Annual Report
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Director's Report of Annual Activities
The 2022–2023 academic year was a fruitful and productive one at LLILAS. This report contains an overview of our most salient news and activities, including the following highlights.
- Student News
- Faculty and Staff News
- Events and Activities
- Grants and Initiatives
- Our Community
Thank you for reading, and for your support of Latin American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin!
ADELA PINEDA FRANCO
Director, Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies
Director's Report of Annual Activities
2024–2025 Director's Report
The year 2025 marks a quarter-century since the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) received a transformative gift from Joe R. Long and the late Dr. Teresa Lozano Long, passionate advocates of higher education. This coincides with the 85th birthday of the Institute as well as the 45th anniversary of the LLILAS Mexico Center. In her 2024–2025 Director's Report, LLILAS Director Adela Pineda Franco reviews the highlights of the past year, including signature events, student achievement, research initiatives, and much more. Read the full 2024–2025 report.
Past Reports
Dancers from Ballet Folklórico de Austin performed at the LLILAS 2023 graduation and reception honoring students on 5 de mayo
Student News
Graduation — We celebrated the LLILAS 2023 graduating class with a well-attended reception on 5 de mayo. The graduating students shared cherished memories of their time at UT. Our graduates could not have achieved this landmark without the guidance of their mentors. Much gratitude to our Latin American Studies colleagues across departments, colleges, and schools for their continuous mentorship of LLILAS students.
Student Awards — This year, ten faculty committees reviewed a great diversity of student proposals and selected a group of stellar graduate and undergraduate students who will receive funding to conduct research in Latin America and pursue Latin America–oriented coursework and activities at UT during 2023–2024. In all, 79 awards were given to students.
Incoming Graduate Cohort — In order to fully fund our graduate students, we offered admission to a small and select group, all of whom accepted our offer. Six new graduate students will join us in Fall 2023—two at the PhD level, and four at the MA level. We look forward to welcoming them!
See more student news on pages 3–5 of the report.
Report Highlights
2025 LLILAS graduates with family and loved ones
Student News
Graduation — LLILAS celebrated the 2025 graduating class at a well-attended private celebration with family members, faculty, and friends on May 9, 2025. The graduating cohort included BA, MA, and PhD recipients with expertise in several fields, including history, community and regional planning, government, public policy, environmental studies, Indigenous languages, and digital scholarship.
New Cohort — The LLILAS graduate program offers three options for advanced study: an MA, a dual master’s program that combines LLILAS with several professional degrees from UT, and a PhD. Meet our incoming fall 2025 students.
PhD Program
Mauro Aguirre investigates the intersection of human rights and digitized cultural heritage in Latin America, with a particular focus on Argentina.
Wutaowen Li adopts a historical and anthropological perspective to explore how Brazil's traditional soybean farmers engage with technological interventions, national development policies, and ecological change.
María López studies rural and semi-urban communities in Latin America and how they navigate socioeconomic challenges intensified by violent conflict, focusing primarily on Colombia.
Master’s Program
Maria Agüero is passionate about the intersection of archives and art, particularly in preserving the cultural heritage of local communities through oral history collections and digital scholarship.
Isabelle Tate Arévalo examines labor struggles in Peru, particularly in Espinar, where she analyzes the interplay between the transnational tourism industry, labor structures, and local social organizations.
Rodrigo Bustamante focuses on the legacy of Latin America’s Age of Exploration, analyzing how it reinforced the nature-culture divide through historical and literary sources.
Camila López McCarl explores the role of literature, film, and media in shaping shared cultural histories and bilingualism.
Jeanett Ochoa examines the role of Mexican women in social movements from the 1960s to the late 1970s, as well as the evolving dynamics of these movements along the U.S.–Mexico border.
Ashley Velazquez seeks to deepen her understanding of migration through the combined lens of Social Work and Latin American Studies, with a focus on advocacy and policy.
