Professor, novelist, poet and scholar, Christopher Carmona, PhD, now adds a new title to an impressive resume: Director of OLLU’s Center for Mexican American Studies and Research (CMASR).

His plans for CMASR include launching an exciting speaker series and helping OLLU implement a bilingual, biliterate, bicultural and binational (B4) initiative. 

The B4 Initiative is a university-wide effort to turn OLLU into a bilingual, bicultural, biliterate and binational Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) through curricular approaches, community engagement, and relevant research initiatives.

“Having a B4 initiative would certainly set us apart from any university in the country because we would be the first to implement it,” said Dr. Carmona, an Associate Professor of Mexican American Studies. “With this initiative the university would embrace its Latino majority student body and make the Spanish languages, as well as Mexican American and Latino cultures, accessible and embraced.”

Before arriving at OLLU in 2022, Dr. Carmona taught at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley and served as Interim Director of the Mexican American Studies Program. 

Dr. Carmona aims to launch a speaker series this fall that coincides with the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. On Tuesday, Sept. 17, two days after the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, the CMASR will host scholars from “Refusing To Forget,” a nonprofit that raises awareness about state sanctioned violence on the Texas-Mexico border between 1910-1920.

Though no date has been set, San Antonio native and U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Santos will also speak at OLLU. “He’s from the West Side of San Antonio,” Dr. Carmona said. “I’m excited.”

The Speaker Series will be held at the CMASR, which is housed in Moye Hall, Room 214, across  from Dr. Carmona’s office. “It is important for students, faculty and community to be exposed to Latinx peoples working in the world and changing it for the better in the various fields, from the sciences to education,” he said. 

An accomplished writer, Carmona is the author of “El Rinche: The Ghost Ranger of the Rio Grande.” Last year, he was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters, which comprises the state’s most recognized and serious writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, journalism and scholarship.