The Latino Studies Program (LSP) at Cornell University has a new director and, for the first time in its history, an associate director as well. Philip Lewis, the Harold Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, has appointed faculty members María Cristina García, of the Department of History, as director and Mary Pat Brady, of the Department of English, as associate director of the program.

García will serve a three-year appointment, and Brady has committed to a one-year appointment.

"María Cristina García and Mary Pat Brady are outstanding scholars who will provide superb academic leadership for the Latino Studies Program," said Lewis. "We are very fortunate that such accomplished faculty members are willing to commit time and effort to developing a strong program, and we are confident that the program's curriculum and activities will be favorably received by faculty and students throughout the university."

García replaces Pedro Cabán, a visiting professor of government from Rutgers University, who served as the program's director for the academic year 1999-2000. An associate professor of history, García holds a joint appointment in the Latino Studies Program. She joined Cornell in January 1999. She was born in Havana but grew up in Miami and Puerto Rico and received her B.A. from Georgetown University and her master's and doctoral degrees in American studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to teaching at Cornell, she taught at Texas A&M University and served as a Fulbright lecturer in American studies at the Polytechnic of Central London at Westminster. She specializes in immigration and ethnic history, Latino communities of the United States, 20th century U.S. social and cultural history and the history of Cuba. In January, García will host a Cornell Adult University trip to Cuba, the first in CAU's history. She is a faculty fellow at the Latino Living Center and adviser to Phi Theta Chi, the new Latina sorority at Cornell, and the Cuban American Students Association.

"Part of our mission is to increase Latino studies' visibility and contribution to the intellectual life of the university," García said. "Latinos are one of the fastest growing populations in the United States and will be the largest 'minority' within a decade or two. We need to inform ourselves about the cultural, political and economic life of this important segment of the population."

Cornell has one of the most diverse Latino communities of any American university, added García, and sharing LSP duties with Brady will go a long way toward uniting the various Latino communities here, she said.

Brady, an assistant professor in English, came to Cornell last year from Indiana University, where she was an assistant professor. Her academic focus has included teaching courses in Chicano studies, race and gender, world literature, women's studies and general American literature. She has a forthcoming book on Chicana literature and space, and her current project is on the relation between the American border and narcotics laws since the end of the 19th century. Brady received a B.A. in English from Arizona State University in 1984, her M.A. in English from the University of California-Los Angeles in 1993 and a Ph.D. in English from UCLA in 1996.

"We are both very committed to working together in a spirit of friendship, between each other and everyone involved — students, faculty and staff," said Brady. "This is not the two of us imposing our vision of LSP."

Brady said that one of her reasons for accepting the position is that "Cornell has an incredible opportunity in Latino/a studies because of the student population and the caliber of scholars it can attract."

Calling it a new era and a new time for the program, García outlined an agenda of inclusiveness, linking LSP with women's studies, the Africana Studies and Research Center, Latin American and Asian American studies, the Committee on U.S.-Latin American Relations (CUSLAR) and other programs.