The Latin American & Caribbean Islamic Studies Newsletter brings together persons with an interest in the study of Islam and Muslim communities in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the networks that exist across, between, and beyond the American hemisphere in order to increase knowledge and encourage scholarship on the subject.

The Latin America and Caribbean Islamic Studies Newsletter is secular, academically independent, and non-confessional. Its main aims include gaining recognition for the field, generating further interest in the topic, producing data, analysis, and insights on the subject from various fields of research and the public sphere, and creating a network of scholars with the hope of one day creating a formal membership association.

The newsletter and its editors do not discriminate between “Islamic” studies or “Latin American” and “Caribbean” studies perspectives; blending these fields is one of the purposes of the newsletter. As a non-confessional publication, the newsletter and its editors also do not stake a claim on authenticity in matters of knowledge, power, politics or orthodoxy.

Launched in October 2020, the newsletter is published quarterly. It was originally curated and edited by Ken Chitwood, Ph.D. and Giulia Brabetz through funding from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and the support of the Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures & Societies (BGSMCS) at Freie Universität Berlin. Chitwood continued as Editor-in-Chief along with Assistant Editor Rahma Maccarone and Lucas Vicente with funding and support from the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) from 2022-2024.