UCSD is host to several outstanding research centers devoted to Latin America:

The Center for Iberian and Latin American Studies (CILAS), which emphasizes interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to research on Latin America (plus the Iberian peninsula). CILAS regularly hosts visiting scholars from Asia, Europe, and South America, and provides research fellowships for UCSD graduate students as well. Its major current initiative is the Project on Latin America and the Pacific Rim.

The Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (CUSMS), which coordinates research on Mexico and U.S.-Mexican relations. A distinguishing feature of CUSMS is its visiting researcher program, which brings 15-20 scholars per year to UCSD for extended periods of research, writing, and consultation. Recent institutional projects have focused on agrarian reform, environmental protection, and undocumented migration to the United States.

The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies (CCIS) is an interdisciplinary, multinational research and training program devoted to comparative work on international migration and refugee movements.

The Institute of the Americas, a private organization located on the UCSD campus, is in the process of launching a series of analytical studies on questions of particular interest to business communities—in such areas as telecommunications, energy, mining, and public health.

The San Diego Dialogue, based in UCSD's School of Public Service and Extended Studies, which commissions work on development issues around and across the U.S.-Mexican border, with special emphasis on linkages between San Diego and Tijuana.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Coopoeration (APEC) Study Center at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies also conducts research and analysis relating to Latin American and Asian economies.

UCSD thus offers a unique array of opportunities for cutting-edge research on Latin America. There is a constant stream of seminars, symposia, workshops, conferences, and public presentations, and a widespread commitment to excellence in the research enterprise. All this helps make UCSD what it has become—one of the nation's leading institutions for the study of Latin America.