Romo Endowed Professors will introduce new experiential courses for UTSA students

OCTOBER 30, 2024 — UTSA faculty members David Han, Christina Sue and René Zenteno have been named the newest recipients of the Ricardo Romo Ph.D. Endowed Professorship. The position, effective September 1, is a two-year appointment and recognizes faculty in the UTSA Honors College for their exceptional teaching, leadership, research and service to students.

Each Romo Endowed Professor will design two or more experiential learning courses throughout the two-year appointment, which they will teach in the Honors College. They will also give an annual public lecture in their fields of expertise.

Han is an associate professor in the Department of Management Science and Statistics in the Carlos Alvarez College of Business (ACOB). His research interests include statistical modeling, data science and data analytics, lifetime and degradation analyses, and predictive maintenance planning.

In Han’s course this fall, students will go beyond the theories of reliability engineering and quality control, applying various statistical tools and techniques to improve quality in manufacturing and service operations. They will also learn crucial software programs like R, Python and JMP.

David Han

Sue is a professor in the Department of Sociology and Demography in the College for Health, Community and Policy. Her research interests include comparative race and ethnicity, Latin America, immigration, and ethnographic and qualitative methodology.

Sue’s upcoming course, “Power, Identity, and Naming,” explores the symbolic and cultural significance of a social practice that crosses demographic and geographic boundaries — naming children. Students will examine social and cultural norms that inform the naming process while learning about core sociology topics — including power, gender, class, race/ethnicity and politics — through the lens of naming. The course will also examine the consequences of names, how they serve as social labels and identity markers, and how a name can affect the perception and treatment of its bearer.

Christina Sue

Zenteno is a sociology and demography professor. He researches social and demographic change, international migration and social inequality, with a focus on Mexico, U.S.-Mexico migration and Mexican immigrant incorporation.

He will teach a new course called “Gen Zs and the Great U.S. Demographic Shift.” Students will observe critical demographic trends in the U.S. — such as immigration, the aging population and decreasing marriage and birth rates — and their implications for the country. His course will provide a multifaceted understanding of these demographic topics through a blend of classroom instruction, research and experiential activities, while focusing on Generation Z and their unique position within the broader demographic landscape.  

René Zenteno

As part of their individual courses in spring 2025, Zenteno and Sue will collaborate to develop a week-long, study-abroad trip to Mexico City and Oaxaca, Mexico. Students will learn from local academics, visit nongovernmental organizations and explore historic monuments and cultural sites. They will also deepen their understanding of the role that migration, development and race/ethnicity play in historic and contemporary Mexican culture and society.

The Honors College hosts six Romo Professorships on a rolling basis, with three appointments available each year. Han, Sue and Zenteno will join current Romo Professors Kirsten Gardner and Luca Pozzi, both faculty in the College of Liberal and Fine Arts (COLFA) and ACOB professor Mark Leung.

Previous Romo professors include Aaron Cassill and Valerie Sponsel from the College of Sciences, María Guadalupe Arreguín and Abraham DeLeon from the College of Education and Human Development, and COLFA’s Nazgol Bagheri.

UTSA has over 90 endowed chairs, professorships and fellowships that recognize the university’s highest achieving faculty. The funding received through these endowments supports faculty in their research and scholarly activities while promoting academic success for their students.

— Chloe Johnson