College of Letters & Science
CLS affiliate faculty member Alfonso Morales shared his expertise on urban markets with the online news outlet Madison365 late this semester, providing perspective on the approaching debut of the Madison Public Market at 202 North First Street. A much-awaited addition to the commercial landscape in Madison, the Public Market is a city-sponsored nonprofit intended to create …
The University has included CLS certificate and Racine native Roselyn Pacheco in a list of some notable Spring 2026 graduates. Pacheco says that coming to UW–Madison as a first-generation Latina freshman “meant stepping into spaces I wasn’t always sure I belonged in.” She struggled her first year on campus but soon realized that “the beauty …
CLS affiliate and budgeted faculty are prominent among those recently honored by the University with Vilas Awards. These include Aurora Santiago Ortiz (CLS/Gender & Women’s Studies) and Christopher Saldaña (Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis), who received Vilas Early Career Investigator Awards, and Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, (History), who received the Vilas Faculty Mid-Career Investigator Award. Both awards …
The CLS Program is delighted to announce that juniors Xochitl Ortega-Mendez (’27) and Prisila Balderas-Rascon (’27) have been awarded this year’s Jesús Salas Academic Activist Scholarships, and Ashley Gorostieta (’27) and Kalani Rodríguez-Jiménez received Somos Student Professional Development Awards. A Political Science/International Relations major, Xochitl is pursuing the certificate in Chicanx/e & Latinx/e Studies. Originally from Milwaukee, she …
Prof. Rubén Medina was invited to the Festival “Poesía en Abril,” sponsored by DePaul University, the Instituto Cervantes, and Casa Michoacán in Chicago, from April 23 to 26. He was also invited to the Feria del Libro de Chicago, at the University of Chicago, from May 7-9. Finally, he curated the Exhibit “Infrarealism: the Permanent …
CLS faculty member Marla Ramírez’s Banished Citizens: A History of the Mexican American Women who Endured Repatriation continues to win awards and inspire acclaim from many different corners. The book chronicles the expulsion of nearly one million people of Mexican descent between 1921 and 1944, more than 60 percent of whom were U.S. Citizens. Ramírez …
Marla A. Ramírez’s Banished Citizens: A History of the Mexican American Women who Endured Repatriation (Harvard University Press, 2025) continues to reach new audiences and win prestigious awards. Recently, the Organization of American Historians (OAH) recognized Banished Citizens with the Mary Nickliss Prize in U.S. Women’s and Gender History, which honors path-breaking books that challenge and/or change …
Suppose you’re a non-Latine actor tasked with playing a Latine character appropriately. Or suppose you’re a Latine actor asked to draw on your heritage for a role, and your training hasn’t prepared you to do that. What do you do? Micha Espinosa, a Professor in Directing with the Theater and Drama department and a CLS …
Recent reporting from the New York Times and others has cast light on extremely concerning reports of sexual assault, sexual abuse and sexual harassment perpetrated by Chicano union and civil rights leader César Chávez toward his co-leader Dolores Huerta, Ana Murguia and Debra Rojas in their girlhood, and other women in the farmworker movement. As …
In the wake of the New York Times story that revealed reports of sexual assault, abuse, and harassment by César Chávez, CLS faculty member Armando Ibarra is helping press outlets understand the story’s impact and community responses. In an interview with the Associated Press, Prof. Ibarra noted that the UFW’s 1960s-era victories made the organization …