María Eugenia Cázares

Education

MFA in Visual Communication, West Virginia University
MA in Visual Communication, West Virginia University
Undergraduate degree in Graphic Design, Universidad de Monterrey

Biography

She graduated with a degree in Graphic Design from the Universidad de Monterrey in 1983. In 2000 she was awarded a García Robles Fulbright Scholarship and in 2002 she earned a Master’s degree in Arts in Visual Communications from West Virginia University and in 2004 she received a Master in Fine Arts degree in Visual Communications, with honors, also from WVU.

She started as an associate professor in the undergraduate degree program in Graphic Design in 1989, a position she held until 1994. She was an assistant professor from 1997 to 2000. She returned as an assistant professor in 2007. She was the Dean of the DAAD Graduate Programs in 2012. Since 2013, she has been a full-time professor at the Graphic Design Department of the Art, Architecture, and Design of the Universidad de Monterrey. She has also collaborated as a professor in the Master of Graphic Design program.

Her academic work started at UDEM in 1989 and then extended to West Virginia University, where she was an adjunct professor from 2003 to 2006, the Universidad del Istmo, in Guatemala, in 2008 and 2016; and the Universidad Don Bosco, in San Salvador in 2009. In the latter two universities she was a visiting professor in the graduate area.

She has collaborated as a member of the project “Honest Campus” and she has been a member of the University Senate. She has also collaborated in the project to redesign the journal VERBUM.

Her project TALK received the Velma Miller award, granted by the Women’s Studies Division at West Virginia University, in 2002. It promotes the reduction of sexual abuse of university students. Her project “Eleven Emotions in September Eleven” was recognized as one of the best 19 works, from more than 5 thousand works presented by HOW magazine. She received the Outstanding Student Award, in 2003. HOW magazine, an internationally renowned publication, also presented her work and her students’ work with awards in 2010, 2012, and 2013. In 2014, her students’ work received the 1st Runner Up prize at the International Visual Identity Awards. In 2015 she won the Identity Design National award from A! magazine. In 2016, FUBIZNET published a packaging design created by her students. A! DISEÑO magazine awarded a prize to a packaging project developed by her students for the UDEM president’s office in 2017.

She was a visiting speaker at the 2015 Agents of Change International Congress at the Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola, Lima, Peru. She was also invited as a speaker to the 2017 Agents of Change International Congress. In 2007, she was selected by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire to present the talk “A product of Mexico, truly Mexican Taste?” She has been a design consultant for the state government and a member of the Citizens’ Observatory of the government portal of Nuevo León.  

At her initiative the project PARES, Craftsmen and Students Project, was created jointly by the Universidad de Monterrey and the Alfredo Harp Helú Oaxaca Foundation. Its objective was to promote cultural enrichment and learning through collaborative work between students and Oaxacan craftsmen. She has been a volunteer with El Hogar de la Misericordia, designing the catalog commemorating 25 years of art auctions. She has also been a volunteer at the San Judas Sanctuary, participating in the program “weaving hands”.