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 …
CLS Program Faculty member Christopher Saldaña was honored this semester with a Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Academy of Education. The fellowship supports early career scholars working in critical areas of education research. In addition to a monetary award, the fellowship will offer Prof. Saldaña to participate in professional development retreats with distinguished education …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …