The Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center Board of Directors is pleased to announce the hiring of our new president and CEO, Marisa Cummings. Marisa Cummings (Miakonda) is Umonhon and belongs to the Buffalo Tail Clan of the Sky people as well as the Walker and Springer families. She is a relative to many and is constantly re-learning language, seed keeping, food systems, and re-building relationships with human and non-human relatives.

McKrina Lopez, Latina/o/x minor, was chosen as the Student Lead at the Latino Native American Cultural Center for the 2020-21 academic year.

American studies and JMC Professor Thomas Oates has received an Arts and Humanities Initiative 2020-20201 Grant for his project Crossover: A Cultural History of Playground Basketball. Given by the Office of the Vice President for Research, AHI grants are available for humanities scholarship and work in the creative, visual, and performing arts.

The annual year-end celebration of student success looked a bit different this year. Still, we were very happy to be able to celebrate the successes of our undergraduate and graduate students. Congratulations!

As we complete a semester filled with both unprecedented challenges and creative collaborations in response to those challenges, we are writing to update you with news from the University of Iowa Latina/o Studies Program.

Lisa Ortiz (Sawyer Mellon Post Doctoral Fellow) and Kristy Nabhan-Warren (Religious Studies and GWSS) have both done research on meatpacking plants and the rural Latin/x communities surrounding them. In this conversation, the scholars discuss the role of churches during the COVID-19 outbreak and how workers are using social media to communicate.

Latina/o Studies Minor, Naomi Marroquin, is showcased in the Dare to Discover campaign and has a banner highlighting her research on Washington Street in downtown Iowa City.

Kim Marra, Professor of American Studies and Theatre Arts (with affiliate status in Gender, Women's & Sexuality Studies) has been named a Collegiate Fellow by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.