Faculty and Instructors

American Studies

Deborah Vargas
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Chicana/Latina cultural production, racialized sexualities, transnational feminisms, cultural studies, and popular culture.

Anthropology

Cecilia Balli
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: The U.S.-Mexico borderlands, gender and violence, transnational crime, music and identity and ethnographic writing strategies.

Richard Flores
Professor
Senior Associate Dean, College of Liberal Arts

Research Interests: Folklore and expressive culture of Greater Mexico; anthropology of symbols; anthropology of religion; anthropology and history; and critical theory.

Martha Menchaca
Professor

Research Interests: Social anthropology, ethnicity, gender, oral history, Chicano studies: US/Mexican culture, Latin America.

Fred Valdez, Jr.
Associate Professor

Research Interests: The study of material culture such as ceramic and lithic technologies, settlement patterns and small site studies, and the early emergence of social and political complexity. The history of archaeological investigations in Central America, cultural continuity and transition in Latin America and the American Southwest, Mesoamerican prehistory, and occasional seminars on technological aspects of material culture analyses.

Art & Art History

Roberto Tejada
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Twentieth-century image-making, cultural and critical theory, the language arts, and visual culture analysis.

Curriculum & Instruction

Douglas Foley
Professor

Research Interests: Minority communities in South Texas, Mississippi, and Iowa; anthropology; educational anthropology; U.S. culture and schools; popular culture; social movements; race relations; and inequality in the U.S. public schools.

Lourdes Diaz Soto
Professor

Research Interests: Issues of social justice and equity as they relate to the daily educational realities of Latina/o children and families.

Luis Urrieta, Jr.
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Identity, Agency, and Social Movements in Education with a focus on Chicana/o Education in the U.S. and Indígena (P’urhepecha) Education in Mexico, Native Methodologies and Educational Research, Citizenship and Social Studies Education

Educational Administration

Norma V. Cantú
Professor

Research Interests: Governmental policy for civil rights in American education; educational funding; disability rights; student disciplinary policies; access to special services for English-language learners; and racially hostile environments.

Julian Vasquez Heilig
Assistant Professor
Co-Director, University of Texas Center for Collaborative Educational Research and Policy

Research Interests: Educational policy, access and equity; high-stakes testing and assessment policies; minority issues in education; statistical methods and applications in educational policy analysis; sociology of education; and urban education.

Victor B. Saenz
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Higher education policy issues; educational benefits of racial/ethnic diversity; desegregation issues; access and transition issues for underrepresented college students; policy impacts of affirmative action and remedial education policies; assessment issues in higher education (learning outcomes).

Educational Policy

Pedro Reyes
Professor
Associate Vice Chancellor for Planning and Assessment, University of Texas System

Research Interests: The social organization of schools, particularly the conditions fostering high academic success for children of poverty and the stratification of learning opportunities for children of color.

Angela Valenzuela
Professor
Associate Vice President for School Partnerships, Division of Diversity and Community Engagement

Research Interests: Sociology of education; race and ethnicity in schools; urban education reform; educational policy; and immigration, globalization, and human rights.

Educational Psychology

Ricardo Ainslie
Professor

Research Interests: The study of psychoanalysis and cultural experience through such topics as the psychological experience of immigration, ethnic conflicts within communities, and the relationship between individual and collective identity.

Michele Gúzman
Clinical Associate Professor
Assistant Vice President for Diversity Education Initiatives, Division of Diversity and Community Engagement

Research Interests: Multicultural counseling: ethnic and racial identity issues, and training issues within this discipline.

Richard Valencia
Professor

Research Interests: Intellectual and academic development of racial/ethnic minority children; psychometric evaluation of intelligence and achievement tests; social and psychological foundations of minority schooling; minority school failure and success; teacher testing and prospective minority teachers.

English

Oscar Casares
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Creative writing

James H. Cox
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Twentieth and twenty-first century Native American literature, especially novels; Native American literary theory; twentieth and twenty-first century ethnic American literatures, including Chicana/o literature and literature of immigration; and the history of Native Americans in American literature and popular culture.

John M. González
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Professor Gonzalez's major research interests include Latino/a literature, especially Chicano/a literature; late nineteenth-century US literature and culture; narrative theory; postcolonial theory; cultural studies. He is a Research Affiliate of the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, and currently serves upon the Executive Committee for the MLA Division for Chicano/a Literature. He is currently completing a book project on the historical origins of Mexican-American literature.

