Our History – Who Are We?

The Mexican American Studies program was founded in 1968 by a group of committed community activists, students, and educators in response to community and student demands for self-determination.

By 1975 it became the Mexican American Studies Committee. On March 22, 1981, the Mexican American Studies & Research Center was formally established. Two years later, the Center received state funding and began to realize its interdisciplinary research program. In 2009, the Center became a full-fledged department.

The Mexican American Studies Department offers an undergraduate degree (B.A.) and graduate degrees (M.S. and Ph.D. since 2012) as well as a dual degree program in Mexican American Studies and Public Health (M.S./MPH).

Why Study and Work With Us?

As the leading intellectual and advocacy institution in Arizona, the Department of Mexican American Studies contributes to the knowledge about, and produced by Chicanx, Mexican, Indigenous, and Latinx populations, while engaging, sharing, and recommending public policy positions that are relevant to these communities, such as:

• issues related to public health/wellness
• (im)migration
• the U.S.-Mexico border
• education
• social justice
• transborder organizing
• Latinx urbanization
• Indigenous systems of healing
• environmental and food justice
• criminal justice and judicial system to stakeholders as a process of undoing systemic racism and exclusion

MAS at the University of Arizona is active in the Mexican American Studies struggle and is firmly committed to training future generations of scholars whose research is rooted in social justice. The department works collaboratively with community organizations to address issues and produce knowledge benefiting historically marginalized communities in the U.S. and transnationally.