Celeste González de Bustamante
After 19 years with the University of Arizona School of Journalism, Professor Celeste González de Bustamante became associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion at the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin in fall 2022.
At UA, Dr. González de Bustamante served as director of the Center for Border and Global Journalism. She held a dual courtesy appointment with the UA Center for Latin American Studies and is an affiliated faculty member of the Department of History, Mexican American Studies Department and of the Graduate Programs in Human Rights Practice. She held the title of UA Distinguished 1885 Scholar. Before going into academia, she worked for 15 years as a journalist in commercial and public television.
Leadership
As a proven leader and advocate for faculty and students, Dr. González de Bustamante served as UA's inaugural Assistant Director of Faculty Initiatives (2017-2019), which included a faculty development and mentoring program that sought to assist and support new faculty at the university, including women and faculty of color. She also participated as a fellow in the highly competitive UA Academic Leadership Program, and in 2021-2022 is participating in the Institute for Diverse Leadership, a national level program sponsored by Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). She is the current chair of the Elected Standing Committee on Research of the AEJMC and is the co-head of the Border Journalism Network/La red de periodistas de la frontera. As an accomplished and sought-after leader and mentor at the University of Arizona and beyond, she is deeply committed to diversity, equity, inclusivity and belonging in academia.
Research
Dr. González de Bustamante’s research has focused on historical and contemporary issues related to media in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Mexico, and other parts of Latin America. Her latest book is Surviving Mexico: Resistance and Resilience Among Journalists in the Twenty-first Century (Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2021). The book examines how in Mexico, one of the most dangerous countries in the world for reporters, journalists have resisted mounting constraints and in the process have been able to strengthen individual and collective levels of resilience. She is author of “Muy buenas noches,” Mexico, Television and the Cold War (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012), and the co-editor of Arizona Firestorm: Global Immigration Realities, National Media, and Provincial Politics (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2012). Her work has been published in top academic journals and in 11 edited scholarly books. Over the past decade, she has presented and delivered more than 85 scholarly presentations, keynote speeches, conference papers, and invited talks around the world.
Teaching
An innovative educator who has been recognized for community-engaged learning, she initiated, developed and implemented the multimedia reporting class, “Reporting in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.” This award-winning experiential class serves as a model for hands-on journalism education. She also has created online courses for the newly launched Studies of Global Media B.A. and M.A. programs, including “Media, Cultures and Societies,” and “Documentary Journalism.” Both of these courses approach the subject from a decolonized, anti-racist perspective. In 2018, as an Agnese Nelms Haury Program in the Environment and Social Justice, and in partnership with the Southwest Folklife Alliance, Dr. González de Bustamante initiated and implemented a high school journalism mentoring program in the dual Arizona-Sonora (Mexico) border community, Ambos Nogales. She also has taught courses in television news writing, reporting and producing.