The Latin American & Caribbean Studies Institute just finished its 2008 Tinker Foundation Summer Graduate Field Research award cycle. In summer 2008, graduate students from 5 UGA colleges representing 12 departments traveled to 7 Latin American countries. The Tinker Foundation provides $10,000 matched by the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences and Graduate School, in support of masters and doctoral preliminary field research in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking Latin America & the Caribbean. The competitive award provides funds for international airfare and/or in-country travel to highly qualified students from any discipline. To submit a proposal, graduate student applicants must have a minimum 3.5 GPA and be sufficiently conversant in the target language to carry out research in the LAC region (testing of conversational ability is provided by LACSI and the department of romance languages faculty for non-native Spanish or Portuguese speakers) An announcement of the 2009 award cycle will be made in mid-January 2009 on the LACSI website and the graduate student listserv.