UTSA Receives Mellon Grant

UTSA Receives $5M Mellon Grant for Racial Justice Efforts

by Rebecca Luther

In January of 2021, UTSA was awarded a three-year, $5 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the university’s community partnerships in advancing racial justice.

The grant, administered through the Mellon Just Futures Initiative, supports visionary, unconventional, experimental and groundbreaking projects that address the long-existing fault lines of racism, inequality, and injustice within democracy and civil society.

UTSA’s project—Democratizing Racial Justice (DRJ) —will be a transformative, community-based People’s Academies for Racial Justice. Through the People’s Academies, selected community fellows and faculty fellows will collaborate on a public-facing project each year of the grant as determined by that cohort. Grant funding will further support community dialogues with key scholars working in fields related to social justice.

“The DRJ project was conceived to leverage our department’s and UTSA’s own interdisciplinary strengths in the humanities, ethnic studies and intersectional gender studies, and then build on those strengths through the external partnerships,” Alejandra Elenes, Ph.D. professor and chair of the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies said. “DRJ was developed as an academic-community collaborative—and one that will serve as a model for innovative humanities and ethnic studies education in the region.”

The project was developed by Jackie Cuevas, Ph.D. associate professor and assistant chair of the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies and director of the Women’s Studies Institute; Alejandra C. Elenes, Ph.D. professor and chair of the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies; and Rhonda M. Gonzales, Ph.D. professor and chair of the Department of History. The project also includes Kirsten Gardner, Ph.D., associate professor of history along with two faculty fellows Sonya Alemán, Ph.D., and Jerry González, Ph.D. Additionally, multiple students have active roles in the project as research assistants and interns. The project also involves two post-doctoral fellows, Carolina Arango-Vargas, Ph.D. and José G. Villagrán, Ph.D.

Project partners include the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures, which will manage and promote an online repository of DRJ archives, including oral histories, public murals or other materials. The nonprofit Esperanza Center, led by director Graciela Sanchez, will serve as the anchor community organization for facilitating the People’s Academies. Northwest Vista College will serve as institutional partner for the companion Educators’ Academies for Ethnic Studies and Sandra Garza, Ph.D., coordinator of the Mexican American Studies Program at Northwest Vista College, will serve as project liaison for participating Alamo Colleges District campuses.

“These academies represent a path-making effort to bring together activist-scholars, students and community members to formulate community-centric, ethical collaborations where people of color remember histories, respond to community needs, conduct collective research and imagine thriving futures where racial justice is possible,” said Cuevas.

UTSA is one of only 16 universities in the U.S. and the only institution in Texas to be awarded a grant through the Just Futures Initiative.

Since January 2021

In conjunction with Alamo Colleges held first ethnic studies educators academy. Attended by 25 local/national higher education faculty.

Hired four staff members to coordinate initiatives: Allison Baca, Justine Cantu, Yasmín Codina, Viviana Guillen.

Launched a website to feature project achievements, events, and highlights.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: https://racialjustice.utsa.edu/