The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies received $600,000 in partnership with UW-Madison’s Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Studies Program, while the Center for International Education received nearly $1.8 million.

It’s the first time that two departments at UWM have received the award

Although the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies has received funding from the department since 1965, it’s the first time that two departments at UWM have received the award, the institution said in a statement.

The grants will support research, teaching, and public engagement projects at the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. In the Center for International Education, the funds will aid curriculum development in the Global Study program and outreach programs to K-16 schools and technical colleges, beyond supporting faculty work in less-commonly taught languages.

A focus on widening the spectrum of  languages taught and learnt shines through the allocation of the grants across the two departments. Funds will also support scholarships for students studying Portuguese, Haitian Creole and other indigenous languages in the Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, and Russian in the Center for International Education.

The institution is among another 55 universities in the US to have received grants under the department’s Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships and National Resource Centres, two of the programs under the International and Foreign Language Education Awards.

Other universities that received grants include Stanford University, Columbia University, UC-Berkeley, The Ohio State University, and the University of Michigan.

The Department of Education this year awarded a total of more than $71m in grants to institutions that will support projects focused on international studies, world languages, cross-cultural understanding and research.

The program aims to equip America’s students with the right skills to fill roles in national security, diplomacy, international business and education, the department’s website explains.