Announcement: Dr. Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández Serves as MALS Inaugural Chair

We are thrilled to announce that our very own Dr. Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández will serve as the inaugural chair for the newly formed Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies (MALS) here at UT. Dr. Guidotti-Hernández is an Associate Professor of American Studies, and she holds the Alma Cowden Madden Centennial Professorship at the University of Texas at Austin. Her book, Unspeakable Violence: Remapping U.S.  and  Mexican National Imaginaries (Duke University Press 2011), was a finalist for the 2012 Berkshire Women’s History First Book Prize and won the Modern Language Association 2011-12 Prize in United States Latina and Latino and Chicana and Chicano Literary and Cultural Studies.Just today over on NBCNews.com there is an article about the newly formed department, and Dr. Guidotti-Hernández had the following to say in the article:

This is a really important moment for us in the curriculum. This is a recognition of the Mexican-American population in Texas, as well as the immigrant community from Central and Latin America. Having the two disciplines together, for the first time in the nation, is a move to create a more inclusive, rigorous intellectual community.

Announcement: CMAS Fall Sexuality Studies Symposium This Weekend

This Friday and Saturday, the Center for Mexican American Studies will be hosting their Fall Sexuality Studies Symposium - "Sexing the Borderlands: From the Midwest Corridor and Beyond."  The keynote address will be delivered by José Esteban Muñoz, Professor of Performance Studies at New York University, who will speak on "The Brown Commons: The Sense of Wildness."AMS professor and Associate Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies, Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, will be moderating a panel on Saturday, "Shameless Sex: From Porfirian Ruins to the UFW" at 11:00 a.m. in the Santa Rita Suite (3.502) of the Texas Union.This event is sponsored by the Center for Mexican American Studies; the LGBTQ/Sexualities research cluster in the Center for Women's and Gender Studies; the Teresa Lozano Long Institute for Latin American Studies; the Performance as Public Practice program in the Department of Theatre and Dance; the Latino Media Studies program in the College of Communication; and the Department of English.