Student News
Graduation — We celebrated the LLILAS 2023 graduating class with a well-attended reception on 5 de mayo. The graduating students shared cherished memories of their time at UT. Our graduates could not have achieved this landmark without the guidance of their mentors. Much gratitude to our Latin American Studies colleagues across departments, colleges, and schools for their continuous mentorship of LLILAS students.
Student Awards — This year, ten faculty committees reviewed a great diversity of student proposals and selected a group of stellar graduate and undergraduate students who will receive funding to conduct research in Latin America and pursue Latin America–oriented coursework and activities at UT during 2023–2024. In all, 79 awards were given to students.
Incoming Graduate Cohort — In order to fully fund our graduate students, we offered admission to a small and select group, all of whom accepted our offer. Six new graduate students will join us in Fall 2023—two at the PhD level, and four at the MA level. We look forward to welcoming them!
See more student news on pages 3–5 of the Director's Annual Report.
Fall 2023 Tinker Visiting Professors Víctor Zúñiga (left) and Sueli Carneiro
Faculty & Staff News
We welcomed two Tinker Visiting Professors in 2024–25. In fall,
Visiting Faculty Enrich Our Course Offerings
We were fortunate to welcome three outstanding Tinker Visiting Professors during the 2023–2024 academic year. In fall 2023, Sueli Carneiro (Brazil) taught the seminar Black Feminist Epistemologies and Víctor Zúñiga (Mexico) taught Child Migration between the U.S., Mexico, and Central America. In spring 2023, Beatriz Jaguaribe (Brazil) taught Environmental Imaginaries of Latin America.
We look forward to welcoming Tinker Visiting Professor Daniel Escotto to teach an urban architecture seminar for fall 2024, as well as Visiting Professor Manuela Tahay, who will teaching First-Year K'iche' Maya. In spring 2025, we will be joined by historian Marixa Lasso.
Faculty and Benson staff mingle at the LLILAS Benson fall reception
Faculty and Staff News
We had the good fortune to welcome new and amazing colleagues as LLILAS affiliates during 2022–2023. These faculty members represent disciplines from all over the university. It was lovely to come together at the annual LLILAS Faculty Spring Fling as the school year ended.
We also welcomed new staff members this academic year. Our team is excited to work together this summer to prepare for a strong and vibrant fall semester.
Visiting Faculty — Tinker Visiting Professors Sayak Valencia (Mexico) and Daniel Party (Chile) and Brazil-Fulbright Professor Adilson Cabral (Brazil) taught semester-long graduate courses during the 2022–2023 academic year. This coming fall and spring, we look forward to welcoming Tinker VPs Sueli Carneiro (Brazil) and Víctor Zúñiga (Mexico) in the fall and Beatriz Jaguaribe (Brazil) in the spring.
Faculty Awards — LLILAS provided support to three affiliated faculty in 2022–2023 through our Course Release Program and awarded seven Mellon research grants to other faculty. An additional two faculty members have received course releases for 2023–2024.
See pages 6–8 in the Director's Annual Report for more details, as well as tributes to faculty members who are retiring or moving on to other professional opportunities.
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Events and Activities
A central, and ongoing, theme of LLILAS scholarly activities is the social impact of environmental concerns. Our February 2023 Lozano Long Conference on water—a two-day event featuring an international roster of scholars and activists across disciplines—exemplifies our approach to issues confronting people and communitieis in the Americas.
Later in the spring, LLILAS Brazil Center collaborated with the Department of Geography and the Environment to present a panel on socioenvironmental sustainability in the Amazon.
The environment was but one of the topics featured in the symposium Brazil at 200, organized on the occasion of the bicentennial of Brazil's Independence. The two-day hybrid event brought together historians, social scientists, art historians, and activists to discuss a range of topics relevant to Brazil's history from 1822 to the present.
These events represent the tip of the iceberg of our robust and diverse calendar. Learn more on pages 9–11 of the Director's Report.
