The Center
The Heidelberg Center for Latin America (HCLA) is the Latin American campus of Heidelberg University and a Center of Excellence for Research and Teaching. Founded in Santiago de Chile in 2002, the Center was established to connect people and ideas. It serves as the primary gateway to Heidelberg University for researchers in the region, educates professionals seeking to internationalize their profiles, and facilitates collaborative scientific activities between Heidelberg and Latin America. Since 2009, the HCLA has been part of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) network of Centers of Excellence.
We are an open center whose facilities bring together hundreds of people each year who wish to help shape the future while engaging with the present and drawing on the past. At the graduate level, we develop and offer transnational master's programs and continuing education opportunities. Through these programs, we strengthen our participants' key competencies while integrating them into an international network.
ABOUT, WITH, AND IN LATIN AMERICA: THE HCIAS–HCLA BRIDGE
To foster academic dialogue and exchange about, with, and in Latin America, we form a transcontinental bridge with the Heidelberg Center for Ibero-American Studies (HCIAS), located in Heidelberg and founded in 2019. As the cornerstone of Heidelberg University's Ibero-American area studies, the HCIAS strengthens the HCLA's activities by contributing perspectives from the social sciences and the humanities. Maintaining this bridge between Santiago and Heidelberg means working in close institutional partnership with our partner universities in Chile and with institutions across the region, particularly in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico.
It is through this spirit of collaboration that we continuously cultivate new areas of interest for both research and society.