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith
Professor
Ellen Clayton Garwood Professor

Research Interests: American literature and creative writing.

José E. Limón
Professor
Director, Center for Mexican American Studies

Research Interests: Cultural studies; Chicano literature; anthropology and literature; Mexicans in the United States; U.S.-Mexico cultural relations; critical theory; and folklore and popular culture.

Domino Perez
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: American literature; popular culture; and Chicano/a literature, film and cultural studies

Government

Jason Casellas
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Professor Casellas specializes in American politics, with specific research and teaching interests in Latino politics, legislative politics, and state and local politics. His book manuscript examines Latino Representation in U.S. Legislatures and Congress.

David L. Leal
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Professor Leal’s primary academic interest is Latino Politics, and his work explores a variety of questions involving public opinion, political behavior, and public policy.

Raul L. Madrid
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Comparative politics; political economy; Latin American politics; and voting patterns of indigenous populations in Latin America.

History

Neil Foley
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Professor Foley's current research centers on the changing constructions of race, citizenship, and national identity in the American Southwest and Mexico, and comparative civil rights politics of African Americans and Mexican Americans.

Anne M. Martinez
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Religion; US-Mexico relations; and race, labor and religion within the Mexican-origin community in Chicago in the first half of the 20th century.

John McKiernan-Gonzalez
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Race and ethnicity; social history of medicine; the borderlands, Mexican American history, and Latino Studies.

Emilio Zamora
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Mexican American history, U.S. working class history, and the history of the Mexican archival enterprise in Texas and Northern Mexico.

Journalism

Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez
Associate Professor

Research Interests: The intersection of oral history and journalism; U.S. Latinos and the news media, both as producers of news and as consumers.

Law School

Gerald Torres
Professor

Research Interests: Civil rights issues; environmental justice, identity, and race.

Mathematics

Efrai­m Armendariz
Professor

Research Interests: Ring Theory.

Music

Lorenzo Candelaria
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Catholic sacred music in Spain, Mexico, and the Hispanic Southwestern United States.

Pharmacy

Rueben A. Gonzales
Professor

Research Interests: Understand the neurochemical basis for ethanol drinking behavior.

Psychology

Manuel Rami­rez III
Professor

Research Interests: Cross-cultural psychology, ethnopsychology, cognitive styles, and cultural values. Multicultural psychotherapy, the relationship of acculturation to mental health and family dynamics and the relationship of multicultural orientations to life and cognitive flexibility to success in university environments.

Radio-TV-Film

Charles E. Ramirez Berg
Professor
University Distinguished Teaching Professor

Research Interests: Latinos and media; Mexican cinema; Chicano cinema; and Latino stereotypes in Hollywood cinema.

América Rodríguez
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Relationship between Mexican and U.S. television news production; national news systems of the United States, Mexico, and Canada; and U.S. Spanish language broadcasting.

Joseph D. Straubhaar
Professor
Amon G. Carter Centennial Professor of Communications

Research Interests: Global media, international communication and cultural theory, information societies and the digital divide in the U. S. and other countries, and global television production and flow.

School of Social Work

Yolanda Padilla
Professor

Research Interests: Mexican American studies in children and families, poverty, immigration, and US-Mexico border issues. Expertise in population studies and applications to social welfare policy development. Current projects examine health trajectories of Mexican American children from birth to age five, living conditions of children of immigrants, and the status of children along the US-Mexico border. Areas of practice: policy analysis and community practice, including in the area of gay issues.

Sociology

Gloria González-López
Assistant Professor

Research Interests: Gender and sexuality of Mexican immigrant populations.

Néstor Rodríguez
Professor

Research Interests: International migration, immigration policy, border enforcement, global urban development, racial/ethnic relations, and state repression.

Spanish & Portuguese

James R. Nicolopulos
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Colonial and 19th century Spanish-American literature; and Hispanic narrative poetry.

Special Education

Alba A. Ortiz
Professor
President's Chair for Education Academic Excellence

Research Interests: Developing models for effective schools and instructional delivery system of minory students; preventing academic under achievement of Hispanic students; prereferral intervention; assessment of language proficiency of second language learners

Theatre & Dance

Deborah Paredez
Assistant Professor
Director, Arts and Community Engagement, Division of Diversity and Community Engagement

Research Interests: Exploring the interactions between the performing body and the body politic; and US Latina/o performance and popular culture.