AddRan College of Liberal Arts hosted the Third Coast Central America Collaborative, a group of scholars and students from the Gulf Coast region who study Central America and its diasporas. Scholars shared interdisciplinary research that strengthens Central American Studies locally, nationally and globally.

“This symposium spotlighted the cutting-edge interdisciplinary work that AddRan faculty are doing in the region of Central America, which promotes global studies,” said Dean Sonja Watson. 

Session topics included environmental humanities, race and gender, and language war and food, among other presentations.

Peter Szok, professor of Latin American history, said that these types of events contribute to campus intellectual life, especially benefitting graduate students.

The conference also provided an opportunity for attendees to engage in networking.

“It was helpful to meet faculty from other universities who were also conducting research on Central America and learn about their research,” said Benjamin Tillman, associate professor of geography at TCU.

Tatiana Arguello, associate professor of Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies in AddRan, helped plan TCU’s iteration of the event and served on its steering committee. The previous year, the Third Coast Central American Collaborative was held at Rice University.

Arguello explained that the conference highlighted the local significance of making visible the importance of Central American Studies, its people and cultural productions in U.S. academia.

“It shows AddRan’s commitment to these efforts,” she said. “The success of our event paved the way for future conferences in institutions such as the University of Texas at Austin and Tulane University in the following years,” she said.