Professor of history earns prestigious appointment

By Alec Jennings
University News Service
November 4, 2010

Jesús F. de la Teja, professor and chair of the department of history at Texas State University-San Marcos, has been unanimously selected by Humanities Texas to serve on its board of directors.

Formerly the Texas Council for the Humanities, Humanities Texas is the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It conducts and supports public programs in history, literature, philosophy and other humanities disciplines. De la Teja said he looks forward to serving Humanities Texas as a representative of his discipline.

"I'm honored to be asked. There are people there I highly respect," De la Teja said. "It encourages me that Humanities Texas values the field I represent."

De la Teja's primary areas of research and expertise focus on the northeastern frontier of Spanish colonial Mexico. He said he believes his discipline is especially significant today due to the increasing Hispanic representation in the state and that his study can contribute to the organization's goals of promoting the humanities statewide.

"I believe I bring a perspective on early Texas history that is increasingly relevant to the shifting demographics of the state," De la Teja said.

De la Teja is the author of San Antonio de Béxar: A Community on New Spain’s Northern Frontier (1995), co-author of Texas: Crossroads of North America (2004), a college-level survey of the state’s history and most recently he edited Tejano Leadership in Mexican and Revolutionary Texas (2010). In addition to his research activities he has served as a consultant on development of the Texas State History Museum and serves as book review editor of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly.