Philosophic Dialogues from La Frontera

We're looking forward to what the upcoming academic year will bring and are excited to be creating new public humanities programming.

Dr. Julius Simon

Two months into my tenure with The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP have gone by, and I am happy to share with others via our blog entry about one of the essential elements of our project, viz., the construction of a website to organize and disseminate our novel philosophic and dialogical approach to research in the humanities.  We are proceeding on an already established foundation for the project with our public TV show that already airs on EPCC-TV and KCOS, Philosophic Dialogues from La Frontera, that Dr. Kim Diaz and I co-cohost. We are entering our second year of production and with our work in The Humanities Collaborative, we look forward to expanding the base and the scope of our endeavor. A key element in that expansion is the construction of an independent, stand-alone website to share both the results of our ongoing dialogical research with the public but also to engage students in the dialogical approach to doing research. This means that our website will highlight the foundational philosophic dialogues that Kim Diaz and I have been doing, and will continue to do, as well as incorporate the student-led philosophic dialogues that will be added to the website and direct our visitors to areas in which they might have an interest and want to explore or "research" about.

Our team—Kim, Ashley, Jazmine, Jared, and myself—have begun to create the skeletal shape of the website that will embody the avenues of research into the humanities through multiple, distinctly different renditions of Philosophic Dialogues from La Frontera.

Dr. Kim Diaz

My name is Dr. Kim Diaz. I am a Philosophy Assistant Professor with El Paso Community College (EPCC) at the Mission del Paso campus. I serve as director of the Shadows to Light project for the Philosophic Systems Institute, where I teach philosophy and mindfulness to returning citizens for the United States Department of Justice. Returning citizens are people who have been incarcerated and are reintegrating into our community. I also serve as the EPCC Mindfulness Club advisor and was recently appointed to serve in the board of directors for the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy (SAAP). The SAAP’s mission is to advance scholarship and teaching in the diverse areas of American Philosophy. I work with Dr. Jules Simon (UTEP Department of Philosophy) to cohost the show Philosophic Dialogues from La Frontera, an EPCC-TV/PBS initiative supported by the Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP.

My research is grounded in my experience practicing Latin American Philosophy, specifically the social-political issues that characterize the Latin American experience. My articles have been published in Philosophy in The Contemporary World, Societies Without Borders, The American Philosophical Association Newsletter on Hispanic/Latino Issues in Philosophy, Journal of World Philosophies, and The Pluralist. I have also contributed chapters to An Introduction to Latin American and Latinx Philosophy (edited by Robert E. Sanchez), Pragmatism in the Americas (edited by Gregory F. Pappas), and Mexican Philosophy in the 20th Century: Essential Readings (edited by Carlos A. Sánchez and Robert E. Sanchez). I am a founding member of the Society for Mexican-American Philosophy, the Managing Editor for the Inter-American Journal of Philosophy, and together with Mat Foust, coeditor of the book Philosophy of the Americas Reader: From the Popul Vuh to the Present (Bloomsbury, 2021). Besides being a big nerd, I am a proud Chicana, have lived and worked in India, root for the San Antonio Spurs, love pit bulls, like to knit and crochet, and can stand on my head.

We have been very fortunate in so many ways: First, our producer at EPCC-TV, Ms. Caryl Barquin, thought of the idea of having a philosophy show and asked us to be the guests. As if that wasn’t awesome enough, then The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP awarded the show with the additional opportunity to work with our exceptional student fellows Ashley, Jazmine and Jared. We want to build on our good fortune and share our opportunities with undergraduate students who are also asking the big questions. To this end, we have been working as a team to design a recruitment effort which includes tons of enthusiasm, a flyer, an Instagram page, and a questionnaire to connect with students who would like to dialogue with their college professors about the big questions.

Ashley Trojanowski

Hello! My name is Ashley Trojanowski, and I am focusing my research on the relationship of science and the STEM disciplines to the humanities. One aspect that has initially caught my interest is whether or not students in STEM disciplines drop out more frequently because they lack exposure to humanities disciplines. Because of my deep passion for the sciences, especially chemistry, I am very interested in helping other students to continue their education in the sciences and STEM disciplines but, possibly, with help from the humanities in their educational journeys.

I am currently a biology major at EPCC and witness my peers disappearing more and more as time goes by. It creates a high-pressure atmosphere for the remaining students as some feel like they should give up as well. Although we won’t be able to completely diminish the high drop-out rate, we may be able to lessen it with positive reinforcement and better student morale.

Jazmine Gracia

My name is Jazmine Gracia, and this is my second year in the Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP, as well as my second year at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). My major is English and American Literature with a minor in Humanities, which I hope to utilize to become an English professor while also conducting research about any topic that may interest me.  My second year with The Collaborative will be dedicated to exploring the fundamental practice and effects of dialogue, what it is, and how it is practiced.

As it is my first time delving into the overall subject of philosophical dialogue, my focus is on how the environment influences and impacts the practice and development of dialogue. This will consist of physical spaces but also implement religious and cultural aspects that perhaps will be inspired by abstract ideas while the other could be more tangible. Some spaces I am particularly interested in are the academic setting and the dynamic between student and teacher and the role of the architectural and interior choices, and how either may promote or infringe on dialogue, as in, for example, the arrangement of seating and construction of a classroom.

Furthermore, the religious aspect will also entail how architectural choices can influence dialogue and employ similar techniques involving spatial choices. The cultural aspect, similar to religion, will place emphasis on a subset of individuals within their group interacting with one another. For example, when being confined to a group with a shared mentality, how can complacency be prevented? The language will be a large focal point as well as the earliest development and use of verbal and non-verbal communication.

The intent of my research is to see how something as primordial as dialogue is impacted by outside factors and whether these outside factors suppress the usage and if so, how, and if not, how to encourage it among other spaces. Overall, I am interested in the naturality of dialogue and if it is a subconscious practice, and if so, what suppresses or encourages it.

Jared Mende

My name is Jared Henry Mende. After graduating with my associate’s degree from EPCC in 2021, I transferred  to UTEP to pursue my BA in English and American Literature and Philosophy. I hope to earn graduate degrees in literature and philosophy and have a career teaching in higher education. I’m passionate about the big questions in life and believe that pursuing truth is a joy in itself.

I live in El Paso with my brilliant wife, Bethany, and our two dogs, Duck and Goose. We love to read, drink tea, make art, take naps, and play with our puppies. You might run into us perusing a local used bookstore or studying at the UTEP library.

Language has always fascinated me. Something about language that struck me when I was coming up with possible research projects was that the written and spoken word have aesthetic value. Words have beauty, and this is what makes poetry possible. The study of the aesthetic quality of auditory language is called "phonesthetics."

My goal for this Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP research project is to study the role that phonesthetics plays in a bilingual community. Because words that mean the same thing in different languages have different aesthetic qualities, they have different ‘feels’ to them. In a bilingual environment, how do these phonesthetic qualities affect word and language choice? Additionally, and perhaps more significantly, is that poetry and other forms of aesthetically rich communications convey meaning and value. My research will target this dimension of phonesthetics as well.

Written by Jules Simon, Kim Diaz, Ashley Trojranowski, Jazmine Gracia, and Jared Mende; Faculty and Student Fellows
The Humanities Collaborative at EPCC-UTEP, El Paso Community College and The University of Texas at El Paso