A pioneering program designed to promote the study of critical issues in Mexico is being launched by the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS) and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
The two-year program, the first of its kind on the East Coast, will combine cutting-edge scholarship in the humanities and social sciences with policy studies on Mexico. The initiative is funded by a $300,000 grant from the Hewlett Foundation, which is being shared by the YCIAS's Council on Latin American Studies and the Smithsonian's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The funding will be used to promote interdisciplinary events, to invite Mexican colleagues to New Haven and Washington, and to support publication of scholarly articles and books. The Hewlett Foundation is encouraging Yale and the Smithsonian to apply for renewed funding in 1999, with the expectation that the project will become a permanent program.
By bringing together decision makers from Mexico and the United States, the program will seek to infuse the discussion of public policy with reflection and analysis, promote research on critical Mexican issues and U.S.-Mexican relations, and disseminate the results of the conversations, meetings and research, according to Gilbert M. Joseph, professor of history and director of the Mellon Fellowship Program in Latin American History at Yale. He and Joseph Tulchin, director of the Latin American Program at the Wilson Center, are principal investigators on the grant.
The initiative comes at a time when Mexico -- by virtue of its location, relative political stability, economic orientation and vast petroleum resources -- is playing an increasingly significant role in world affairs, notes Joseph. In the three years since NAFTA came into being, Mexico and the United States have established unprecedented ties, but because of concerns over narcotics trafficking and undocumented workers, the relationship between the two countries is sometimes tense, he says.
"U.S. relations with Mexico have become so vital that it is imperative that public discussions of Mexican affairs become better informed, and that links between decision makers and academics become more fluid and frequent," explains Joseph.
The Yale professor notes that the University has many connections to Mexico, including distinguished alumni in the Mexican government -- President Ernesto Zedillo '76 M.A., '81 Ph.D., Ambassador Jesús Silva-Herzog '62 M.A. and former Finance Minister Jaime Serra '77 M.A., '79 Ph.D., who is currently a Yale trustee. "Given Yale's strategic ties with Mexico, I am particularly excited by this opportunity to create an important space for the study of Mexican affairs on the eastern corridor," adds Joseph.
Yale has been a leader in Latin American studies for the past three decades. Over 30 faculty members pursue research in the field and the University has one of the nation's largest library collections of Latin Americana. Yale was recently named a Title VI Center in Latin American Studies by the U.S. Department of Education. Since 1995, Yale has been a member of the pioneering New England Consortium of Latin American Studies, together with Brown and the Universities of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
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