Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Duke hoping new prof will boost Latino studies
By Eugene Wang
The Chronicle (Duke)
09/26/2007

(U-WIRE) DURHAM, N.C. — For the past 10 years, Latino/a Studies has been gradually gaining a presence on the Duke University campus, but it has lacked a distinguished figure on its faculty to anchor it.

This August, however, the University attracted Jose Sald'var, a professor of English and literature, from the University of California at Berkeley to be the new director of Latino/a Studies.

Sald'var, who was the director of the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC-Berkeley, has written several books on American literature and won numerous awards for his work in literary criticism.

"With Professor Sald'var here now, we expect our growth to be much more exponential," said Jenny Snead Williams, program coordinator for Latino/a Studies. "We have more University support with Professor Sald'var's arrival here at Duke because of the leadership that he can bring to oversee so many new areas of development."

Sald'var turned down an earlier offer to teach at Duke because his wife had her own business in California, said Walter Mignolo, professor of literature, cultural anthropology and romance studies.

"It was a wonderful opportunity coming from Duke, but we just weren't able to work out all of our familial issues at that time," Sald'var said.

Now at Duke, Sald'var said he hopes to expand Latino/a Studies, engage the growing North Carolina Latino population and create a certificate program.

"We would like to become more visible and have a more exciting intellectual presence on this campus," he said. "More particularly, because of the changing demographic of North Carolina... our program should be grappling with how to help these immigrant communities."

Sald'var noted that there has been a 400-percent "explosion" of Mexican and Latin American immigrants in the state. This has created a need to address public policy, health care and education issues for the immigrant population, he said.

"Like [African and African American Studies] and other programs at Duke, we have a broader focus not just on our academic community, which is really important for us, but also a larger community outside of Duke," Sald'var said.

He added that creating a certificate program will further emphasize Latino/a Studies' multidisciplinary approach to Latino issues. A proposal is currently being discussed and hopefully will be submitted during the 2007-2008 academic year, Sald'var said.

Snead Williams said Latino/a Studies, although currently a "unit without clear status," is planning to apply to become an institute this coming year. She added, however, that Latino/a Studies already sponsors events and conducts research.

As an institute, Latino/a Studies would be better equipped to recruit high-profile faculty, Sald'var said.

"It is understood that with the work that has been done since 1997 and my coming upward as a director that the administration is very interested in giving us official status as either a center or an institute," he said.

Sald'var will help increase the profile of Latino/a Studies and address the many issues facing the Latin American population, Mignolo said.

"[He] will give us visibility not only in the nation and in the academic sphere, but he will help in the public sphere through newspapers and television," Mignolo said. "That is what we are looking forward to — that Sald'var will put us on the map."

Senior Brian Ovalle said students and faculty are excited and "filled with a sense of hope" that Sald'var came to Duke. He added that the addition of Sald'var will help attract more resources for Latino/a Studies.

"[Sald'var] comes in as pretty well-known and ... he has a lot of pull because he's trying to develop an actual program," Ovalle said. "That was his vision when he was attracted to Duke — that Duke was making a commitment to him to develop Latino/a Studies."

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