The Library of Congress American Folklife Center has selected a Wichita State project
focusing on the social, cultural and food based LatinX celebrations in Dodge City,
Liberal and Garden City, Kansas. Rocio del Aguila is the project director. Other contributors
include Enrique Navarro, also of Spanish, and Jay Price, of History.
Dinorah Azpuru published an analysis article in the Washington Post about the Summit
of the Americas and the opinion of citizens of the Western Hemisphere about the United
States.
The digital exhibit Somos de Wichita has been awarded an honorable mention for Best Public Project by LASA's Archives,
Libraries and Digital Scholarship Section.
Edil Torres Rivera has been elected to serve as the American Counseling Association’s
president-elect beginning July 1, 2022. He is the first Latinx male and the first
Puerto Rican to be ACA president.
Edil Torres Rivera gave a talk on how decolonization and critical counciousness can
inform curriculum. His presentation was part of WSU´s Psychology Department Colloquium
Series.
Spanish students and faculty have been engaging with Spanish-speaking patients and
their family members, interpreters, and health care providers to discuss and document
challenges in healthcare for Spanish speakers.
As part of the Perspectives on the Pandemic Series, Dinorah Azpuru will present on the effects of COVID-19 on politics, and more concretely
on how, in certain countries, it has impacted democracy in a negative way.
Jay Price of History and Enrique Navarro of Spanish, along with undergraduate and
graduate students, are collecting family photos to document Wichita’s Latino history.
A selection of those photographs can be seen in this virtual exhibit.
Edil Torres Rivera gave a speech to graduate students at the University Carlos Albizu
in Puerto Rico. The talk was about reviewing different indigenous and decolonizing
research approaches to create critical researchers.
Edil Torres Rivera published a co-edited book on liberation psychology, a discipline that uses psychological approaches to understand and address oppression among individuals
and groups.
Dinorah Azpuru was one of four panelists in a digital program in one of Mexico's most
prominent news outlets, Aristegui Noticias. It is widely transmitted to Spanish speaking countries.
Dinorah Azpuru was featured in the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Spring 2020 Newsletter. The article highlights her collaborations with The Washington Post and El País, a Spanish newspaper that also circulates widely in Latin America.
Rocío del Águila and Enrique Navarro discussed their documentary film "Cocin(ando) Wichita" at the Ad Astra Film Studies Conference. This conference features regional and local
documentary films.
Noell Birondo received the American Philosophical Association (APA) Essay Prize in Latin American Thought for his paper “The Virtues of Mestizaje: Lessons from Las Casas on Aztec Human Sacrifice.”
The documentary “Cocin(ando) Wichita,” which examines immigration and food in Wichita’s Hispanic community, premiered
at Tallgrass Film Festival. Made possible by a grant awarded by Kansas Humanities,
the film was produced and directed by Rocio del Aguila. Enrique Navarro served as
the co-producer and creative director. Several Spanish graduate and undergraduate
students collaborated in the screenplay and captions.
Crystal Dozier was featured in the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Fall 2019 Newsletter. In the article she talks about how foodways and cooking technologies
are filled with cultural meaning.
Rocío del Águila received WSU's Phenomenal Women Award, which recognizes women for their accomplishments and contributions to our community through
their scholarship, activism and commitment to excellence.
Honors student Sierra Bauman presented her research on the history of philosophy and
the concept of “lo Mexicano” at the Moral and Political Philosophy at the Border Conference,
at the University of Texas at El Paso. Bauman’s project grew out of a honors course
taught by Noell Birondo on the Invention of Latin America.
Graduate student Jenny Masias presented her research project “The Immigrants Who Built
Kansas: One Spike at a Time” in the annual statewide KBOR Capitol Graduate Research
Summit (CGRS) event at the Capitol. Masias’ project grew out of a graduate course taught by Enrique Navarro on Latinos
in the US and the Midwest.
