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Centre for Research on Latin America and the Caribbean (CERLAC)
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CERLAC Graduate Diploma

Folkloric dance, Colombia | Photo courtesy of Kyla Sankey

What is it?

The CERLAC Graduate Diploma is an additional certification you receive simultaneously with your graduate degree.

Who qualifies?

Any graduate student from *any* graduate program interested in certifying Latin America and the Caribbean as your area of expertise.

Why participate?

You’ll connect and build community with other students researching in Latin America and the Caribbean! Also, this certificate gives your research additional credibility and looks great on your CV and transcript!

What are the requirements?

  1. Demonstration of proficiency in the language needed for research
  2. A 5 to 10 page statement on your relationship to the region
  3. 3.0 Diploma course (ANTH 5300/6300)
  4. Two LAC research outputs from two other graduate courses

Information about CERLAC’s Diploma Core Course

Ready to Register?

Fill in the following forms and if you have questions please send an email to: Camila Bonifaz

*Download the CERLAC Diploma Checklist to help yourself stay on track*

Frequently Asked Questions

There will not be a formal language exam, but rather an interview with a CERLAC Fellow in which you will speak in the language necessary for your field research. This language will depend upon your research focus.

Most of the diploma requirements relate to the acquisition of tools and knowledges needed to conduct research in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as their diasporas. On the other hand, this five-to ten-page statement on relationship to the region focuses on the perspectives needed to do so.

This requirement empowers students to articulate not only their “field” but also their relationship to it. Many of our students do diasporic studies “at home”, but that does not lessen the value of their research or the importance of their reflection on their positionality as a researcher.

This course’s inaugural run will be Summer 2022, taught by Dr. Honor Ford-Smith from the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change. It is a project-based research course that will bring together CERLAC’s graduate students and Fellows from many different programs and areas of research.

The two research outputs can be in multiple formats: podcasts, films, papers, sculptures, websites, etc. They can be related to any graduate course or requirement — apart from the Diploma course itself — and they need to be completed at or through York during the time of your degree. These two outputs need to demonstrate the breadth of your research expertise within Latin American and the Caribbean.

Students can start working on the diploma requirements right away — the sooner the better! It is not recommended that you wait until you are ready to graduate to get started. All diploma requirements will need to be filed in the CERLAC office by no later than six weeks before commencement.

No problem. Of course.

If you register in the diploma program early, we can better support your completion of the diploma requirements in a timely manner.

No, but you will likely want to come to participate in our vibrant intellectual community.

Yes, any graduate student from any graduate program is welcome. We will work with you to fit the requirements into your graduate journey at York.

No, students already registered for the diploma program can simply continue with their previous requirements. You do not need to re-register or start again.

To help you continue with the progress you’ve already made in the Diploma program, you can simply continue with the previous set of forms. If you need to download any of the forms, they are all here: