University of Wisconsin–Madison

Category: Fall 2025 Faculty/Staff Updates

Revel Sims is Promoted to Associate Professor

CLS core faculty member Revel Sims received word this Fall that he was promoted to Associate Professor. Prof. Sims began teaching for the CLS Program in 2016. His research on how the structures of urban property and housing markets shape and constrain urban planning and policy—particularly in their impacts on lower-income communities and communities of …

Diana Leon-Boys Helps Mattel Create “American Girl” Raquel Reyes

Professor Diana Leon-Boys recently collaborated with Mattel/American Girl in the creation of Raquel Reyes, the 2026 American Girl of the Year. The doll is Mexican American, and the Mattel website describes her as “a paleta maker, pickleball player, dolphin saver, and dance-party DJ” and outlines an intriguing backstory. As part of the team of advisors, Prof. …

Mariana Pacheco Helps Bilingual Youth Find their Voices

Professor Mariana Pacheco and two collaborators published “Re-imagining social futures: Bi/multilingual youths’ sociocritical literacies” in the July 2025 issue of the Journal of Literacy Research. The paper focuses on a summer writing program that Pacheco and her colleagues called GANAS (an acronym using a word that means “desire” or “motivation” in Spanish) for bi/multilingual youth, …

Alfonso Morales Contributes to Artificial Intelligence Research, Helps Farmers Markets

Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor Alfonso Morales has finished a successful run as chair of the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture, but he’s not resting on his laurels. This semester, he has served on the program committee for the NSF funded 2025 Summit on AI leadership. He also made a presentation, and he was responsible …

Marla Ramírez’s Publishes “Banished Citizens,” Receives Bogue Award

For CLS faculty member Marla Ramírez’s, Fall 2025 saw the publication of her highly successful first book and a notable research award from the Department of History. Her book Banished Citizens: A History of the Mexican American Women who Endured Repatriation (Harvard University Press 2025) promises to change the conversation about the expulsion of as …

Armando Ibarra Appointed to Governor’s Council on Migrant Labor

The Chicanx & Latinx Studies Program proudly shares that Professor Armando Ibarra, former CLS Director, has been appointed by Governor Tony Evers to the Wisconsin Governor’s Council on Migrant Labor as a migrant representative. His term runs from November 26, 2025, through July 1, 2026. The Council brings together employer, migrant, and legislative representatives to …

Theresa Delgadillo’s “Geographies of Relation” Receives National and International Acclaim

CLS Director Theresa Delgadillo, who is also a Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor, published Geographies of Relation: Diasporas and Borderlands in the Americas, in September 2024, and since then, the book has earned notable awards and led to significant speaking engagements. In December of 2025, the Modern Language Association awarded the book its sixteenth Prize in United …

Almita Miranda Wins “Nuevas Direcciones” Award from ALLA

CLS Faculty member Almita Miranda won the 2025 “Nuevas Direcciones” award from the Association of Latina/o and Latinx Anthropologists for her work with the ¡Presente! project, which brings UW-Madison researchers and community archivists together with Wisconsin Historical Society through the Wisconsin Latinx History Collective. With support from the National Historic Publications and Records Commission, Prof. …

“Latinx Talk” Selected for OACIP Diamond Open Access Journals Cohort

The open access academic journal, Latinx Talk, co-founded and co-edited by Professor Theresa Delgadillo, has been selected as part of the 2025-2028 cohort of the Open Access Community Investment Program (OACIP) of the Lyrasis network. OACIP mobilizes a national and international consortium of academic and public libraries, academic departments, institutions, research centers, museums, and funding agencies to …

Victor Goldgel-Carballo to Teach Two New Classes

Professor Victor Goldgel-Carballo (Spanish & Portuguese) has developed two exciting new classes, which he will teach next semester. “Introduction to Race in the Americas,” to be taught in English, examines how the experiences of marginalized groups in the U.S. are profoundly intertwined with hemispheric historical processes. In “Decolonial Debates,” to be taught in Spanish, students …