Coalition for Academic Justice

As the University of Arizona is scheduled to begin the 2020-2021 school year on August 24th amidst a global pandemic, the Coalition for Academic Justice at the University of Arizona (CAJUA) has emerged to address their concerns. CAJUA is a coalition of faculty, staff, graduate and professional students fighting for equity,
transparency and representation ​at the University of Arizona ​amidst the Covid-19 crisis.

Dr. Celeste González de Bustamante spoke about the formation of CAJUA and its ongoing work.

They’ve been organizing to push the administration for a plan to return to campus that puts safety above economics, to demand a financial response to the pandemic that preserves jobs and restructures one of the most drastic furlough plans in the country, and to fight for a future of the university that strengthens and supports our connections with the community. This summer they pushed for a historic general faculty vote to ask the administration to delay their pay cut plan and halt the layoffs.

Dr. Celeste González de Bustamante is Associate Professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Arizona and an affiliated faculty member of the UA Center for Latin American Studies. She’s also the Director for the Center for Border & Global Journalism. She received her Ph.D. in history at the University of Arizona. Her research interests include: the history of news media in Mexico, Brazil, and the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. In 2013, the University of Arizona honored her with the title of Distinguished 1885 Scholar. In 2013-2014, Dr. González de Bustamante served as a distinguished visiting professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, where she conducted research on violence and journalism in Mexico. Her work has been published in numerous academic journals. She is the author of “Muy buenas noches,” Mexico, Television and the Cold War (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012), and the co-editor of an anthology about immigration, media, and globalization entitled Arizona Firestorm: Global Immigration Realities, National Media, and Provincial Politics (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2012). She is the current co-head of the Border Journalism Network/La red de periodistas de la frontera, and former head of the International Communication Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Dr. González de Bustamante is an accomplished and sought-after mentor within the School of Journalism and beyond. She has demonstrated a strong commitment to inclusivity and diversity through her leadership, research, and teaching.

Recorded and produced by Amanda Shauger