"Moving into the Transnational Latino/a Studies Framework: CMAS and MALS at the University of Texas at Austin."

• In Event: Latino/a Crossings: Towards a Relational Understanding of Latin@ Pluralities in the United States and Beyond.

Abstract

Accounting for how we arrived at a model that critically engages the limits of national paradigms emanating out of the 1960’s and 1970’s, this presentation will describe how the mission to create a new generation of scholars, practitioners, and activists to research and analyze the life, history, and culture of Mexican-origin and Latina/o (Central, Caribbean, and South American) populations within the state of Texas, the United States, and their diasporas, is fundamental to advancing the field(s). We centralize the interdisciplinary study of peoples’ movement along the Mesoamerican migration corridor that runs from the tip of the Southern Cone, through Texas, and into Canada. In addition, the field of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies historicizes the significance of centuries-old Indigenous and African migrations to the Americas.
Explaining the process and overview of creating this tripartite entity (MALS, CMAS, and BRI) in a moment of economic austerity, the presentation will demonstrate why incorporating transnational Latina/o Studies was necessary to the founding of the new department at the University of Texas at Austin.

Author

• Nicole M Guidotti-Hernández, University of Texas at Austin