Thursday, April 9, 2009

Dr. Julie Villegas, University of Washington Honors Program, Associate Director
villegas@u.washington.edu

Dr. Julie Villegas is associate director of the University of Washington Honors Program, a division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs.  Julie did her graduate studies at UC Santa Barbara and at the University of Washington where she earned a PhD in English. As associate director, Julie develops and teaches programs abroad and teaches seminars in the Honors Program at the UW.  She also develops and maintains the Honors Core Curriculum; is in charge of recruitment efforts for the program; and manages day-to-day operations including advising, recruitment and retention, freshmen admissions, peer mentoring, freshmen orientation, and honors residence halls. Dr. Villegas' UW outreach includes departments and faculty across campus, as well as being a member of cross-campus committees such as the Office of Minority Affairs, Office of Global Health, the Office of Global Affairs; Simpson Center Platform's Fellow; member of the Bonderman International Fellowship Committee; Latino Staff and Faculty Committee member, and a member of the UW Borderland's Group and a founding member of the Border Studies Interdisciplinary Group at the UW.

Her dissertation, The Racial Shadow in Twentieth Century American Literature addressed mixed race identity politics and cultural studies related to immigration trends in the United States and Europe.  For the past eight years, she has been the Honors Program study abroad coordinator for programs in Europe, Africa, and South America. In addition, she has directed the Honors in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Rome programs (2006-2011). 

Most recently, winter 2011, she co-directed  the collaborative Honors/College of Education Program "Youth Culture/Contemporary Youth: the making of a new Italy".