Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas – Huerta Center is a multidisciplinary research unit bringing together scholars to advance cross-border research, and mentor students for future career success.

Our mission

Founded in 1992, the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas (Huerta Center) at UC Santa Cruz is the first research center in the UC system to put in conversation the historically disconnected fields of Chicanx/Latinx and Latin American studies. Named in honor of Dolores Huerta in 2022, the Huerta Center is a multidisciplinary research unit where we bring together U.S. and international scholars to advance cross-border research, and professionally mentor students to prepare them for future career success.

WE ARE ACCEPTING GRANT APPLICATIONS!
Head to our Funding page to apply for Faculty, Graduate student and Research Cluster grants!

Propel your research to the next step

We provide and create many opportunities to advance our research mission by supporting faculty and students.

Publishing opportunities

We invite faculty and graduate students to contribute to our Open Forum and Research Report publication series, both of which promote community engagement with topics important to the Huerta Center. The Research Reports present accessible, data-driven research, while the Open Forum offers a space for commentary on research and current events in a less formal manner. We’d love to hear what you’re working on!

How to submit your publications

Get involved as a student or community member

We offer two undergraduate engagement opportunities, as well as a residency program aimed at bringing change-makers to our campus.

A female Black Widow (Latrodectus hesperus) spider on her sticky web.

Lessons from a historic quest to heal spider bites are helping to fight neglected tropical diseases today

Associate Professor Lily Balloffet’s latest research traces successful early efforts to produce new antivenoms in Latin America and explores implications for modern public health issues, like snakebite and Chagas disease

New public archives will share wisdom, artifacts from Dolores Huerta’s lifetime of successful social change leadership

UC Santa Cruz received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to help establish new public archives documenting the legacy of social justice activist Dolores Huerta, through a partnership with the Dolores Huerta Foundation. UCSC will hire a project archivist and two new postdoctoral scholars to support development of Huerta’s archives and to produce related research and education materials.