Javier Duran
Javier D. Durán, Professor of Spanish and Border Studies, is a specialist in cultural and literary studies along the U.S.-Mexico border. He is a native of the Arizona-Sonora desert region. Dr. Durán, a three time UA alumnus, received his Ph.D. in Hispanic Literatures from Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Arizona, an M.A. in Latin American Studies, and a B.S. in Plant Sciences also from the U of Arizona.Dr. Durán’s areas of teaching and research include U.S.-Mexican border studies, Latin American women writers, Mexican literature and culture, and Chicana/Chicano-Latina/Latino narrative. He has received several research grants from state and federal agencies to conduct research and implement institutional programs during his career. He is the author of the book José Revueltas. Una poética de la disidencia, published by the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico, five co-edited books on Cultural Studies, and numerous articles on literary and cultural themes. He has been editorial collaborator and reviewer for journals such as PMLA, Chasqui, Studies in Twentieth Century Literature, Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies, Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, South Eastern Latin Americanist, and La Palabra y el Hombre. Dr. Durán has taught at Michigan State University, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Colegio de Sonora in Hermosillo, Mexico, as well as Visiting Teaching Fellow at the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico. He holds memberships in the Modern Language Association, National Chicano Studies Association, the Latin American Studies Association, and he has also been an advisor to the Brazilian Association of American Studies. He is one of the founding members of the MLA Discussion Group on Mexican Cultural and Literary Studies and he is past President of the Association for Borderland Studies, the leading international organization in the study of border issues. Dr. Durán is currently working on two book length manuscripts dealing with border literature and culture. The first is entitled Border Voices: Memory and Self-Representation in Contemporary U.S.-Mexico Border Writing, and the second Borders, Aliens and Migrants: Citizenship, Human Rights, and the Bionetwork States. He is also investigating and teaching the connections between globalization, transnational identities and the Mexican and Latin American diasporas. In addition to his administrative and scholarly endeavors, Dr. Duran is a faculty leader. He has participated in numerous college and university committees. Dr. Duran was selected to be in the inaugural class of the UA Academic Leadership Institute. He has also chaired the Committee of Eleven, and currently serves in the Faculty Senate, and in the Strategic Planning and Budget Advisory Committee.