NEXO Research Networks

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NEXO (“nexus” in both Spanish and Portuguese) is a strategic partnership platform that leverages horizontal researcher-to-researcher relationships between MSU faculty and partners from top institutions in the region around urgent contemporary issues. Flexible and driven by researchers themselves, this network-of-networks model enables participating scholars to quickly conceptualize projects, develop proposals, and secure funding to address critical challenges. Each member brings their own professional networks to the collaboration, enabling the integration of additional scholars into the network as new opportunities emerge.

To date, CLACS has supported the development of three thematic networks (see below).

Faculty interested in connecting with one of these networks or launching a new thematic network should contact CLACS director Laurie Medina.

Network on the Amazon and Climate Change

The Network on the Amazon and Climate Change launched in 2023 with a grant from MSU’s Climate Change Initiative. Within its first year, the network secured $1.5 million in external grant funding for research. CLACS collaborated with MSU scholars from the colleges of Social Science and Ag and Natural Resources—Emilio Moran and Nathan Moore (GEO), Maria Claudia Lopez (CSUS), Scott Stark (FOR)—to organize a symposium and workshops with scholars from top research institutions in Brazil and Peru. CLACS invited these scholars to MSU for a public symposium that introduced the scholars’ work to the MSU community—and to one another.

During two days of follow-up workshops, the group developed an innovative project that integrated biophysical and social sciences to study possibilities for reversing forest degradation through the expansion of a sustainable bioeconomy in the Amazon. The network engaged additional partners to submit a proposal to the Canadian-led International Initiative for Research on Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, co-funded by research agencies from eight countries. In 2024, this multi-lateral initiative awarded the team $1.5 million in grant funds to get the project underway. Moran, Lopez, Stark, and Moore received $600,000 from NSF, while their partners were funded by research agencies in their respective countries (Canada, Brazil, Germany, and Switzerland).

Network on Racial and Gender Justice

The Network on Racial and Gender Justice links MSU scholars to scholars, artists, and activists from Latin American and the Caribbean who advocate for racial and gender justice. The network also generates comparative conversations between these scholars who work in Latin America and MSU scholars who work on related issues in the US. Leonora Paula (ENG) leads an initiative to link MSU African Diaspora scholars to Brazilian scholars, artists, activists, and communities, while multiple faculty—Nerli Paredes (PHL), Alex Allweiss (TE), Ignacio Acevedo (PSY), and Estrella Torrez (RCAH)—are developing parallel initiatives with Indigenous communities in Latin America and the US.

Latin American Network for Studies in Environmental Communication

The Latin American Network for Studies in Environmental Communication (Red-LECA) launched in spring 2025. MSU faculty Bruno Takahashi (JRN) and Maria Isabel Espinoza (SOC) identified leading scholars in environmental communications from Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay, whom CLACS invited to campus to present their current research in a public symposium and engage one another in follow-up workshops. In the workshops, they created the Red-LECA, developed short-, medium-, and long-term goals for the network, and drafted a paper that assessed the state of the field of environmental communications in Latin America—and from Latin American perspectives—and defined urgent research priorities. That paper has been published in the top journal in the field of environmental communications.

With support from CLACS and The Knight Center for Environmental Journalism from MSU; the University of the Sabana, Colombia; the Climate and Land Use Alliance; and the International Environmental Journalism Association; network members reconvened in May 2026 at the Universidad de la Sabana. There, they built on their jointly authored paper to 1) outline the content of an edited volume on environmental communications in Latin America that will be published (in Spanish, Portuguese and English versions) by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico (UNAM) and 2) develop a grant proposal submitted to an RFP from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) in Brazil.