LLILAS Benson Partnership

In 2011, the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) established a partnership with the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection, one of the world’s premiere repositories of Latin American and U.S. Latina/o materials.

LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, as the partnership is known, pairs the abundant scholarly resources of the collection with the teaching and research focus of the institute. It has opened exciting new opportunities in the digital humanities, as well as meaningful collaborations with partners in Latin America, and holds the promise of becoming a model for the global public university of the twenty-first century.

LLILAS Benson operated under a single director from 2011 until 2021, yet each member of the partnership served its own constituents. LLILAS remains an institute under the College of Liberal Arts, and the Benson Collection is under the administrative purview of the University of Texas Libraries.

The inaugural director of LLILAS Benson was Charles R. Hale, an anthropologist, who served from 2009 until fall 2014. Hale was succeeded by Professor of History and Religious Studies Virginia Garrard, who served from 2014 until fall 2020. Professor of Sociology Javier Auyero served as interim director in 2020–21.

With a revision of the Memorandum of Understanding, LLILAS and the Benson are led by separate directors. Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Adela Pineda Franco took the reins of LLILAS in fall 2021. On the Benson side, Melissa Guy, named director and Nettie Lee Benson Librarian in 2018, now serves in a leadership capacity equivalent to that of LLILAS Director Pineda.