Projects and
Collaborations
Steinbeck Remixed: Inventing the Californias in Classic Hollywood is a 3-part event exploring representations of California History in John Steinbeck film adaptations. In addition to film trailers, the program draws on John Steinbeck’s rarely seen home movies from his expedition through the Gulf of California. Steinbeck Remixed surveys historical narratives of California as ripe with resources and opportunities, and how these narratives overdetermined our understandings of California. The indoor afternoon panel includes screening trailers and features leading film scholars discussing Steinbeck film adaptations and his home movies. Following the film panel is a dedicated gallery tour by one of the curators of the 2022-2023 MexiCali Biennial exhibit “Land of Milk & Honey.” The day’s program culminates in an outdoor screening of Steinbeck films remixed to a live soundscape by DJs from both Texas and California.
Contact Information The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Arts and Culture
Conceived between collaborators and colleagues on opposite coasts, we proposed sharing and discussing films that tell us something about the U.S. racialization of Latinx peoples. With a knowledge that popular culture constructs, informs, and reflects, Emmanuel Ramos-Barajas and Annette Rodríguez bring together films and filmmakers that offer opportunities for entertainment, education, and critical dissection.
This multi-year institutional initiative supports scholarly research on all aspects of the University of Texas at Austin’s history. This research is grounded in the value of scholarship as a tool of public education to educate our students as well as the general public about our institution’s lesser-known past. Research also guides and supports the development of all our commemoration and contextualization efforts. To help achieve this agenda, faculty have been granted funds to conduct research. Outcomes from these faculty-led studies will be available on this webpage as well as represented in campus commemorative projects.
The Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative supports Latino humanities research projects across the U.S. Ten winning projects of the Crossing Latinidades Collaborative, Cross-institutional and Comparative Research Working Groups in Latino Humanities Studies Grant Competition were announced in 2022 by the University of Illinois Chicago-based initiative, which is funded by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.
In collaboration with Texas residents who have conducted research and maintained invaluable archives, Refusing to Forget is a multifaceted project that seeks to incite public conversations through efforts such as: museum and online exhibits, historical marker unveilings, lectures, and curricular materials for public school teachers. Refusing to Forget has worked with state institutions like The Bullock Texas State History Museum and the Texas Historical Commission, and has been published in national news outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and NBC News, as well as local outlets like The San Antonio Express-News, Austin-American Statesman, and The Houston Chronicle.