Arturo Madrid is happy to be home. In 1960, when the native
of Tierra Amarilla
took his bachelor’s to California to pursue a Ph.D., he went
with the intention
of returning to his alma mater to teach. It’s taken 44 years,
but he’s finally
made it back. Madrid has been named the Garrey Carruthers
Distinguished Chair
in Honors for the fall semester.
Delighted to be offered the opportunity to teach in the University Honors Program, he said, “I was an undergraduate in 1958, when UNM’s honors program was starting up, and I was always disappointed not to have been chosen to participate in those early classes that were the forerunners of today’s honors seminars.”
“I’m excited to have the opportunity to participate in the honors program now as an instructor.”
His honors seminar, “U.S. Latino/a Artistic and Cultural Expression,” looks at the artistic contributions of the Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban communities in this country and examines the cultural context in which that art is produced.
“We tend to look at New Mexico as the heart of Hispanic culture in the U.S.,” Madrid said, “but the world has changed over the last century, and there are now many Latino populations throughout the country. With my seminar, I want to introduce New Mexico students to a broader range of Latino artistic expressions than they may be familiar with.”
He also teaches an undergraduate class, “Chicano/Latino Autobiography,” for the American Studies and Chicano Studies departments.
Madrid will give a free public lecture, “Of Heretics and Interlopers,” on Wednesday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. in the Dudley Wynn Honors Forum. Refreshments will be served after the lecture.
Madrid was the founding president of the Tomás Rivera Center, a national institute for policy studies on Latino issues. He also has served as director of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) and Minority Institutions Sciences Improvement Program (MISIP) with the U.S. Department of Education. He has served as chair of the University of Minnesota’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese, as well as the Associate Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at that institution.
Among his awards are the Charles Frankel Prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1996 and the President’s Medal from Brooklyn College in 1997.
Madrid will hold the Carruthers Chair through the end of the fall semester. Those interested in having Madrid visit a class should call the University Honors Program at 277-4211.
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920