Our History
In November 1995, the Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) voted unanimously to approve a “New Academic Degree Proposal” that had been prepared by the Chicana/o Studies Advisory Committee, chaired by Professor Edward J. Escobar. The Board's action established a major and minor in Chicana and Chicano Studies (CCS) at Arizona State University. A little over a year later, in February 1997, ABOR voted, again unanimously, to establish the Department of Chicana/o Studies that administered the major and minor with Professor Escobar as founding chair. From the very beginning, the goal of the curriculum was to prepare majors to be agents of social change and to provide the larger ASU student community coursework that would give them an understanding and, indeed, an appreciation of the diverse nature of American society.
Under the leadership of subsequent department chairs Vicki Ruiz and Cordelia Candelaria, Chicana/o Studies grew and prospered. One of the department's major accomplishments has been acquiring major gifts. These include a $1.1 million gift from the Wells Fargo Foundation for a presidential chair, a speaker series, scholarships for students, and a teacher education program, and a $300,000 gift from the Motorola Corporation to establish the Motorola Presidential Chair in Community Revitalization within the department.
Under the leadership of Professor Carlos Vélez-Ibáñez who took over as department chair in 2005, the department adopted transnationalism as one of its foundational pillars of the curriculum and broadened its instructional offerings to include materials on other Latino groups living in the United States. The change in emphasis was symbolized by a new name: the Department of Transborder Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies (TCL) which was approved by ABOR on February 11, 2007.
In 2010, the department became the School of Transborder Studies, becoming the first of its kind in the United States and globally. The school's graduate programs include a Master of Advanced Study (MAS) and a PhD in Transborder Studies. The curriculum has both academic and applied orientations, focusing on preparing students to address pressing issues affecting Mexican-origin and Latina/o communities.