MSUs Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) begins the 2005-06 academic year with a new acting director, Peter Beattie, associate professor and Brazil scholar in the Department of History. Acting Dean of International Studies and Programs Jeffrey Riedinger announced the two-year appointment in early August in the wake of the retirement of long-time CLACS director and anthropology professor Scott Whiteford.

We are very fortunate to have Peter Beatties leadership in CLACS during this period of expanding MSU initiatives in Latin America, said Riedinger in announcing the appointment.

According to Beattie, The centers most immediate goal is to plan and to build our new partnership with the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies at Notre Dame University. CLACS, along with several other MSU area studies centers, is currently in the process of applying for substantial federal funding through the highly-competitive Department of Education Title VI and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Programs. Beattie hopes that the joint MSU / Notre Dame consortium will help to ensure the success of this application.

In the longer term, Beattie said he hopes CLACS will be able to expand strategic partnerships with Latin American and Caribbean institutions, enabling more students and faculty to participate in educational and research exchange opportunities. He also plans to build a stronger sense of community among CLACS faculty within the broader International Studies and Programs context, and to plan and support a variety of conferences, events, programs, outreach initiatives, and innovative courses that will heighten CLACS visibility locally, nationally, and internationally as well as on MSUs campus.

Beattie began his career at MSU in 1994 and has been active in CLACS activities, most recently serving on the CLACS Faculty Advisory Committee. His research focuses on the interaction between Brazil's state institutions and strata of the free poor and the enslaved in the period 1850-1945. In addition to teaching a number of history courses, he has published widely in his field and taken on broader editorial challenges and leadership roles in professional organizations.

For more information about CLACS, see their website at http://www.isp.msu.edu/clacs/

-- Jay Rodman, International Studies and Programs