College of Letters & Science
After 35 years of brilliant teaching, pathbreaking research, and tireless advocacy for the Chicanx/e & Latinx/e Studies Program, Prof. Benjamin Márquez is retiring. During his years in higher education, he has published no less than five books (two of them award-winning). Among the most notable are The Politics of Patronage: Lawyers, Philanthropy, and the Mexican …
Dr. Nidia Bañuelos and her colleagues from the School of Education, Kyoungjin Jang-Tucci and Dr. Ross Benbow, have created a quantitative measure of Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005) that can be included in student surveys and assessments. Instead of focusing on the problems faced by undergraduates of color, the research seeks to understand what strengths …
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 …
Anthropologist Falina Enriquez was recently named one of 24 winners of the University’s Vilas Associates Competition. The award recognizes new and ongoing research of the highest quality and significance. Recipients are chosen competitively by the divisional Research Committees on the basis of a detailed research proposal. Funds associated with the award will support a two-year …
A recent feature story in the Badger Herald on the relationship between literature and politics of immigration drew on an interview with CLS Director Theresa Delgadillo, a Vilas Distinguished Professor of English and Chicanx/e & Latinx/e Studies. The article noted that fictional stories can shed light on larger truths of immigrant experiences and the realities of …
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 …
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 …