CLAS' mission is to foster an academic community that serves as a multidisciplinary platform to enable learning from and engaging with the Americas, understood as the diverse ethnic, linguistic, cultural, biological and historical geography shared with the United States and Canada.
CLAS is committed to “promote the public welfare by exercising an influence in behalf of humanity and civilization” (Stanford University founding grant) and to advance scientific knowledge that strengthens social, economic and environmental justice, sustainability, inclusion and democracy in our hemisphere