College of Liberal Arts delegation in Juárez
A delegation from the UTEP College of Liberal Arts, led by Dean Denis O’Hearn, held a series of meetings in Juarez on Thursday, February 28. They toured the campuses of El Colegio de Chihuahua and Universidad Autónomo de Ciudad Juárez (UACJ). Highlights of the meetings included discussions with Dr. Servando Pineda Jaimes, Jefe del Departamento de Ciencias Sociales at UACJ, and Mtro. Alonso Morales Muñoz, Director of the Instituto de Ciencias Socialies y Administración of UACJ. Apart from Dean O’Hearn, the UTEP delegation included Dr. Irasema Coronado of the Political Science Department and Dr. Bilge Firat of the Department of Anthropology and Sociology.
During a discussion of possible cooperation between UTEP and UACJ, the delegations spoke at some length about faculty exchanges and other forms of cooperation that existed between the two universities before violence broke out in Juárez in 2007. Both sides agreed that they would apply new energies toward re-establishing these ties and creating news forms of cooperation.
“Many of our faculty stopped going from El Paso to Juárez because of safety concerns, but as these receded they never started going back again,” said Dean O’Hearn. “We are committed to going back because these are our neighbors and colleagues. We just have to start doing it, and then others will follow. Our goal is to make the walls between us as invisible as possible.”
Academics from both delegations planned to outline and implement a process that will lead to new memorandums of agreement and new forms of cooperation.
After the meeting, Dean O’Hearn, delivered a lecture to entitled, “Muros y Ciudades Divididas: La experiencia y lecciones de Belfast.” In the lecture to a packed auditorium, he outlined similarities and differences in the patterns and consequences of walls in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and El Paso/Juarez. Among the themes he addressed were the blight that grew up along the walls in Belfast, the high incidence of post-traumatic stress syndrome among residents close to the walls, and the sense of longing among divided residents. He concluded by noting how hard walls are to bring down once they have been erected. In Belfast, it has been two decades since the end to conflict yet very few of the walls, known as “Peace Lines”, have been removed.
“This makes it even more important that we work to stop walls going up in the first place, as well as creating the conditions in which we can bring down the walls that are already there,” he said.