What

Toward a Chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations:
A Proposal to the Center for Latin American Studies/School of Foreign Service
John Bailey, Department of Government and School of Foreign Service
(Draft,December 17, 2012)
The Center for Latin American Studies of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service should establish a chair in Mexico-U.S. Relations. As a strategy toward that chair we should start withan Annual Visiting Professorship in Mexico-U.S. Relations. There are at least two models. The first is to invite a distinguished academic specialist on some aspect of Mexico-U.S. Relations to residein the Center for a semester or academic year. The visitor will offer a course in her or his specialization, organize a seminar or conference, and deliver an address on some aspect of the bilateralrelationship. The second casts a broader net to include as the visitor a distinguished journalist, businessperson, human rights advocate, former public official, and the like. The duties would be thesame. We should seek to endow the professorship to ensure that it is woven into the fabric of our long-term commitment to a high-quality program on Latin American studies. With the professorship as abase, we should aspire to endow a chair.
Rationale:
Over the course of my forty-three years at Georgetown University one of my greatest satisfactions is my research and teaching related to Mexico.Through this I have enjoyed teaching outstanding students from the undergraduate to the doctoral levels and have hosted a number of highly-talented colleagues from Mexico’s academic, business, and publicservice communities. As Director of the Mexico Project I led research projects that produced four edited volumes on Mexico-U.S. relations and sponsored dozens of events about Mexico and the bilateralrelationship. As part of my public outreach I contribute a bi-weekly op-ed to El Universal, Mexico’s largest-circulation daily newspaper. I believe that Georgetown is seen in Mexico as a center for...