Donna Van Bodegraven (Associate Professor of Spanish and chair of the Department of Foreign Languages) successfully defended her thesis for a masters degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Arizona on Dec. 11, 2007.
The thesis is titled “The Border Experience in Mexican and Chicano Theater since 1993.” It studies how five recent plays reflect the situation on the border resulting from the implementation of programs such as Operation Gatekeeper and Operation Hold-the-Line, the impact of NAFTA, the increase in border violence, and the situation of those left behind in Mexico when family members migrate to the north.
Dr. Van Bodegraven’s committee included Dr. Oscar Marti’nez (author of Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands and Troublesome Border, among others), Dr. Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith (human rights activist and author of a recent study on the rise in migrant deaths in the Tucson Border Patrol sector since 1990), and Dr. Ana Perches (professor of Spanish specializing in Mexican-American literature and culture and author of several plays). Also present at the defense was Dr. Van Bodegraven’s academic advisor for her entire history at the U of A, Dr. Rau’l Saba. Dr. Van Bodegraven completed the final coursework for the degree during her spring 2007 sabbatical.