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Grants and Initiatives
Pido la Palabra — In Spring 2023, Sarah Brayne, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Texas Prison Education Initiative at UT (TPEI), and I began implementation of Pido la Palabra: A Texas Prison Literature Project for Social Justice and the Literary Imagination, sponsored by a grant of $500,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This three-year project is grounded on the belief that education should improve the quality of life of all sorts of students, including those behind bars. In Spring 2023, I taught a class for graduate students and upper-division undergraduates called Writing on the Edge to train students for teaching in correctional facilities. In Summer 2023, two PhD students and I will team teach a writing workshop for Spanish-speaking women inmates at a correctional facility in central Texas. In Fall 2023, we will begin the implementation of a higher-learning Spanish and bilingual creative writing program, titled Pido la Palabra, in two Texas prisons.
Much more news — The Director's Report contains the latest on LLILAS Benson's grant-funded post-custodial archiving and digital humanities projects; the Indigenous Languages Initiative; more partnership highlights; and updates about the Archive of the Indigenous Languages of Latin America and more.
See pages 12–15 of the Director's Report.
Our Community
Support for Our Mission — LLILAS is honored and grateful for the support of many donors. During 2022–2023, we held a wildly successful 40 Hours for the Forty Acres fundraiser in memory of longtime graduate program coordinator Anne Dibble to strengthen an endowment supporting graduate students. Upon retiring from the Department of Geography and the Environment, Dr. William E. (Bill) Doolittle made a generous gift to establish an endowment for the study of Northern Mexico. We also announced a generous bequest from UT alumna and art historian Dr. Virginia Miller.
The Long Medal of Excellence — LLILAS hosted a reception and medal ceremony in May 2023 to honor former UT President Larry R. Faulkner as the second recipient of the Joe R. & Dr. Teresa Lozano Long Medal of Excellence Award. Read about Dr. Faulkner's outstanding legacy. (Photos by Tomás Segura.)
Saying Goodbye — We close out our annual report with tributes to beloved community members we have lost. Each of them has left an indelible mark and treasured memories, as well as significant contributions to our world. Anne Dibble, Joel Sherzer, Larry Graham, David Wells, Pat Somers, and Angela Sonquo Tapia — you are deeply appreciated and sorely missed.
See pages 16–18 of the Director's Report for more.
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Our Community
Support for Our Mission — LLILAS is honored and grateful for the support of many donors. During 2022–2023, we held a wildly successful 40 Hours for the Forty Acres fundraiser in memory of longtime graduate program coordinator Anne Dibble to strengthen an endowment supporting graduate students. Upon retiring from the Department of Geography and the Environment, Dr. William E. (Bill) Doolittle made a generous gift to establish an endowment for the study of Northern Mexico. We also announced a generous bequest from UT alumna and art historian Dr. Virginia Miller.
The Long Medal of Excellence — LLILAS hosted a reception and medal ceremony in May 2023 to honor former UT President Larry R. Faulkner as the second recipient of the Joe R. & Dr. Teresa Lozano Long Medal of Excellence Award. Read about Dr. Faulkner's outstanding legacy.
Saying Goodbye — We close out our annual report with tributes to beloved community members we have lost. Each of them has left an indelible mark and treasured memories, as well as significant contributions to our world. Anne Dibble, Joel Sherzer, Larry Graham, David Wells, Pat Somers, and Angela Sonquo Tapia — you are deeply appreciated and sorely missed.
Faculty and Staff News
We had the good fortune to welcome new and amazing colleagues as LLILAS affiliates during 2022–2023. These faculty members represent disciplines from all over the university. It was lovely to come together at the annual LLILAS Faculty Spring Fling as the school year ended.
We also welcomed new staff members this academic year. Our team is excited to work together this summer to prepare for a strong and vibrant fall semester.
Visiting Faculty — Tinker Visiting Professors Sayak Valencia (Mexico) and Daniel Party (Chile) and Brazil-Fulbright Professor Adilson Cabral (Brazil) taught semester-long graduate courses during the 2022–2023 academic year. This coming fall and spring, we look forward to welcoming Tinker VPs Sueli Carneiro (Brazil) and Víctor Zúñiga (Mexico) in the fall and Beatriz Jaguaribe (Brazil) in the spring.
