ANNOUNCEMENT: New Academic Department of Ethnic, Gender, and Transborder Studies in Tucson, Arizona

What should be self-explanatory here is that this new academic Ethnic, Gender, and Transborder Studies (EGTS) Department was conceived in—of all places—Arizona.  But then Arizona is also the place that revived the Ethnic Studies movement that first originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s during the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement.   Today, it is spreading like wildfire throughout the Southwest and various other places in the U.S.  I have blogged quite a bit on this.

Dr. Francisca James Hernandez is the chair of the Department that owes itself to her unflagging efforts—alongside the many others listed and acknowledged below—to bring it to fruition.  Felicidades, Dr. James Hernandez, for this amazing development at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona.

Clearly, the state-led campaign against the immigrant and broader Mexican and Indigenous community is having the opposite effect of what is clearly intended, that is, to marginalize and disenfranchise this population.  When will those in power see that all of this movement is in the best interest of the state as a whole?  

I'm headed there myself on May 7-8, 2018.  I will be keynoting on May 7 for their annual EGTS summit.  So proud of the great work of our friends and colleagues in Arizona.

-Angela Valenzuela

New Academic Department of Ethnic, Gender, and Transborder Studies in Tucson, Arizona

Pima Community College, Tucson, Arizona, announces the founding of a new, academic Department of Ethnic, Gender, and Transborder Studies (EGTS) as of Fall 2017. EGTS offers an interdisciplinary study of the histories, cultures, socioeconomic concerns, politics and identities of people of color and people of multiple genders and sexualities on their own terms. Students explore the stories, social movements, diasporas, and achievements of historically marginalized peoples in the United States while attending to transborder and global perspectives.

EGTS currently consists of four disciplines: American Indian Studies, Global/Transborder Studies, Gender & Women’s Studies, and Mexican American Studies. The department also houses the sociology program.

Pima College offers an EGTS Concentration in the Liberal Arts- Associates of Arts for Transfer, which requires just five courses-15 credits- from the four disciplines. Courses may be taken in any combination of the disciplines or in just one discipline.

This concentration encourage students to learn current theories about the intersectionality and social construction of ethnicity, race, class, gender, and sexuality while scrutinizing traditional assumptions in order to better understand themselves and their society and to make enlightened choices. It prepares students to become agents of change in their communities, in institutions, and in the world on behalf of social justice.

Ethnic, Gender & Transborder Studies Work Group Members (March 2018)

Sophie Alves

Yira Brimage

Olga Carranza

Seana Chaves

Roberto Cruze

Rosanne Couston

Suzanne Desjardin

Juan DiArte

David Dore

Yolanda Gonzales

Gabriel Antonio Higuera

Francisca James Hernandez

Cassondra Jones

Andrew Kachur

Hilda Ladner

Cecelia Lewis

Lorenzo Lopez

Laura Milkins

Lorraine Morales

Anna Ochoa O'Leary

Jessica Pacheco

Bardo Padilla

Gregory Redhouse

Dianna Repp

Christopher Rodriguez

Mike Rom

Laurie-Ann Schultz

Rosalia Solorzano

Sandra Shattuck

Marcos Trujillo

Alisha Vasquez

Darla Zirbes

With the support of Chancellor Lee Lambert, JD, and Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, Dr. Dolores Duran-Cerda

For more information about the department and its offerings, please contact Department Head, Dr. Francisca James Hernandez,  fjames@pima.edu, 520-206-7034.

 

Francisca James Hernández, Ph.D. | she, her, hers, ella, suya

Head, Dept. of Ethnic, Gender & Transborder Studies 

Faculty, Anthropology Program

Downtown Campus * Pima Community College

1255 N. Stone Ave., Tucson, AZ 85709 * 520.206.7034 office * 520.206.7044 fax