SJSU Chicana/o Studies update

The SJSU Master’s Program in Mexican American Studies is accepting applications for Fall 2009 admission.  Department chair Marc Pizarro said, “We are committed to training the next generation of Chicana/o Studies scholars and activists to take on the vast array of issues facing academia and our communities today.”

Prof. Pizarro also mentioned exciting work being done throughout the department:

• “Many of our students are doing very exciting work in applied Chicana/o Studies,  including:
  • Developing strategies for helping deaf education programs to better understand and address the needs of deaf students who come from non-English speaking families,
  • Creating programs for Latina teens to help them understand the factors leading to teen pregnancy and how to make informed decisions about sexual behavior,
  • Building an organization to analyze and confront the obstacles keeping Latino males from attaining educational success in the university,
  • Exposing the ways in which raza communities engage in environmental justice work and how they help us envision more holistic eco-justice strategies to benefit communities.
• We are continuing to develop our Curriculum, and have recently added new courses that emphasize Policy Analysis and Comparative Ethnic Studies respectively.  As new faculty join us, we hope to continue to increase our graduate offerings.
• Several of our Master’s Students have been invited to present their research at the Annual Meeting of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies in New Jersey this April.
• We have created an Applied Chicana/o Studies option for our students.  This allows students who are not pursuing research careers to focus on applied work. Students can complete the Master’s without doing a thesis or research project.
• We have been admitting dynamic cohorts of students, including students from: Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, New Mexico, Arizona, Boston, Mexico, Southern California, the San Joaquin Valley, Sacramento and all over the Bay Area.
• Several students are also completing Master’s thesis and many are planning to go to or have been accepted into doctoral programs.

Prof. Pizarro also encouraged potential applicants to apply as early as possible because of budget issues and the likelihood that the application deadline will be moved up.
BACKGROUND FROM PROF PIZARRO:
MAS at SJSU is the longest-running Graduate Program in Chicana/o Studies in the country & one of only four programs in California offering graduate degrees specifically in the area of Chicana/o Studies.  We continue to re-envision the program to meet the needs of students and fulfill the goals of Chicana/o Studies now in 2009.

WHAT’S HAPPENING
This is a great time to join our program!!!  We recently developed a new 5 year plan for the department and hired a new faculty member, Magdalena Barrera, who does exciting research in cultural production in the early 20th century and how it helps us better understand the Chicana/o experience today.  We also expect to be hiring another new faculty member next year.

GETTING MORE INFO, APPLYING AND CONTACTING US
You can get more info on our department at the SJSU catalog website.  It should answer most of your questions about the Grad Program:

http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/catalog/departments/MAS.html

I can also send you any information you need.

Students can apply on-line.  Check out the website for Prospective Students at: http://www.sjsu.edu/gape/prospective_students/
Feel free to contact me anytime with questions, and if you are in the area I can schedule a time for you to come to a class and meet students.  I’m also happy to make visits to other campuses.

Looking forward to seeing you in our classes soon!

Marcos

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Marcos Pizarro
Professor, Graduate Coordinator & Chair
Mexican American Studies
San Jose State University
One Washington Square
San Jose, CA  95192-0118
408/924-5584   408/924-5700fax   pizarro@email.sjsu.edu
Office Location: YUH 34 (Uchida Hall at 4th and San Carlos)
Office Hours: Mondays 2-5:30pm, Tuesdays 9:30-11am

http://www.sjsu.edu/people/marcos.pizarro/