Race & Ethnicity Studies

Our Faculty

    • NAME

      Melissa Johnson

    • TITLE

      Professor of Anthropology and Chair

    • Specialty

      Topical: Nature, the more than human and the human; Race, Racism, Critical Race Theory; Environment; Conservation; Development; Social Theory; Environmental History; Racial History; Tourism; Gender. Area: Belize; Caribbean; U.S.-Mexico Borderlands; Central Texas

    • NAME

      Omar Rivera

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Philosophy

    • Specialty

      Latin American Philosophy (Pre-Columbian to 21st Century, including Latin American Marxisms), Latinx Philosophy,19th and 20th Century Continental Philosophy (especially Phenomenology and Hermeneutics), Decolonial Philosophy (Epistemology, Race Theory, Feminist Theory), Aesthetics (including Latin American and Latinx Art), Ancient Greek Philosophy

    • NAME

      David Asbury

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Music

    • Specialty

      Guitar, Music Theory, Music Technology

    • NAME

      Lamiyah (LB) Bahrainwala

    • TITLE

      Assistant Professor of Communication Studies

    • Specialty

      Whiteness; anti-Muslim sentiment; precarity; feminist surveillance approaches

    • NAME

      Michael Bray

    • TITLE

      Professor of Philosophy

    • Specialty

      Political Philosophy; Critical Theory

    • NAME

      Melissa K Byrnes

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of History

    • Specialty

      Modern European History, France and the French Empire, Migration, Race, Muslims and the Islamic World, Human Rights, Humanitarianism

    • NAME

      Reggie Byron

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Sociology

    • Specialty

      Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation Stratification; Employment and Campus Climates; Criminology; Quantitative and Qualitative Methods

    • NAME

      Sergio Costola

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Theatre

    • Specialty

      Theatre History, Dramaturgy

    • NAME

      Carlos De Oro

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Spanish

    • Specialty

      Contemporary Latin American Film, Literatures, and Cultures

    • NAME

      Abby Dings

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Spanish

    • Specialty

      Second Language Acquisition, Sociolinguistics, Interactional Competence

    • NAME

      Patrick Hajovsky

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Art History

    • Specialty

      Pre-Columbian and Colonial Latin America

    • NAME

      Jethro Hernandez Berrones

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of History

    • Specialty

      Modern Mexico, Latin America, Medicine, Science, Pubic Health, Medical Education, Homeopathy, Global Scientific Networks, Traditional/Popular Healing, Popular Science, Spiritualism/Spiritism

    • NAME

      Phil Hopkins

    • TITLE

      Professor of Philosophy

    • Specialty

      Research: Critical Theory (Culture, Race, Police), Phenomenology of Body, Process Ontology     Teaching: Embodied Self, Identity

    • NAME

      Katie Howard

    • TITLE

      Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy

    • Specialty

      Feminist Philosophy, Political Philosophy, Affect Theory, History of Philosophy

    • NAME

      Joseph E. Hower

    • TITLE

      Assistant Professor of History

    • Specialty

      U.S. History, Labor and Politics in Modern America, Social Movements, Urban History, Policy History

    • NAME

      Melissa Johnson

    • TITLE

      Professor of Anthropology

    • Specialty

      Topical: Nature, the more than human and the human; Race, Racism, Critical Race Theory; Environment; Conservation; Development; Social Theory; Environmental History; Racial History; Tourism; Gender. Area: Belize; Caribbean; U.S.-Mexico Borderlands; Central Texas

    • NAME

      Jim Kilfoyle

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of English

    • Specialty

      Eighteenth-century British literature, postcolonial literature, literary theory

    • NAME

      Maria R. Lowe

    • TITLE

      Professor of Sociology

    • Specialty

      Race and racism, racialized spaces, neighborhood surveillance, campus climate research (race, gender, and sexual orientation), the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, and gender inequalities and identities.

    • NAME

      Shannon Mariotti

    • TITLE

      Professor of Political Science

    • Specialty

      19th Century American Transcendentalism, American Political Thought, Critical Social Theory (20th century Marxism and the Frankfurt School), Democratic Theory and Practice, Democratic Pedagogy, Gender Politics and Feminist Political Theory, The Politics of Romanticism and Modernism, Neoliberalism, Buddhist Political Theory and Buddhist Modernism, Contemplative Practices and Embodied Social Change. 

    • NAME

      Ken Mello

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Religion

    • Specialty

      Native American traditions, Contemporary Indigenous Identity, Sacred Space, Gender and Sexuality, Indigenous Myth and Narratives, other non-textual religious traditions.

    • NAME

      Helene Meyers

    • TITLE

      Professor of English and Holder of McManis University Chair

    • Specialty

      Jewish American Literature and Film, Feminist Theory, Gothic Studies, Interdisciplinarity and the Liberal Arts in the 21st Century

    • NAME

      Allison R. Miller

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Art History

    • Specialty

      Chinese art and archaeology

    • NAME

      Alicia Moore

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Education

    • Specialty

      Multiculturalism/Culturally Responsive Teaching; Differentiated Instruction for diverse populations; Early Childhood Best Practices

    • NAME

      Sandi Nenga

    • TITLE

      Professor of Sociology

    • Specialty

      Children and youth; social class; volunteer work and civic engagement; qualitative methods

    • NAME

      Valerie Renegar

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Communication Studies

    • Specialty

      Rhetorical theory and criticism, feminist movements, third wave feminism, environmental rhetoric, Kenneth Burke.

    • NAME

      Omar Rivera

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Philosophy

    • Specialty

      Latin American Philosophy (Pre-Columbian to 21st Century, including Latin American Marxisms), Latinx Philosophy,19th and 20th Century Continental Philosophy (especially Phenomenology and Hermeneutics), Decolonial Philosophy (Epistemology, Race Theory, Feminist Theory), Aesthetics (including Latin American and Latinx Art), Ancient Greek Philosophy

    • NAME

      María de los Ángeles Rodriguez Cadena

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Spanish

    • Specialty

      Contemporary Mexican and Latin American Literature and Culture, Cultural memory, Cultural complexes, Historical fiction in literature, film and television, Mexican television and film female directors, Feminist Studies, Race and Ethnicity Studies, Nature and Culture, Environmental Humanities.

    • NAME

      Catherine Bourland Ross

    • TITLE

      Professor of Spanish

    • Specialty

      Post-Franco Spanish literature, twentieth and twenty-first century peninsular Spanish literature and film. 

    • NAME

      Eric Selbin

    • TITLE

      Professor of Political Science

    • Specialty

      Comparative Politics (Comparative Revolutions; Contentious Politics; Latin American and Caribbean Politics; Ideologies); International Politics (Peace and Conflict; IR Theory); Political Sociology.

    • NAME

      Brenda Sendejo

    • TITLE

      Associate Professor of Feminist Studies

    • Specialty

      Anthropology of religion, Mexican American spiritualities and indigenous heritage, gender and racialization, and Chicana feminisms. Geographic specialization: U.S. - Mexico Borderlands, Central and South Texas.

    • NAME

      Emily Sydnor

    • TITLE

      Assistant Professor of Political Science

    • Specialty

      political communication, political psychology, political behavior, public opinion