03/09/2026
As part of CLAS’s 60th anniversary, we are looking back at the creation of the Centre and the longer history of Latin American Studies at Cambridge.
The Centre of Latin American Studies was formally created sixty years ago on the 11th of June, 1966. The initiative for its creation came from the British government’s 1965 Report of the Committee on Latin American Studies (the so-called Parry Report, after its chair).
Indeed, the University of Cambridge was a pioneer of Latin American Studies in the UK. In 1947, a University Lectureship in Latin American Studies was established, split between the History faculty and the Spanish department. This was the first named post in Latin American Studies anywhere in the UK. It was first held by John Parry, a British historian. Parry departed in 1950, leaving for an imperial teaching post in the newly-created University College of the West Indies. He was replaced in his lectureship by John Street, another historian.
Research by Dr Rafael Shimabukuro, CLAS Research Associate.
University of Cambridge Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, Cambridge
