News and Events
Five UTRGV Students Awarded Douglass-O’Connell Scholars Grants
April 30, 2025
Although these students were not selected for the internship itself, their strong applications and commitment to pursuing international experiences earned them individual grants to support their participation in future study abroad opportunities. This recognition demonstrates the talent and determination of UTRGV students.
The Education Abroad team provided guidance throughout the application process, offering one-on-one mentorship and resources to help students prepare competitive submissions. This support reflects ISP’s continual commitment to expanding access to high-impact international education for the UTRGV community.
The Douglass-O’Connell Global Internship honors the legacies of Frederick Douglass and Daniel O’Connell by empowering students to engage in international learning, leadership, and advocacy. ISP celebrates the achievement of these students and reaffirms its dedication to fostering global engagement across UTRGV’s campuses.
"Beyond Trauma"
An International & Interdisciplinary Conference on Imagining Ways to Move beyond a Traumatic Past
Organized by: UTRGV Department of Literatures & Cultural Studies, UTRGV Department Behavioral Sciences, and the University of Lenval in Nice, France.
Location: Nice, France June 9-11, 2025
For more information, click here: Beyond Trauma
International Collaboration Between UTRGV and KIIT in India
Dr. David Anshen, an Associate Professor specializing in film and Marxism in the Department of Literatures and Cultural Studies in the College of Liberal Arts, arrived in Odisha, India in July 2024 after he received an invitation to visit the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT). KIIT, a prestigious non-profit private higher education institution located in the active Eastern city of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, has earned global recognition. It ranks among the top 800 universities worldwide and holds the solid position of #168 among young universities.
The connection between Dr. Anshen and KIIT goes back approximately a year when Dr. Beerendra Pandey, a KIIT Professor and Assistant Dean, reached out to him. Their paths had crossed during their doctoral studies at SUNY at Stony Brook. Recently, Dr. Pandey discovered Dr. Anshen’s book, “Marxist Literary and Cultural Theory,” published by the Indian academic press, Black Swan Orient Press. Impressed by Dr. Anshen’s insights, Dr. Pandey extended an invitation for him to serve as a visiting scholar.
Recognizing the significance of this opportunity and KIIT’s academic standing, the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts granted Dr. Anshen a faculty development leave for the 2024 fall semester. Since his arrival at KIIT, Dr. Anshen has been fully immersed in providing educational advice and consultancy to enrich KIIT’s academic programs. He is teaching a graduate-level course in film and literary theory, actively collaborating with fellow faculty members on joint publications and sharing his passion for cinema, assisting in the establishment of centers for Comparative Literature and Writing, conducting seminars in Cultural Studies and Literary Theory, and leading a series of talks at the Centre for Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature.
Dr. Anshen comments how much he has learned about “the value of international relations.” He asserts that in the West, we rarely learn “about the 3,000 years or more of ancient to modern history, literature, culture, politics, philosophy, and [the] nature of life for millions of people.” At the same time, as well as emphasizing global differences, his time in India, he says, underscores that everywhere the consequences of capitalism “remain alarmingly similar.” Dr. Anshen states that “the administration here remains committed to interchanges of all kinds and are willing to help financially.” Dr. Jaime Ortiz, UTRGV’s Chief Global Officer, and a Fulbright U.S. Scholar to India himself, stresses “the importance for UTRGV to set foot developing meaningful institutional collaborations in the most populous country and the 5th largest economy. Simply stated, the social, legal, economic, political and technological dimensions India offers to the world are too fundamental for our students and faculty not to learn about.”
2023-2024 International Study Programs Faculty Award
July 10, 2024
UTRGV’s Office of International Study Programs (GA) has awarded the first annual International Study Programs Faculty Award (GAFA). GA has introduced this accolade to both acknowledge and increase faculty contributions to campus internationalization. GA is committed to making UTRGV the leader in global education and research in South Texas. The GAFA is a testament to this vision, celebrating faculty who have demonstrated exceptional global initiatives in teaching, research, and service.
The International Study Programs Advisory Committee did an excellent job in identifying Dr. Vega as the “ mover and shaker” among the UTRGV faculty helping International Study Programs to move the needle towards a true campus internationalization said Dr. Jaime Ortíz.
Dr. Rosalynn Vega, an Associate Professor of Anthropology who has been part of the UTRGV faculty since 2016, was selected as the recipient of the 2023-2024 GAFA. Dr. Vega’s academic journey includes Visiting Scholar positions at the Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (CIESAS), the School of Medicine at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and the Universidad de Guanajuato.
Dr. Vega’s research explores humanized birth, intersectional racializing processes, citizenship, healthcare corruption, narco culture, and medical migration in Mexico and the US-Mexico borderlands. Her more recent scholarship applies a science, technology, and society (STS) lens to syndemics, epigenetics, the microbiome, and mitochondria. Her work has been published in English, Spanish, and Portuguese in the United States, Latin America, Asia, and Europe. Proud of the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) faculty, Dr. José Dávila-Montes, CLA Dean stated that “Dr. Rosalynn Vega’s comprehensive scholarship is exemplary of the holistic and multicultural approaches to knowledge that our contemporary, globalized world requires.”
Expressing her sentiments on being the inaugural recipient of the GAFA, Dr. Vega shared, “Receiving this award is both an honor and a delightful surprise. I hadn’t envisioned this recognition, but upon seeing the GAFA announcement, I realized it aligned perfectly with my academic pursuits since graduate school.” Dr. Vega advocates for a global mindset and the decolonization of academic disciplines within the UTRGV community.
Featured Student: Study Abroad in Italy May Minimester 2024
June 21, 2024
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UTRGV Latino Theater Initiative & the PUCPR Theater Department weeklong collaboration
May 15, 2024
UTRGV Theater faculty, Dr. Eric Wiley and Professor Miguel Salazar, travelled to Puerto Rico in March to collaborate with Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico (PUCPR) Department of Theater. They traveled with eleven students to meet with theatre faculty and students from the host institution as well as with administrators, to further build a relationship between the schools' theatre programs and facilitate future in-depth student and faculty exchanges.
Dr. Joel Pagán, Provost Fellow in the Office of International Study Programs worked closely with Dr. Joel Vélez, Executive Director of the PUCPR Office of International Relations to coordinate the five-day visit. These activities were possible through a MOU signed between UTRGV and the PUCPR in September 2022.
During their stay, the UTRGV students, who are all members of the Latino Theatre Initiatives ensemble, performed an original play in Spanish entitled Ni De Aquí, Ni De Allá: A Través Del Valle, for the PUCPR theatre community. Meanwhile, for three nights in a row, the UTRGV students watched dozens of local theatre students compete in an island-wide competition in San Juan called " Combate Teatral." "It was an exhilarating and inspiring display of Puerto Rican theatre, dance and music," said Dr. Wiley, " and we were thrilled to cheer on PUCPR and watch as they gave outstanding performances on the way to winning second place in the competition." "We hope to return for further collaboration and to welcome a PUCPR theatre group here in the RGV," added Wiley.
Institute of International Education (IIE) selects UTRGV to receive IIE Passport Project Grant
April 22, 2024
UTRGV and King Abdulaziz University Collaborate on Groundbreaking Ovarian Cancer Biomarker Research
April 4, 2024
Exciting collaboration between The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuenca, and the Universidad de Cuenca in Ecuador
March 5, 2024
Exciting collaboration between The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani
February 2024
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