Mr. Jon Amastae

Board Member, The North American Institute

Jon Amastae received his BA from the University of New Mexico in 1968. From 1968-1970 he served in the Peace Corps in Dominica, West Indies. In 1975 he received his Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Oregon, specializing in phonology, creole languages, and language variation and change.

Since 1975 he has taught and conducted research in linguistics at Pan American University (now the University of Texas-Pan American), La Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia), and The University of Texas at El Paso. He has served as department chair, and now is the Director of the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies, and Director of the Texas Western Press. He has received Fulbright awards in Colombia and Mexico. He directed UTEP’s self-study for renewal of accreditation from SACS. Recently he has been active in university evaluation and accreditation in an inter-American context, consulting with universities and ministries in several countries.

Among his research projects are ones focused on the demography of the El Paso/Cd. Juárez border region, and variation and change in the Spanish of the Northern Mexican and Border regions, and computer modeling of border phenomena using cellular automata techniques. He has received grants from the National Endowment from the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Department of Education, and the National Institutes of Health.

Jon Amastae is Director of the Center for InterAmerican and Border Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso. His recent research has focused on thoe demography of the El Paso/Cd. Juárez border region. He has received grants from the National Endowment from the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the University of Texas Telecampus, and the National Institutes of Health.