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SFSU Public Affairs Press Release

Published by the Public Affairs Office at San Francisco State University, Diag Center.

#122
Contact: Ted DeAdwyler
phone: 415/338-1665
email: pubcom@sfsu.edu

NATIONALLY KNOWN SCHOLAR ON RACE IN AMERICA CHOSEN AS NEW DEAN OF ETHNIC STUDIES AT S.F. STATE

SAN FRANCISCO ---May 26, 2000 ---Tomas Almaguer, a leading scholar on race in America, has been appointed dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, announced President Robert A. Corrigan and Provost Thomas J. La Belle.

Almaguer, also an authority on Chicano/Latino Studies, is director of the Center for Research and Social Organization and director of Latino/Latina Studies Program, both at the University of Michigan. His appointment is effective July 1.

"Dr. Almaguer is the ideal candidate to lead the College of Ethnic Studies into the new millennium. He is on the cutting edge of scholarly activity in the field of ethnic studies," said La Belle. "His success as an outstanding teacher, prolific scholar and highly-respected administrator has provided him with the broad leadership experience we value."

Almaguer, who replaces the late Phil McGee who died last year, will lead the only College of Ethnic Studies in the country. Housed in the college are the departments of American Indian Studies, Asian American Studies, Black Studies and La Raza Studies.

Almaguer, who last year was awarded the Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship at the University of Michigan for outstanding undergraduate teaching, joined the faculty at the Ann Arbor campus in 1992. In addition to his administrative roles at the university, Almaguer is an associate professor of sociology and American culture there. Previously, he was an associate professor of American Studies at UC Santa Cruz and an assistant professor of sociology at UC Berkeley. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at UC Berkeley and Stanford. Almaguer, author of the book "Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California," has written numerous journal articles on race relations in America.

The new dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at SF State also is a noted scholar on gender and sexuality. Almaguer wrote a pioneering article on the social construction of gay identity among Chicano men, which led to a second book that will soon be published by the University of California Press. The book, tentatively titled "Border Men: Constructions of Gender and Sexuality among Chicano Gay Men," explores the way Latino gay men reconcile their ethnic and sexual identities.

His next book will look at race and nationality among Latinos in the United States.

With his SF State appointment, Almaguer returns to his academic beginnings in the Bay Area. He earned both his master's degree and doctorate in sociology from UC Berkeley. While a graduate student at UC Berkeley in the early 1970s, Almaguer taught in the newly established Department of Ethnic Studies there.

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