Find your path in Latina/Latino Studies
Community Resources
- Meet Yesenia Olvera (BA, '14, Latina/Latino studies and history) the director of postsecondary success at Benito Juarez Community Academy. She was a first generation graduate who has dedicated her career to helping students and their families navigate their career paths after high school. She describes her degree in Latina/Latino studies as foundational and that it instilled in her "a critical consciousness, allowing me to deconstruct dominant... Read full story First generation graduate helps students find postsecondary success
- LLS affiliate professor Yuridia Ramírez received a 2025 Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award from the Institute of Citizens & Scholars. The award comes with a $20,000 stipend to support her research.The award recognizes scholars who have demonstrated impressive scholarship, service,... Read full story LLS affiliate professor Yuridia Ramírez receives 2025 Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award
- In 2026, we will celebrate 30 years at the University of Illinois. We owe our history to the 1992 student movement for Latina/o rights on campus. The courageous activism and dedication of Latina/o students, faculty, and staff led to the creation of a Program in Latina/Latino Studies in 1996. In 2010, we became the first Department of Latina/Latino Studies in the country. As we near the 30 year milestone, we're looking back at our history, and... Read full story Honoring our history: Celebrating 30 years of the Department of Latina/Latino Studies at Illinois
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Why Study Latina/Latino Studies?
Professor Mirelsie Velázquez shares the value of the major, favorite spots in Champaign-Urbana, and why the Latina/Latino studies department is the best kept secret on campus in an interview with the College of LAS.
Upcoming events

Alumni spotlight: Mayra Diaz, ’17 – Policy Analyst, Health & Medicine Policy Research Group
Without a doubt, I credit who I am as a leader and professional in large part to my undergraduate education in Latina/Latino Studies. As a Policy Analyst at Health & Medicine Policy Research Group with master’s degrees in social work and public health, I research and advocate for policies that prevent and mitigate the systemic root causes of trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in Illinois. My LLS background has been indispensable throughout my graduate education and now in my current role. Learning about topics such as Critical Race Theory and the impact of U.S. policy on...

Faculty spotlight: Natalie Lira
Natalie Lira is an interdisciplinary scholar who examines the politics of reproduction and histories of medicine in the United States. Her research interests include the politics of reproduction, histories of medicine, and the ways that struggles for racial and reproductive justice intersect.