José E. Limón graduated with honors from Roy miller high school (Corpus Christi, Texas) in 1962. After studying for the AA degree (1964) at Del mar college also in Corpus Christi, he then took the BA in philosophy at the University of texas at Austin (1966), where he also received the MA in English (1969), and then the Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology (1978). Professor américo paredes directed his doctoral work. During this period, Limón also assisted paredes in the founding of the center for mexican-american studies at the university of texas at austin. Limón currently serves as director of the center and is also professor of english, mexican-american studies and anthropology at the university. He has also taught at the university of california at santa cruz, the university of texas at san antonio, the colorado college and texas a&m university – corpus christi. His academic interests are varied and include cultural studies, american literature, mexican-american literature, anthropology and literature, us-mexico cultural relations, critical theory, and folklore and popular culture. In 1987-88 he was a fellow at the stanford humanities research center.  The national endowment for the humanities awarded him a research fellowship in 1994. Limón has published on a variety of topics on mexican-americans and cultural studies in a wide range of scholarly journals and in three books. The first, mexican ballads, chicano poems: history and influence in mexican-american social poetry  (university of california press, 1992), received an “honorable mention” award for the university of chicago folklore prize for a “distinguished contribution to folklore scholarship,” while his second book, dancing with the devil: society and cultural poetics in mexican-american south texas  (university of wisconsin press, 1994) was named as the winner of the 1996 american ethnological society senior scholar prize for “a vital and contentious contribution to ethnology.” A new volume, american encounters:  greater mexico, the united states, and the erotics of culture, has recently appeared with beacon press (1998). He has also edited the writings of the late jovita gonzalez de mireles - historian, novelist, poet, folklorist -  in two volumes, caballero: a historical  novel  (texas a&m university press, 1995) and dew on the thorn  (arte publico press, 1997). At present he is at work on an interdisciplinary study of the mexican-american middle class entitled hispanic self- fashioning: the making of a mexican-american middle class identity. Twice nominated for major undergraduate teaching excellence awards, professor Limón has also directed twenty-one phds to completion in english, anthropology or comparative literature with the great majority of these now holding tenure-track positions in major state universities. These include thirteen mexican-americans. Five more such mexican-american phd students are currently in progress under his direction. He has presented many public lectures including colloquia at stanford university, the university of pennsylvania, the university of michigan, bryn mawr college, del mar college, the university of california at berkeley, the university of virginia, the university of chicago and the university of malaga in Spain. In 1998-99 he served as a phi beta kappa visiting scholar lecturing at liberal arts colleges across the nation. Sponsored by the texas commission for the humanities, he has also lectured widely to lay groups across texas. In its september 1999 special issue, texas monthly magazine selected him as one of its annual “twenty most impressive, intriguing, and influential texans.” In the spring of 2000 limon was inducted into the texas institute of letters. That same spring, he was also received a “distinguished alumnus” award from roy miller high school in corpus christi texas.