July 8, 2022
We are delighted to announce that Bianet Castellanos has been appointed the next director of the Institute for Advanced Study, effective September 26, 2022.
Dr. Castellanos will succeed Jennifer Gunn, who plans to step down as IAS director this fall after eight years of exceptional leadership to return full-time to her tenured faculty position as History of Medicine Endowed Professor in the Medical School’s Program in the History of Medicine.
“Dr. Castellanos will provide academic and administrative leadership for the IAS as a systemwide center advancing multidisciplinary scholarship and teaching collaborations, aligned with key commitments of the systemwide strategic plan MPact 2025,” said Rachel T. A. Croson, Executive Vice President and Provost. “This appointment is the result of an internal University search process that drew outstanding candidates from across the University system. I want to thank the nine-member search committee, especially chair Dean Lisa German, for their tremendous work, and also extend my thanks to the IAS advisory board and staff for their thoughtful engagement in the hiring process. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Castellanos on her appointment, and again in expressing gratitude to Dr. Gunn for her outstanding leadership that has significantly expanded the Institute’s capacities, scope, and impact.”
Read the full announcement on the EVPP website »
Dr. Castellanos is professor and chair of American studies at the University of Minnesota and Distinguished University Teaching Professor and Scholar of the College of Liberal Arts. She brings broad scholarly and administrative experience advancing interdisciplinary scholarship, teaching, and engagement with diverse communities. She served previously as the department’s director of graduate studies as well as interim chair for the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies. She is an affiliated faculty member in American Indian Studies, Chicano and Latino Studies, the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change, and Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, and serves on the executive and advisory boards for the Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender, and Sexuality. She has contributed to University-wide collaborations advancing institutional priorities in research, public engagement, equity and diversity, and graduate education. Beyond the University she is closely engaged with El Colegio High School, serving as a board member since 2016 and working with students to study the education barriers facing immigrant students in the Twin Cities.
Dr. Castellanos joined the University faculty in 2005 and holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on migration in the Americas and underlying cultural politics of race, gender, nation, and development. She has published several books based on her collaborations over three decades with Maya communities in Mexico and their diasporas in the United States. She teaches courses on Indigenous urbanisms, immigration, tourism, American politics and popular culture, and the U.S.-Mexico border.
Dr. Castellanos has been closely involved with the IAS and its programs. She has been a faculty fellow; served as a member of the IAS advisory board; participated in research and creative collaboratives bridging the sciences, arts, and humanities; and been a mentor for graduate students holding interdisciplinary fellowships through the IAS. She is currently the co-PI for the IAS-CLA Humanities Without Walls 2023 Pre-doctoral Career Diversity Workshop.
“I am excited to take on this position and to build on the amazing legacy of former director Ann Waltner and current director Jennifer Gunn, who did a terrific job of building the IAS into a collaborative, interdisciplinary space where rich conversations can be had across the University,” says Dr. Castellanos. “As the next director of the IAS, I look forward to expanding these collaborations, and I look forward to strengthening the IAS’s profile in terms of community-engaged research and research centered on racial and economic justice. Above all, I am committed to ensuring the IAS plays a central role in building a just University.”
View Bianet Castellanos’s faculty profile »
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Castellanos on her appointment as director. We are energized and looking forward to all the future holds under her leadership.