The graduate Creative Writing program brings talented students together with distinguished poets, playwrights, and novelists. The Teaching English as a Second Language program attracts students from all over the world. The Southwest environment has favorably affected program development in a number of ways, ranging from research activities in water resources, archaeology, and fluvial geomorphology to distinguished programs in Hispanic language, literature, culture, and history. In addition to traditional and innovative programs within departments, there are multidisciplinary research centers within the college, bringing together faculty from various departments. These include the Centers for Asian Studies, Exercise and Sport Research, Hispanic Research, Latin American Studies, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Meteorite Studies, and Solid State Science.
Centers sponsor col-loquia, workshops, conferences, and visiting scholars.
They administer international exchange programs, enhance library holdings and other collections, publish papers and monographs, maintain archives, and employ graduate research assistants. Facilities Strong and nationally funded research facilities, like the Facility for High Resolution Electron Microscopy and the Planetary Geology Laboratory have attained national and international prominence. Important research collections include one of the largest meteorite collections in the world, the holdings of the anthropology archives and museum, the space photography collection, the Herbarium, and extensive library holdings, including important manuscript collections in late 19th-Century British literature and historical documents of the Southwest. Graduate students in all disciplines have access to outstanding computer facilities. Mainframe computing for research is provided free of charge.