student’s long-term academic and professional goals. Grants generally range from $1,000 to $3,000 and are intended to contribute to the costs of airfare, lodging, and minimal research expenses. It is expected that successful applicants will spend at least three weeks in the region.

Upon their return from research travel, all grantees will present their results in a one-day conference organized by LACLxS later in the semester.

Please note that all funded projects will have to comply with Homewood IRB regulations, and it may be necessary to obtain Institutional Review Board approval. For further information, please contact the HIRB.

Requirements and Deadlines

Grants are open to any student with a focus on Latin America, the Caribbean, and/or Latinx Studies. Students requiring IRB clearance for human subjects’ research must receive approval by June 1.

Deadline for applications: March 13, 2026

Decision notification: Mid-April

Required materials:

• 2-page double-space proposal research statement, which includes the applicant’s name, title of the project, country, and a description of the research to be conducted and how it fits into a larger research project.
• Budget proposal and budget justification statement. Proposed budget items should relate directly to research and travel, such as transportation, accommodations, conference fees, etc.
• List any additional funding sources you may be applying for.
• Letter of recommendation from your primary advisor. This must be submitted via email directly by the advisor to Program Director Angelina Cotler.

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]

LACLxS Summer Research Grantees 2025

• Alicia Piñar Díaz (Spanish and Portuguese): Rethinking Colonial Memory in Manila
• Alonso Burgos (Sociology): “Self-Identify with Pride”: Neoliberalism, Recognition, and Population Politics in Peru
• Ignacio Veraguas Caripan (Spanish and Portuguese): Portentous Nature of Volcanoes: Image and Catastrophe in the Histórica relación del reino de Chile (1646) by Alonso de Ovalle
• Julia Alves da Costa (Anthropology): Freezing the ocean: cryopreservation of Brazilian corals in a climate change reality
• Mateus Mendoça (Sociology): The Brazilian community of food delivery workers in the UK and their fight against the platforms
• Megan Niclay (School of Nursing): Biological citizenship and therapeutic markets: Chileans with rare diseases and their journeys towards claiming their right to health
• Noah Nelson (School of Education): To the Left: The Makings of a Black Radical Pedagogy
• Verónica Ríos Saavedra (Spanish and Portuguese): Production of “La hermana Mariana” when they film in Pucallpa (Peru)

LACLxS Summer Research Grantees 2024

• Rhiannon Clarke, Spanish & Portuguese, Mexico: “Poet in [Mexico]: Spanish Networks of Exile and the Reception of Lorca in Mexico”
• Jaclyn Dyson, International Health, Guatemala: “Process Evaluation of Maternal-Child Health Interventions in Guatemala”
• Elena Garcia Fariña, Public Health, Bolivia: “Exemplars in Global Health: Bolivia – Exemplar in Family Planning”
• Maria Haro, Sociology, Argentina and Brazil: “The Political Economy of Chinese Investments in Argentina and Brazil: The Energy Sector”
• Leana Mason, Sociology, Grenada: “Jab Jab in Grenada: A Cultural Production of Anti-Colonial Resistance”
• Alicia Piñar Díaz, Spanish & Portuguese, Spain: “Representing Caribbean Alterity in Contemporary Spain”
• Isabel Plakas, School of Nursing, Mexico: “La Sala: Mexicali, Mexico. Experience with a Safe Consumption Site among Women Who Use Drugs”
• Marco Pomini, History of Art, Peru: “Imagining Mediterranean Conflicts from the Colonial Andes”
• Grant Tore, Environmental Health and Engineering, Chile: “The METALES Study: Measuring Exposures To Agrochemicals and their Link to Renal Disease: Fostering Informed Decision-Making through the Report Back of Environmental Exposures”
• Alfredo Walls, Spanish & Portuguese, Mexico: “Queering the Archive: Neobaroque and Queer Mexican Literature”

LACLxS Summer Research Grantees 2023 

• Maximiliano Vejares, Political Science: “The Origins of State Authority: Theory and Evidence from Chile.”
• Miranda Bain, International Health: “Why does abortion access vary so greatly between Jujuy and La Rioja provinces, Argentina, despite similarly anti-abortion politics?”
• Sophie D’Anieri, Anthropology: “Growing with Toxicity: Nourishing Agricultural Lives and Livelihoods along a Polluted River in El Salto, Mexico”
• Melissa DeSantiago, Environmental Health and Engineering: “The METALES Study:
  Measuring Exposures To Agrochemicals and their Link to rEnal diSease: Using a novel method to assess exposures to chemicals in agricultural work and their role in chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology, Chile”
• Joao Gabriel, History: “Between the State and Capital: prison reform, the abolition of slavery and the French imperial nation-state (1830-1851) Martinique and Guadeloupe”
• Fernando López Vega, Anthropology: “Youth dreamworlds in the Orinoco River. Education, energy, and plantations in rural Colombia.”
• Halle Mackenzie-Ashby, History: “Bound by the Womb: Reproduction, Kinship & Freedom in Barbados”
• Arman Majidulla, International Health: “What about the community? Examining clean cookstove research among Indigenous communities in the rural Peruvian Andes”
• Pyar Seth, Interdisciplinary Humanistic Studies Program: “Diagnosing Dreadlocks: Rastafarianism and Medicalization, Jamaica”

The Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies (LACLxS) External Speaker Series provides support for faculty and departments across Johns Hopkins to bring guest speakers to campus whose work engages with Latin American, Caribbean, or Latinx themes. Whether through a public lecture, conference, classroom visit, workshop, or other format, these events are meant to enrich the academic environment at JHU by creating opportunities for meaningful exchange between our community and scholars, artists, or practitioners from across the hemisphere.

All Johns Hopkins faculty are eligible to apply. Preference will be given to proposals that demonstrate a clear connection to LACLxS content areas and actively involve students or intersect with course offerings. Events may also be co-sponsored with other departments or programs.

The deadline to apply for funding for events in the Spring of 2026 is November 14, 2025 at 5 pm.

The online application for this grant will ask you for: 

• Name, email and department of organizer(s)
• Name and affiliation of invitee(s)
• Proposed date(s) (estimated)
• Type of event (lecture, workshop, book presentation, film screening, etc.)
• Event description
• Proposed budget (including travel, lodging, honorarium, meals, etc.)
• Co-sponsored departments or programs (if any)
• Potential audiences (courses, student groups, broader campus/community)

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected]