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 Ballí
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; U.S./Mexican Culture; and Latin America.

Fred Valdez, Jr.
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Study of Ceramic and Lithic Technologies; Settlement Patterns and Small Site Studies; Early Emergence of Social and Political Complexity; History of Archaeological Investigations in Central America; Cultural Continuity and Transition in Latin America and the American Southwest; and Mesoamerican Prehistory.

Art & Art History

Roberto Tejada
Associate Professor

Research Interests: Twentieth-Century Image-Making; Cultural and Critical Theory; 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.

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; and 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. Sáenz
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.

Educational Policy

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

Research Interests: Social Organization of Schools; 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; Immigration; Globalization; and Human Rights.

Educational Psychology

Ricardo Ainslie
Professor

Research Interests: Study of Psychoanalysis; Psychological Experience of Immigration; Ethnic Conflicts within Communities; 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; and 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; 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: Latino/a Literature; Chicano/a Literature; Late Nineteenth-Century U.S. Literature and Culture; Narrative Theory; Postcolonial Theory; and Cultural Studies.

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
Associate Professor
Associate Director, Center for Mexican American Studies

Research Interests: American Literature; Popular Culture; and Chicano/a Literature, Film and Cultural Studies.

Government

Jason Casellas
Assistant Professor
Associate Director, Public Policy Institute

Research Interests: Latino Politics; Legislative Politics; and State and Local Politics.

David L. Leal
Associate Professor
Director, Public Policy Institute

Research Interests: Latino Politics; 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: 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; U.S.-Mexico Relations; and Race, Labor and Religion within the Mexican-origin community in Chicago in the first half of the Twentieth-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
Director, U.S. Latino and Latina WWII Oral History Project

Research Interests: Intersection of Oral History and Journalism; and U.S. Latinos and the News Media.

Law School

Gerald Torres
Professor
Bryant Smith Chair in Law

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 Neuro-chemical basis for Ethanol Drinking Behavior.

Psychology

Manuel Rami­rez III
Professor

Research Interests: Cross-Cultural Psychology; Ethno-Psychology; Cognitive Styles; Cultural Values; Multicultural Psychotherapy; the Relationship of Acculturation to Mental Health and Family Dynamics; and Multicultural Orientations.

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: Population Studies; Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Well-Being with an Emphasis on Mexican American Children and Families; Poverty; Immigration; and Applications to Social Welfare Policy Development.

Sociology

Gloria González-López
Associate 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 Nineteenth-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 Minority Students; Preventing Academic Under Achievement of Hispanic students; Pre-Referral Intervention; and 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 U.S. Latina/o Performance and Popular Culture.