Huerta Center Graduate Student Research Grant

About this program

The Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas (Huerta Center) at UC Santa Cruz offers graduate student awards—research grants up to $1,000, the Lionel Cantú Memorial Award ($600–$700), and a modest professional development fund—to support research travel, archival/data collection, supplies and services, and conference presentation or job-market expenses in Chicanx/Latinx/Latin American, migration, cross-border/hemispheric, and human-rights related fields. Awards are open to UCSC graduate students in good academic standing, with the Lionel Cantú award prioritizing work that links Latino sociology, immigration/transnational studies, and gender/sexuality (including scholarship on gay men and masculinity). Projects involving human subjects must have IRB approval secured or near final approval by the following January; recipients must acknowledge Huerta Center support, present findings at a Center event, and submit a post-award report (research grant reports due by June 15; professional development reports due within 30 days). Applications require a project proposal, itemized budget, CV, and a UC Santa Cruz faculty endorsement or letter emailed to huerta@ucsc.edu; research grants reopen Fall 2026, the Lionel Cantú award reopens Spring 2027, and professional development awards are adjudicated on a rolling, funds-permitting basis.