Designed by College of Liberal Arts professor Frederick Luis Aldama, the Latinx Pop Lab is a new space on campus for members of the UT community to access resources for having conversations about Latinx and BIPOC culture and enjoying its media and comic creations, beginning Oct. 12 on the fourth floor of Patton Hall.

According to the website, the pop lab “aims to make known to the world that UT Austin is the place for groundbreaking creative, intellectual, and curatorial work” in Latinx media. As an adjunct professor at Ohio State University, Aldama said the diversity in people and culture drew him to Austin.

“UT Austin, if you’re doing anything Latino, Latina, Latinx, is – especially in cultural studies spaces, but really everywhere – it’s the place to be,” Aldama said. “Austin as a city, as a cultural space for the arts, for music, for all of the things that I love, especially coming out of the brown and black communities, it just seemed like a natural fit.”

English senior Veronica Alcantar said although she’s not yet sure what to expect from the pop lab yet, she is excited to see what it brings to campus culture.

“I’m interested in it, I just haven’t had the time to actually look (it) up and figure out exactly what it is,” said Alcantar, who is one of Aldama’s students.

In Aldama’s classes, students conversationally dissect pieces of entertainment media including movies and comics, English junior Kirsten Padilla said. She added that her experiences in class excite her for what this project could be.

“I think Professor Aldama does a great job of exploring the intersections between otherness and whiteness, and that exploration helps me open my eyes to like what traditional media has done to everyone on the wide scale,” Padilla said.

The Latinx Pop Lab will offer many events over the year in addition to one large event in March called the BIPOC Pop, Aldama said. This annual event brings together UT creatives, scholars and industry leaders working in the media arts to focus on strengthening the POC community. 

“We’re going to have a podcast happy hour, so students can drop in, talk about whatever’s going on in the media,” Aldama said. “I’ll have these kinds of more micro-events where we’re bringing in scholars and creatives from around the country to brainstorm ideas but also to create comics.”

Aldama said the next step for the Latinx Pop Lab is to get all of the materials needed to have it ready for the ribbon-cutting ceremony, but supply chain issues have made this difficult for the Latinx Pop Lab team.

“We think it’s done or about to get done, and then we hear that there’s a delay,” Aldama said. “I’m hopeful that it’ll (ribbon cutting) be the middle of October.”

Aldama said the goal of the Latinx Pop Lab is to provide a space, unlike a classroom, with no expectations where everyone can enjoy art, its creation process and the culture it embodies.

“Students on campus, faculty on campus (know) that this space is for them to come, to explore and to generate new knowledge and stories together, but also a bridge to our community,” Aldama said.