At a meeting last year, the faculty involved in the Latin American Studies program discussed changing the interdepartmental program’s name in order to better reflect the nature of the program.
“The new name of the program will respond to a change in the kind of courses that we are already offering” said Latin American Studies Director and Spanish Professor, Beatriz Loyola. “The new name [Latin American and Latinx Studies] is indicative of the expansion in scope and direction of our program.”
To make the name change official, the department had to request permission from the Committee on Educational Policies and Planning. It made the request last spring.
The Latin American and Latinx Studies program is not the only department to go through the name-changing process in recent years. The Exercise Science, Political Science and World Language and Literature departments all changed their names in the last few years.
“We, the faculty of the Latin American [now Latinx] Studies program, believe that the expansion of the title was necessary to acknowledge the relevant presence of Latin culture outside its core geographical area, in this case, the communities of Latinx [or Latinos] in the United States. The cultural, economic, and political importance of Latinx in the United States is substantial and is growing. Our program recognizes that” said Loyola.