NYU Latinx Project to Create Research Center With $1.3 Million Donation
The university’s Latinx Project will use a recent $1.3 million grant to establish a new research center for Latinx studies with support from the Office of the Provost.
by Yezen Saadah
This story was originally published on New York University’s Washington Square News.
A recent $1.3 million donation will establish an official research institute for Latinx studies at NYU called the Latinx Project: Interdisciplinary Center for Arts and Culture. The donation was made by the Mellon Foundation to the university’s Latinx Project, which sponsors artistic and cultural programs at NYU. The funding will also be used to support the project’s art exhibitions, research fellowships and its online publication, Intervenxions.
“This is the first universitywide space dedicated to Latinx studies at NYU,” said Arlene Dávila, the founding director of the Latinx Project and a professor of anthropology at NYU. “Latino studies is not in a field that has been recognized in many universities and we could strive to be an example for why projects like this should exist in all universities.”
Dávila said the project has been calling on the university to support an academic space dedicated to Latinx studies for years. She also said that, though the center will not constitute an official department at NYU, the donation will also be put toward promoting the Latinx Project’s existing programming. Dávila noted that despite the new Latinx provostial center — a research institute supported by the university’s Office of the Provost — as well as existing centers dedicated to African American and Asian American studies, NYU has yet to establish a provostial center for Native American studies.
Read the rest of the story at Washington Square News.