Center for Greater Southwestern Studies Expands Educational Horizons

One of UTA Libraries' educational partners is The Center for Greater Southwestern Studies. The Center works to expand educational opportunities for students, faculty members, library patrons, and the public as they seek to learn more about the history of the Southwest. 

Dr. Sam Haynes, Center Director, stated that the Center works to promote interest in learning about the Southwest through public events such as book talks, aiding researchers in their work, and digitizing information held at UTA Libraries so that it can be viewed online by a global audience. One of these digital humanities projects is a website about the U.S.-Mexico War called "A Continent Divided." 

"In the past, if you wanted to view the U.S.-Mexico War collection in Special Collections Department at the library, you would have to make a trip to Arlington, stay in a hotel, and go there during their regular office hours. Now you can do it from anywhere in the world," Dr. Haynes said. "The more you digitize your holdings, the easier it is for scholars doing research." 

The "Continent Divided" website uses information contained within "The Mexican American War of 1846-1848" collection that is kept in the Special Collections Department at the UTA Central Library. Some items within the collection include government documents, cartographic materials and newspapers. 

A few topics on the website are The Road to War, The War in the West, South and At Sea, The War at Home, and The Occupation and Aftermath. 

Haynes stated it is not just people conducting scholarly research accessing these websites but also high school and college students and the public. It is estimated that the "A Continent Divided" website had more than 100,000 page views in 2022. 

While providing these historical resources online to the public, The Center for Greater Southwestern Studies works to create events that will bring people from outside the university to campus. A public outreach event The Center is hosting in April tells the story of the LGBTQ+ community and the American West. 

The Center for Greater Southwestern Studies is working to become a resource for educators. They are developing lesson plans related to the digital humanities projects they are working on, such as the U.S.-Mexico War and Texas history. The Center is also looking to host workshops again for teachers as they have done in the past. 

Throughout its history, The Center has collaborated with various organizations, such as The Center for Mexican American Studies, The African History Museum in Dallas, and the UTA College of Liberal Arts, on previous projects. 

To learn more about The Center for Greater Southwestern Studies, visit its website at www.uta.edu/academics/schools-colleges/liberal-arts/departments/southwestern-studies. 

People can view The Center's digital humanities projects can be online. "A Continent Divided: The U.S. – Mexico War viewed at https://library.uta.edu/usmexicowar/index.php.  

The second project, "Border Land: The Struggle for Texas, 1820-1879," can be viewed at https://library.uta.edu/borderland.