THE NEW FACES AND LATINX
PROJECTS AT UT AUSTIN
By Christina Miranda
The University of Texas at Austin has new faces and projects coming to Texas this year. Recently UT has appointed Professor Frederick Luis Aldama as the holder of the Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, and part of the Affiliate Faculty in the Radio, Television, and Film Department. It should also be noted that Professor Aldama serves as an advisory board member for Latinx Spaces.
Professors joining in also include Maria Cotera and Michael Roy Hames-García from The University of Michigan and the University of Oregon respectively. Cotera and Hames-García will be teaching within the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies.
On the hiring of more Latinx educators at UT in all positions, Professor Maria Cotera states, “I’m delighted.” Cotera mentions the appointing of Ramón H. Rivera-Servera as the new Dean of the College of Fine Arts as integral. She notes, “It’s a huge move to have him as Dean of the college because that really sends a message that they’re changing the leadership at the top.” Rivera-Servera will be the first Latino Dean to serve in the position.
In addition to the hiring of more Latinx educators, there will also be the introduction of the Latinx Pop Lab™—a collaboration between Aldama and the university’s RTF department. The Pop Lab will offer students access to the space and its resources to further their learning and strengthen their skills for media projects that will benefit their time after graduation. Within the first few years, the project aims to become a major hub for Latinx students specializing in areas such as comics, YA literature, art, film, and other forms of media.
Professor Aldama states, “The Latinx Pop Lab will provide that physical space for incubating critical thinking, creativity, and innovation for our undergraduate and graduate students. It will create a pipeline of knowledge-making and innovative change on and off campus.”
The Latinx Pop Lab™ will also be working alongside multiple organizations including 656 Comics, an indie comic collective based in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. José Morey of the STEAM and edutainment organization, Ad Astra Media, will also be included in creating promotional and education content and serve as part of the Latinx Pop Lab’s Core Council. Morey notes, “We will help bring our mission of inspiring underrepresented youth through edutainment to change the face of science, technology, engineering, math and to inspire social change for the betterment of all.” Also partnering with the Latinx Pop Lab™ will be Latinx Spaces who will serve as an integral partner in programming, content production, and promotional work.
The Pop Lab is a continuation of the work Professor Aldama has done with Ohio State University under the Latinx Space for Enrichment & Research (LASER) program he founded and built on since 2009. The program was designed for high school and university students to make a higher education possible.
The efforts that The UT has taken in creating more spaces for Latinx students of all races to work in will allow them to better succeed in their college education. Aldama adds, “A flagship university such as The University of Texas at Austin can show the world what magic can happen when you have Latinx faculty, staff, and students creating and innovating new critical knowledge paradigms and transformative cultural phenomena.”
The Latinx Pop Lab will begin its first few phases during the Fall 2021 semester.