Sanchez Lecture Series Eyes Cabeza de Vaca Monday

Take a journey across America at the first installment of the Texas A&M International University 2008-2009 A. R. Sánchez, Sr. Distinguished Lecture Series Monday, Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. in the TAMIU Center for the Fine and Performing Arts Recital Hall.

This event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Andrés Reséndez brings the first European explorers of the American Southeast and Southwest and northern México back to Texas with his lecture, “The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca: The Extraordinary Tale of a Shipwrecked Spaniard Who Walked Across America in the 16th Century.”
Cabeza De Vaca and three others survived a disastrous expedition to Florida and in the course of eight years, crossed the entire North American continent describing natives and lands that were previously unknown to Europeans.

Dr. Reséndez, associate professor of history, University of California at Davis, wrote about the castaways’ adventure in his recently published book, “A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca” (2007).

His main research interests revolve around how people construct their ethnic and national identities in North American and the ways in which these identities intersect with state power, economic change, biology, language and other phenomena.

Reséndez writes review essays and serves as referee for numerous publications including Journal of American History and American Historical Review. He has also served as a consultant for National Geographic and has appeared on PBS and Texas Public Radio.

He received the 2008-2009 Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies for Finland, the 2006-2007 University of California, Davis Research Award, the 2002-2004 UCMexus Collaborative Grand and the 2001-2002 UC-Davis Research Award.

Reséndez earned his Ph.D. and Master of Arts in history from the University of Chicago and his Bachelor of Arts in international relations from El Colegio de México, Mexico City.

Conceived by A. R. Sánchez Jr., the A. R. Sánchez, Sr. Distinguished Lecture Series has attracted national and internationally known scholars to TAMIU. Lecturers have ranged from Nobel laureates and prominent political figures to some of the most gifted world scientists, award-winning authors and artists.

For more information, contact the College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Dean, at 326.2460 or visit offices in the Lamar Bruni Vergara Science Center, room 301.

A downloadable Lecture Series brochure is available here. (PDF)

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu