Dávila-Montes brings decades-long legacy experiences and innovations to key leadership position


  Friday, January 17, 2025
  Announcements, Around Campus

By News and Media Relations

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – JAN. 17, 2025 – Dr. Jose Dávila-Montes, professor of Translation and Interpreting in the UTRGV Department of Writing and Language Studies, has been named dean of the College of Liberal Arts, effective Jan.1.

Dávila-Montes has been at UTRGV and legacy institution UT Brownsville since 2005 and has served as interim dean of Liberal Arts since June 2024.

He holds bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Translation and Cross-Cultural Studies from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, as well as an MA in Spanish Literature from the State University of New York at Binghamton

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Dr. Jose Dávila-Montes has been named dean of the College of Liberal Arts at UTRGV, effective January 1, after serving as interim dean since June 2024. (Courtesy Photo)

Including Barcelona and SUNY Binghamton, his broad range of educational and geographic experiences include Dublin City University in Ireland, and Toyo University in Tokyo, Japan. 

“I am honored to have the opportunity to continue the great educational and cultural work that the College of Liberal Arts at UTRGV and its legacy institutions have brought here for decades,” Dávila-Montes said. “Ours is a wonderful bicultural, bilingual region in which the study of the social sciences and the humanities is a true engine for change – not just in our area, but beyond – through empowering our community in the understanding of modern-day challenges, and in the search for solutions, individual success and collective well-being.

“We have so many great things to harness and put to work for the future, institutionally and locally,” he said. “This is an exciting time to be a part of UTRGV’s growth, and I look forward to working with our impressive team of faculty and administrators to bring our college and our students to the next level, all in the framework of a top-tier research university.”

Dr. Luis H. Zayas, UTRGV provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, said Dávila-Montes has a distinguished pedigree of innovation that will be of great benefit to the university and, most especially, the students.   

“UTRGV is truly fortunate to have Dr. Dávila-Montes and his vast experience as part of its leadership team,” Zayas said. “He has been in the Valley for almost two decades and adds institutional knowledge to his deep-rooted interest in language and education. We look forward to seeing where his vision for growth and development will lead us.”

Dávila-Montes created the predecessor to UTRGV’s current Translation and Interpreting Office in 2005. He also founded the first full-fledged Bachelor of Arts program in Spanish Translation and Interpreting in Texas in 2009 at UT Brownsville, and in 2010 at UTB he established the country’s first fully online MA program in Spanish Translation and Interpreting, which has been recognized as the top program of its kind in the country by OnlineSchoolsReport.com.

He is the author or co-author of 20 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, or books on translation studies, translation pedagogy, and Spanish contemporary literature and culture. His most current research interest centers on the neuroscience of rhetoric and its impact in the translation of persuasive texts.



ABOUT UTRGV

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.

UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.