Chicano/Latino Studies program will soon offer doctoral degree

MSU is expanding its Chicano/Latino Studies program by developing the nation’s second doctoral program in the field, which is expected to begin next fall.

With the addition, MSU will become the first school in the Midwest to offer an interdisciplinary graduate degree in that particular program.

“We think we have the academic resources to build a strong interdisciplinary program,” MSU Provost Kim Wilcox said. “It will draw on people from lots of different disciplines — English, history, social science. We think we have strength across a lot of areas.”

Global and area studies junior Crystál Stoll said her participation in the Chicano/Latino Fellows program within the study has opened up her eyes to the history of her culture as a Latina student.

“This program is going to make a big impact on MSU,” she said. “The Fellows program has changed me as a person because it’s made me more aware of my culture and helped me embrace my heritage.”

The doctoral program will study historical and current experiences of Chicanos and Latinos in social, cultural and economic contexts, according to an MSU press release.

“This is an important topic for the future,” Wilcox said. “Those populations are growing in the United States, but their influence as a people is also growing. We have a larger Chicano/Latino population in Michigan than a lot of people appreciate.”

MSU’s undergraduate program has been in place for more than 30 years, acknowledging contributions indo-afro-hispano citizens have made throughout the past 500 years, according to the program’s Web site.

The only other university that offers a similar program is the University of California, Santa Barbara. The doctorate program at MSU will begin in fall 2008 with five students enrolled.

Rubén Martinez, the recently appointed director of the Julian Samora Research Institute, said doctoral students do work with the research institute and the Chicano/Latino Studies program.

“I think the knowledge that will be produced by students going through the program will contribute to the understanding of Latinos in the United States,” Martinez said.

The research institute, located on campus, is named after former MSU professor Julian Samora. Martinez said the institute does research across the nation and state about Latinos and the changing demographic.

“We are close, of course, to the area of Chicano/Latino studies,” he said. “We will have projects that we will collaborate on and we’ve already got some conversations and discussion on that.”

Joey Nowak can be reached at nowakjo2@msu.edu.

Published on Wednesday, September 26, 2007