UTSA Downtown Campus
NEH renews funding for UTSA bicultural summer institute
(Nov. 7, 2002)--For the third consecutive year, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is providing funding to the University of Texas at San Antonio for a benchmark program aimed at helping the nation's teachers integrate bicultural literature into secondary-school curricula.
The NEH Division of Research and Education Programs awarded $172,000 to UTSA to renew Derrumbando Fronteras/Breaking Boundaries: Summer Institute for Integrating Mexican American and Latino Literatures and Culture into the Secondary Curriculum. During its debut in 1999, the program drew more than 500 applicants nationwide for 28 available fellowships reserved for middle and high school teachers.
Based at the UTSA Downtown Campus, the intensive four-week program is designed to help teachers from across the nation revamp curricula to be more inclusive of the Latino experience. It promises a provocative exploration of Mexican American and Latino literatures using a combination of traditional classroom exchanges and high-tech tools.
According to co-director Ellen Riojas Clark, who is an associate professor of bicultural bilingual studies, the UTSA program will be one of a limited number of NEH-funded summer institutes during 2003, and it is the only one to focus on the literature and culture of U.S. Latinos.
"The successful renewal of the institute promises to help consolidate UTSA’s growing national reputation as a premier location for Latino and multicultural teacher education training," Clark added.
Participants, who will be selected to reflect a diverse age, ethnic, educational and geographical mix, will have the opportunity to listen and interact with 10 visiting scholars and more than a dozen creative writers, including the internationally acclaimed Sandra Cisneros, Virgil Suarez and Helena Maria Viramontes. Many of the program's lectures and readings will be open to the public at no cost.
Institute organizers also plan a series of field trips and cultural activities, including the annual Latina Literary conference sponsored by St. Mary's University and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and St. Mary's University.
In addition to Clark, other institute co-directors are Associate Professor Louis Mendoza and Assistant Professor Ben V. Olguin, both from the English, classics and philosophy department.
Dates for the 2003 institute will be June 22-July 18, 2003. Twenty-eight
fellowships for secondary teachers are available. For more information, call
(210) 458-5575.
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NEH renews funding for UTSA bicultural summer institute
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2002