CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The University of Illinois System welcomed a Fulbright-García Robles COMEXUS Mexico Studies Chair for the first time during the fall 2025 semester.
This comes after University of Illinois System President Tim Killeen signed a five-year partnership with COMEXUS in fall 2024 to jointly sponsor this Fulbright program and bring distinguished scholars from Mexico to Illinois each spring or fall semester to teach and conduct research on topics related to Mexico.
It was also made possible through the System’s Mexican & Mexican American Students (I-MMÁS, pronounced I-MAS) Initiative.
Francisco Javier Ramírez Treviño, a full-time professor and researcher (Professor-Researcher Titular A) at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM-A) in Mexico, was the inaugural chairholder and taught at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) during the fall 2025 semester.
He holds degrees in Hispanic Literature and Latin American Studies from UNAM and a Ph.D. in Historiography from UAM-A, and his research focuses on the literature of violence, memory, and transitional justice processes in Mexico and Latin America.
While at UIS he taught a graduate seminar titled, “Transitional Justice in Mexico and Latin America: Battles for Truth, Justice and Memory.”
Coming to Illinois
Ramírez Treviño learned about the COMEXUS Fulbright scholarship program when he was trying to decide what to do during his sabbatical.
COMEXUS stands for the Mexico-United States Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange, and the Fulbright-García Robles scholarship for teaching on Mexico issues in the United States was launched in 2016.
The program aims to promote greater knowledge of Mexico and the bilateral relationship in the United States by providing Mexican scholars the chance to teach courses on Mexico at different American universities and institutions.
“My sabbatical year was approaching, and I was thinking about doing something different,” Ramírez Treviño said during an Oct. 29 interview that followed a lecture he gave on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus. “The aim of a sabbatical year is not to have a vacation. Of course you have a right to breathe, absolutely, but you have to do something to reinvent yourself as a teacher and as a researcher.”
He heard and read about COMEXUS, and the opportunities provided to scholars and decided to apply.
It was a very long and complex application process, and he said it was also very demanding, but overall, it was a great task.
“COMEXUS in Mexico helped me find this link at the University of Illinois System particularly the Springfield campus because (Springfield) has a very special interest in history, in public history, and that was a perfect match for me,” he said. “But that was not the whole part of the story. The other part of the story is the I-MMÁS initiative.”
Ramírez Treviño also credited the I-MMÁS initiative in addition to COMEXUS for bringing him to Springfield.
The purpose of I-MMÁS is to increase the recruitment of Mexican and Mexican American students within the University of Illinois System while building a large-scale presence with Mexican academic, research, and private sector institutions.
Killeen launched the initiative in 2021 with the goal of providing life-changing educational opportunities for more students and professionals, and create new, large-scale collaborations to foster innovation that will benefit the people of both Mexico and Illinois.
“It’s very important to foster that relationship. We need to (realize) that the relationship is about persons, not about contracts, documents, and declarations. It’s about people doing important things and that’s vital to remember,” Ramírez Treviño said. “The University of Illinois System is one of the few American universities that has an office in Mexico. There’s a great interest for the university to foster this relationship between Mexico, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans. (I-MMÁS and COMEXUS) are the two most important explanations for my presence here.”
Springfield Steps Up
Elvira de Mejía, I-MMÁS Founder and Director of Institutional Relations-Mexico, said during the interview that UIS was the first of the three institutions in the system to request to host Ramírez Treviño.
“They were amazing,” de Mejía said of the faculty at Springfield who submitted the request to host Ramírez Treviño.“When I told (everyone in the system) about this opportunity, Springfield said yes, and prepared a beautiful document (explaining why they wanted to host Ramírez Treviño) and that’s how everything started. I’m very proud of Springfield, the dean of the history department, and the professors for working together to make this possible.”
Ramírez Treviño emphasized that his experience at UIS was wonderful, and he is delighted and honored to teach in the United States and at UIS.
He also said he is happy to be doing what he calls his responsibility.
“There’s a huge responsibility to all who belong to my country to do something about our past. I am not a social worker, I am not specialized as a human rights lawyer, I am not a journalist, I am not a writer. I am who I am. I am a college professor and a teacher, so I do what I can in the sphere of my daily actions. That’s one of the reasons why I’m doing this,” Ramírez Treviño said. “I am delighted and honored to be here. I am so lucky and committed. And since I am here, I can do something to fulfill my responsibility, my duty to my (country) and our history.”
Analicia Haynes is the storytelling and social media specialist at Illinois International. She can be reached at ahayn2@illinois.edu.