LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION AT PITT RECEIVES $2 MILLION FORD FOUNDATION GRANT

PITTSBURGH, June 10 -- The Latin American Studies Association (LASA) at the University of Pittsburgh has received an endowment grant of

$2 million from the Ford Foundation.

Hosted by Pitt's University Center for International Studies, LASA was founded in 1966 and is the largest professional association of Latin Americanists in the world. It currently services 4,900 international members, both individual and institutional. Pittsburgh has been home to the association since 1986.

This contribution raises the LASA endowment to $2.9 million. Income from the endowment will be used primarily to finance the participation of scholars and practitioners living in Latin America and the Caribbean in LASA's International Congresses. The Association is committed to the principle that Latin American studies is viable as a field only if scholars from around the world, and most particularly those residing in the Latin American region, have a voice.

Reid Reading, LASA executive director, praised the Ford Foundation for its long-standing commitment to the study of Latin America and for its considerable investment in LASA's programs over the years.

"I speak for current and future generations of Latin Americanists in acknowledging the benefit they will receive from the Ford Foundation's vital contribution to the Association," Reading said.

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