CLA Research, Labs and Centers

The Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools (CHAPS) Program is a consortium of UTRGV faculty, lecturers, and staff who work locally and have embraced the teacher/scholar model in academe wherein scholarly enquiry is intertwined with K-17 education and community engagement.

The Center for Community Resilience Research Innovation and Advocacy (CCRRIA) is an Organized Research Unit under the Program of Public Affairs and Security Studies in the College of Liberal Arts at UTRGV in collaboration with UTRGV’s Department of Sociology and the Texas Epidemic and Public Health Institute (TEPHI).

PUENTES is a research based grant that aims to improve student success at UTRGV through culturally sustaining pedagogy in the classroom, culturally responsive praxis in student services, the expansion of ethnic studies, and community involvement in assisting parents of college students in gaining a better understanding of college culture expectations.

The Center for Collaboration and Ethics promotes and facilitates transdisciplinary projects relevant to the Valley. The Center serves as a hub, bringing together different disciplines within academia as well as different stakeholders and groups from the wider community around shared ethical concerns. The Center also pursues projects which help various local communities develop their own capacities to address ethical issues. In this way, the center contributes to UTRGV’s aim of serving as an anchor institution in the Valley.

The Center for Survey Research and Policy Analysis at UTRGV is a service center providing applied research, technical assistance, and consulting services to local and state agencies, non-profit organizations, and private business associations, as well as to the UTRGV community. The Center's capabilities include survey design and administration, public opinion polling, data collection and analysis, program evaluation, needs assessment, technical assistance and policy analysis.

Drawing upon a broad coalition of interested parties, this community-based project has designed a virtual “tour” in the form of a map/guide/brochure and associated web page and pod casts that provide a conceptual “walk” through the history of the Civil War in South Texas.