Our story – Nuestra historia

The Instituto de Estudios Avanzados en América Latina (IEA Latin America), or the Institute for Advanced Studies in Latin America was established to provide high-quality, post-secondary educational programming for students and scholars from around the world. 

IEA Latin America builds on the success of Academia Buenos Aires and Academia Uruguay, which were founded in 2004 and 2007 respectively as Spanish language schools.  Accredited by the Spanish Instituto Cervantes and the Ministry of Education in Uruguay, these sites welcome over a thousand Spanish language learners each year from over 45 different countries.  In 2009 both language schools started teaching a wide range of other languages, too, such as English, French, Russian, Italian, German and many more.

Today, IEA Latin America offers first-class offline and online language instruction, encourages advanced study and scholarship of Latin America and offers testing services to a wide range of organizations. IEA works with universities, international bilateral and multilateral organizations and private corporations from around the globe.

With spacious and centrally-located research centers in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, IEA Latin America also provides classroom facilities, office space, and support to an increasing number of faculty from North America, Europe and other parts of the world. 

A well-respected member of the local academic community, IEA Latin America partners closely with a number of local universities, including the University of Buenos Aires, the Instituto Universitario ESEADE, the Universidad Centro Latinoamericano de Economía Humana (CLAEH), and the Universidad de la Empresa. Some of these institutions can also serve as academic schools-of-record, as needed. Moreover, IEA Latin America readily draws upon a well-established regional network to facilitate and advance Spanish language education and academic research and scholarship focused on Latin America. 

In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of international students choosing to study in Latin America, particularly as part of faculty-directed, education abroad programs from North America and Europe.  Such programs have leveraged Latin America to study a wide array of topics, including business, economics, environment, art and culture, politics, etc.  IEA Latin America is pleased to such host education abroad programs and as needed, provide comprehensive programming support, from student housing, orientation, Spanish language instruction, guest lectures, academic field study and more.  IEA also partners with a set of accredited local travel agents that provide cost efficient and reliable travel within the region.

Researchers and scholars from universities around the world are invited as visiting scholars to IEA Latin America to conduct research and study Spanish.  Additionally, IEA Latin America offers several opportunities for international faculty, including a prestigious faculty-in-residence program, thematic faculty development seminars, and education abroad program development grants.