The University of Arizona will begin accepting applications for its new Mexican American Studies doctoral program. Classes will begin in the Fall of 2013.
On December 5, the Faculty Senate approved the degree. According to the Mexican American Studies department staff, “The department had about 4 to 5 students enter the Masters program this year, and about 15 to 20 have earned a degree over the years.”
Mexican American Studies staff said that most Mexican American Studies programs are concentrated in California and Texas. Currently the University offers a doctorate in Gender and Women’s Studies.
A study by Steve Chatman of the University of California indicates that Ethnic Studies actually reduces the college students’ level of respect for others’ personal beliefs.
The best known and longest running Mexican American Studies degree program; the Chicano Studies program at California State University Northridge’s, was developed by Occupied America author, Rudy Acuna. “At the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Rodolfo Acuña was recruited by students, faculty, and community and became the Department’s founding faculty member. In a short span of time, he devoloped (sic) forty-five courses and by April 1969 the Department had been born,” according to the department’s website.
“Currently the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Northridge is the largest of its kind in the country housing 25 fulltime and 35 part time professors. Between 160-170 class sections are offered every semester,” according to the department’s website.
The California State University Northridge department focuses on critical race theory, “Chicana and Chicano Studies is an Area Studies field that advances a critical understanding of the Chicana/o and Latina/o experience in the United States.” Critical race theory holds that everything must be viewed as a function of race, from political systems to interpersonal relationships. Critical race theorists, for the most part reject the possibility of a color blind society. Chicano Studies, with its foundations in critical race theory, promotes ethnic nationalism.