Director's Letter

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A picture of confluencenter's staff

Dear Confluencenter community,

I hope this message finds you and your loved ones safe and well. The Confluencenter team had a busy 2022. We hosted in-person events, co-sponsored conferences, and presentations, supported faculty and student projects, expanded on Mellon and Ford Foundation grant funded activities, and continued to galvanize our community engagement efforts in Tucson and beyond.

One highlight of the spring semester was hosting Pulitzer and Emmy award winning journalist, Maria Hinojosa as part of our Mellon Fronteridades Lecture Series. We also successfully launched the first NEH funded, Border Lab Summer Institute with The University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections that allowed us to further our goal to train and provide archiving resources to our community partners.

As part of our professional networking, Confluencenter actively participated in the Consortium of Humanities Center and Institutes (CHCI) annual meeting at Duke University and on July 1st. I had the honor to be selected as Co-President of the Consortium along my colleague Dr. Darryl Harper with Amherst College for the 2022-2023 period. This is great honor and a meritorious recognition to the center’s global impact.

Our 2022 Show & Tell events featured individuals whose artwork, storytelling, journalism, and research features and uplifts diverse and underrepresented communities on the border. We are grateful to each of our presenters for sharing their work and to the wonderful host venues: the Mercado San Agustin Annex, the Museo de Arte de Nogales, Sonora, and the Sosa-Carrillo House Mexican American History Museum in downtown Tucson.

Our binational partnership efforts continued well into 2022 resulting in several meetings and collaborative projects with our Mexican partners in Nogales, Sonora such as like IMFOCULTA CECUN, the Museo de Arte de Nogales and in new connections with colleagues at the Colegio de Sonora, the Universidad de Sonora and the Instituto Municipal de Cultura y Arte in Hermosillo, Sonora.

Lastly, I am proud to recognize the Confluencenter team for all their hard work this year. We welcomed three new full-time colleagues and two student workers as part of our increased efforts to continue serving our constituents.

I hope you will continue to stay connected with the Confluencenter. There is much more to come in 2023, but for now, I want to express my deepest gratitude to all of you for your support this year.

 

Javier's signature

 

 

 

 

Dr. Javier Duran

Director, Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry