Publication Date

7-29-2025

Abstract

Meaningful community engagement is a challenge for local governments without a thorough understanding of constituents’ histories and their relationship with City government. This dissertation investigates the City of Austin’s (COA) Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) in Austin, Texas, to understand how this culture and arts institution engages with and is influenced by its patrons. This study analyzes the role of the MACC’s community of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991)—an evolving group of educators, activists, artists, and COA staff—in shaping public policy and educational programming as well as creating places of belonging for marginalized people in the city. I show how the community of practice developed a set of practices to create and sustain their communities while passing on these resources to new generations of the group. This study exemplifies how communities of practice within cultural institutions can amplify cultural citizenship (Rosaldo 1994).

Keywords

cultural citizenship, community of practice, Mexican American studies, art education, borderlands, ethnography

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Anthropology

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Anthropology

First Committee Member (Chair)

Catherine Rhodes

Second Committee Member

Michael L. Trujillo

Third Committee Member

Tryphenia Peele-Eady

Fourth Committee Member

Ben Chappell

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