Northwestern University

logo

Search Menu

Mary Beltrán

Austin, Texas, United States

Associate Professor, Radio-Television-Film; Former Founding Director, Latino Media Arts & Studies Program, University of Texas at Austin

Biography

Mary Beltrán is an Associate Professor in the Department of Radio-Television-Film and was the founding director of the Latino Media Arts & Studies Program at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Latina/o Stars in U.S. Eyes and the forthcoming Latino TV: A History. Beltrán’s research and teaching is focused on U.S. television and film history, with an emphasis on Latina and Latino representation and authorship, and on racial diversity and the U.S. media industries.

Scholarly beginnings

A research idea

Envisioning possible futures in the field of communication and media studies

Learn more about Prof. Beltrán’s journey

Selected readings

• Beltrán, Mary. Latino TV: A History. NYU Press, 2022.

• Beltrán, Mary. “Representation.” In The Craft of Media Criticism: Media Studies in Practice, edited by Michael Kackman and Mary Celeste Kearney. New York: Routledge, 2018. 97-108.

• Beltrán, Mary. “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness.” Cinema Journal 53:1 (Fall 2013): 75-96.

• Beltrán, Mary. Latina/o Stars in U.S. Eyes: The Making and Meanings of Film & TV Stardom. Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2009.

• Beltrán, Mary. “The Hollywood Latina Body as Site of Social Struggle: Media Constructions of Stardom and Jennifer Lopez’s ‘Cross- over Butt.’” The Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 19:1 (January 2002): 71-86.