Accomplishments: Department of English
Roberto Lovato (English) wrote in The Nation magazine about the most important message coming out of the immigration crisis in Los Angeles: "Nos Tienen Miedo Porque No Tenemos Miedo (They Fear Us Because We Do Not Fear Them)."
Katherine Walker (English) was an invited speaker at the symposium, "Usable Temporalities: Time and Writing in Early Modern Almanacs and Calendars," in Fribourg, Switzerland.
Andrew Nicholson (English), Jarret Keene (English), and Black Mountain Institute Shearing Fellow Monica Macansantos served as judges for the 2025 Vegas PBS KIDS Writers Contest Presented by Janice Allen. The contest empowers children in grades K-5 to celebrate creativity and build literacy skills by writing and illustrating their very own stories.
Roberto Lovato (English) did a live interview on the Univision television network about the MS-13 gang, tattoos and President Trump's attempts to label legal resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a gang member.
Roberto Lovato (English) was one of the experts interviewed by the Washington Post for the article titled, "Kilmar Abrego García’s tattoos alone do not prove MS-13 membership, experts say." Lovato dispelled the myths and untruths surrounding MS-13 and Salvadoran immigrant father Kilmar Abrego-Garcia's alleged membership in the gang.
Joshua Chévere Cohen (Black Mountain Institute) was selected by the English Department as their 2025 College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Department Alumni. The 2025 Distinguished Department Alumni Cohort was recognized at the College of Liberal Arts Honors Convocation and presented with "COLA Keys to Success."
Roberto Lovato (English) was interviewed by CBS News for the story titled, "Experts cast doubt on Trump's claim that Abrego Garcia's finger tattoos prove MS-13 membership."
On April 21, Roberto Lovato (English) delivered a seminar on Memoria Historica: The Politics and Poetics of Memory in Creative Nonfiction to students in Columbia University's School of the Arts Writing Program.
Katherine Walker (English) was the keynote speaker at the Texas Woman's University's Creative Arts and Research Symposium. She argued for the importance of slow methodologies and transforming research spaces.
Professor emerita P. Jane Hafen (English) presented “’It Ain’t Real Estate’: Tribal Sovereignty in Pulitzer-Prize Author, Louise Erdrich, and Utah Senator Arthur Watkins” in Utah Tech University Library’s 41st annual Juanita Brooks Lecture Series.
On April 14, Roberto Lovato (English) was interviewed by Emma Vigeland and the popular Majority Report podcast and radio show about the historic meeting between President Trump and Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele.
Roberto Lovato (English) wrote an article for The Nation magazine about "The Deadly Seriousness Behind Trump and Bukele’s 'Joke'," which analyzes what Trump and the U.S. are learning from Bukele and what people in this country can learn from the long history of anti-fascist struggle in El Salvador.