SMAP 2025 Summer Institute

From June 6 to June 8, 2025, the Society for Mexican American Philosophy (SMAP) hosted its first biannual summer institute at the University of Portland. The motivation behind the SMAP Summer Institute was twofold. First, the SMAP Executive Board-consisting of Alejandro Santana, President; Manuela Alejandra Gomez, Vice President; Rocio Mercedes Alvarez, Secretary; and José Jorge Mendoza, Treasurer-recognized the need to provide a venue for practitioners of Mexican American philosophy, where early career individuals could present and receive feedback on their work from an audience already familiar with and invested in Mexican American philosophy. The SMAP Executive Board also felt that while there are programs already in place that directly or indirectly help Mexican Americans get into and succeed in philosophy graduate programs (e.g., PIKSI and Rutgers Summer Institute for Diversity in Philosophy), there are few, if any, programs that help Mexican Americans as they leave graduate school and prepare to enter the academic job market or after they have landed a job help them navigate the promotion process (e.g., get tenure). So a second aim of the SMAP Summer Institute is to connect early career philosophers both with each other and with potential mentors who can help them with professional development by offering advice, letting them know about opportunities, both formal and informal, that could help them with their careers, and perhaps in the future write tenure and promotion.

The SMAP Summer Institute 2025 brought together scholars, students, and community members for a three-day gathering celebrating ten years of Encuentros and ongoing engagement in Mexican American philosophy. Hosted by the Society for Mexican American Philosophy, the institute created a vibrant space for dialogue, scholarship, and community centered on philosophical questions rooted in the Mexican American and Latin American experience.

The event featured keynote speaker David Carrasco, who delivered a talk titled Waiting for the Dawn: Finding Aztlán in the Mirror of Philosophy. His keynote set the tone for a program that explored themes of identity, social justice, citizenship, and Indigenous philosophies through panels, paper presentations, and interactive workshops. Participants also engaged with contemporary research on Mexican philosophy and its intersections with broader philosophical traditions.

Throughout the institute, attendees exchanged ideas, built meaningful connections, and contributed to an expanding conversation about the role of Mexican American thought within philosophy. The gathering highlighted both the intellectual depth of the field and the growing community dedicated to advancing it.

The event was made possible through the generous support of the Ethnic Studies Program and its Director Amy Ongiri, the Indigenous Peoples Project Fund donors Bill and Karla Cloran, the Hellenic Studies Program and its funders E. John Rumpakis and Cleo Rumpakis, the Dundon Berchtold Institute, the Garaventa Center for Catholic Intellectual Life and American Culture, and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Portland.

“What we experienced during the SMAP Summer Institute was nothing short of historic. It was a gathering of Mexican American philosophers whose work is actively redefining what philosophy is, who it is for, and why it matters.”

-Jesus Raya and Grecia Sánchez

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Program schedule and brochure for the Society for Mexican American Philosophy Summer Institute 2025.

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