College of Letters & Science
How do we grapple with uncertainty and a new wave of hostility towards Latinx and Chicanx populations in our current times? While dreaming radically of and for the future is essential work for communities and individuals, analyzing our history can aid and guide us in that dreaming. In the spring of 1974, Chicanx/e students from …
On April 4th, 2026, CLS faculty and students took a field trip to Chicago to see two art exhibits. The first exhibit, titled “Rieles and Raíces,” was co-curated by an alumnus of the CLS Program, Ismael Cuevas (’10). Cuevas invited CLS faculty and students to come for a guided tour of the exhibit at …
Sending you all good wishes in this beautiful Wisconsin spring! Our spring graduation ceremony has buoyed our spirits! Watching nearly 100 students walk across the stage to receive their degrees and certificates in Chicanx/e and Latinx/e Studies (24 majors, 61 certificates) while hundreds of family and friends cheered them on from the audience represents the …
Three scholars deliberated recent and present American movements in “Migration, Resilience, and Community Building in Times of Crisis”, a title Sociologist Dr. Stephanie Canizales acknowledged from the podium. “What can I say to meet this moment,” she asked. Her answer was a question: “How was it?” Canizales has been listening for six years: her research …
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 …