The Department of American Studies mourns the passing of our cherished colleague and friend, Dr. Lauren Rabinovitz.

Elizabeth Rodriguez Fielder is an assistant professor in the Department of English and in the Latinx Studies Program. She is a scholar of the 20th and 21st century transnational American literature and culture. She will continue research and writing her manuscript Corporis Fabrica: Encountering the Body through the Book, which seeks out the relationship between the development of anatomy science and moveable books. Rodriguez Fielder argues that their interconnected history has shaped how we understand our bodies.

Jose Fernandez is an assistant professor in the Latinx Studies program. Fernandez’s research interests include American, African American, and Latinx literary histories, Black and Latinx literatures after the 1960s; Latinx intellectual history; and Mexican American literature of the Borderlands. He will conduct archival research at three university library collections in California: the Tomas Rivera Papers at UC-Riverside, the Helena Maria Viramonted Papers at UC-Santa Barbara, and the Norma Alarcon Papers at the Bancroft Library at UC-Berkeley. This work will contribute to a book, A Publisher’s Revolution: Arte Publico Press and the Making of Latinx Literature.

Professor Jorge Guerra has been recognized by the Division of Student Life MISSE program with a Distinguished Educator & Service Award!

Congratulations to LATS faculty Dr. Jose Fernandez on the publication of his new book, "Publishing Latinidad: Latinx Literary and Intellectual Production 1880-1960," from University of Arizona Press.

Jennifer Sterling, associate professor of instruction and the director of undergraduate studies in the Department of American Studies, was selected by the Council on Teaching to receive the 2025 Hubbard-Walder Award for Excellence in Teaching.

American Studies graduate student Laura Carpenter was featured by NPR for her Hobo Archives created with Rod Sykora.

American Studies grad student Glenn Houlihan writes in Little Village about Lost Woods Festival in Cedar Falls, IA. Almost too magical to be true, Lost Woods Festival brought stellar Iowa musicians, cozy furniture and spellbinding vibes in its second year

The CLAS Dissertation Writing Fellowship is awarded annually to 10 graduate students, providing time and funding for the completion of a PhD dissertation. Dongilli’s thesis “Interspecies America: Animal Lives and Reproductive Politics at the Smithsonian National Zoo” examines encounters between human and nonhuman animals at the Smithsonian National Zoo, arguing that zoos mediate U.S. identities, cultures, and environmental futures in which humans and nonhuman bodies interact.

Congratulations to Director of Latina/o/x Studies Rene Rocha on being named a recipient of the 2024 Hubbard-Walder Award for Excellence in Teaching