UT Austin Creates Mex-Am Studies Department

By Ralph K.M. Haurwitz- Austin American-Statesman Staff

The University of Texas is stepping up its offerings in Mexican-American studies by establishing a full-fledged academic department devoted to the field.

The Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies — the somewhat tongue-twisting title acknowledges both genders — is offering bachelor’s and master’s degree programs this fall, and doctoral programs are scheduled to be part of the mix in 2016-17, pending approval by state higher education officials. In addition, a Borderlands Research Institute will be established to support community-based data collection projects.

“This new department will bring together some of the nation’s finest scholars from a variety of academic disciplines and further advance our college and university as a national leader in the study of Mexican American and Latino populations,” said Randy Diehl, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, of which the new department and the planned institute are part.

Mexican-American and Latin American studies are nothing new at UT. The Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, founded in 1940, offers programs leading to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. The Center for Mexican American Studies, established in 1970, is also well-regarded in the field, as is the Benson Latin American Collection, whose holdings include nearly 1 million books and publications, 19,000 maps, 100,000 photographs and a variety of audio and visual materials.

The new department is intended to expand UT’s teaching and research, and one of its signature elements will be a focus on the United States’ changing demographic landscape, said Domino Perez, director of the Center for Mexican American Studies, who noted that Latinos make up a third of the state’s population. Degree tracks will include cultural studies, policy, and language and cognition.

About 25 students at UT are currently majoring in Mexican-American studies. The new department expects to have 50 after a year and 100 after two years. The Long institute has a total of 116 undergraduate and graduate students, and its offerings will continue.