Faculty Awards — LLILAS provided support to three affiliated faculty in 2022–2023 through our Course Release Program and awarded seven Mellon research grants to other faculty. An additional two faculty members have received course releases for 2023–2024.
See pages 6–8 in the Director's Report for more details, as well as tributes to faculty members who are retiring or moving on to other professional opportunities.
Faculty and staff at the 2025 Faculty Spring Fling
Focus on Faculty
This section of the Director's Report includes news about new faculty leadershhip at LLILAS, research and publications by affiliated faculty, and a large range of faculty research that is supported by the Institute.
The Seed Grants Program is one example of the way in which LLILAS provides significant support for innovative research involving faculty members and graduate students. In March 2025, the 2023–2024 awardees presented projects that have since advanced through major grants and yielded important outcomes, including conference presentations and publications.
We also pursue opportunities to build community with faculty, as evidenced by the popularity of our annual Faculty Spring Fling.
Photo by Octavio Kano-Galván
Pido la Palabra, a Mellon-funded Project
The 2024–2025 academic year was year three of the Pido la Palabra grant, in which LLILAS is collaborating with the Texas Prison Education Initiative (TPEI) to bring bilingual Spanish/English creative writing courses to incarcerated students in Central Texas.
As a culmination of their class taught by Professor Gabriela Polit and graduate students Alex Voisine and Isabel Ibáñez de la Calle, all from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, students at the Coleman unit for women in Lockhart produced the second edition of their magazine, which includes prose, poetry, and original drawings. Read Lo que tú no ves: Expressions from the Chicas in White.
The teaching team was also joined by volunteers Yefferson Ospina, Gabriel Noriega (Spanish and Portuguese), and Oscar Chaidez (Comparative Literature). We are grateful for the collaboration of our colleagues at TPEI and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
The Honorable Michelle Bachelet delivers the Mary Ann Faulkner Lecture
Scholarly and Public Programs
In celebration of the converging anniversaries mentioned above, scholarly and public programming during the past academic year saw campus visits by a variety of luminaries. The second Mary Ann Faulkner Distinguished Lecture Series in Latin American Public Affairs and Politics, held in October 2024, featured former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who spoke on advancing human rights and the role of women in politics. It was moderated by JR DeShazo, Dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and drew a large and diverse audience.
Read "An Evening with the Honorable Michelle Bachelet" in Portal magazine.
Gael García Bernal with Adela Pineda Franco
In March 2025, the Austin Lecture on Contemporary Mexico welcomed renowned Mexican actor, director, and producer Gael García Bernal, in conversation with Director Adela Pineda Franco. Attended by some 1,000 guests from across Central Texas, their discussion used film as a starting point to explore the importance of binational dialogue and the role of art in society as a powerful medium for cultural expression.
Read "The Unbounded Territories of Cinema: Gael García Bernal at UT Austin" in the latest issue of Portal magazine.
L–R: At FILUNI, Benson director Melissa Guy, Texas Global director Sonia Feigenbaum, UNAM mascot, and LLILAS director Adela Pineda Franco
The LLILAS Benson Partnership
The 2023–2024 academic year saw many exciting initiatives in the LLILAS Benson partnership, shared in more detail starting on page 17 of the Director's Annual Report.
Partnership Highlights include LLILAS Benson's participation in FILUNI, an international book fair held at UNAM in Mexico City. UT Austin was the fairs first international guest of honor, and LLILAS Benson was honored to be part of the delegation led and organized by Texas Global.
LLILAS Benson hosted Gioconda Belli, celebrated Nicaraguan poet, writer, and political dissident, whose archive now resides at the Benson. Belli's riveting public lecture to a packed house in the Benson's Hartness Reading Room was followed by a Q&A between Belli and LLILAS Director Adela Pineda. Read Benson Director Melissa Guy's interview with Belli.
Discover many more partnership initiatives, including Archiving Black América, the Conference on Indigenous Languages of Latin America, a Title VI–funded acquisition trip in the Andes, and news on Digital Scholarship and Digital Initiatives.