Campus News

Edna Acosta-Bel�n to Give Distinguished Lecture

(April 7, 2006)

Edna Acosta-Bel�n, Ph.D., will give the Distinguished Professor lecture, "Decolonizing the Colonial Subject: Puerto Ricans and their 'American' Experience" on Friday, April 21, at 2 p.m. in the Campus Center Assembly Hall on the uptown campus. A reception will follow in the Fireside Lounge.

Acosta-Bel�n, Distinguished Professor of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, U.S. Latino Studies, and Women's Studies at the University, is an internationally renowned scholar and pioneer in the development of literary criticism about U.S.-Puerto Rican authors and writers, as well as a leading scholarly voice in gender studies in the Caribbean. She was named Distinguished Service Professor in 1993 and Distinguished Professor in fall 2004. Her research and academic leadership have set a high standard for her colleagues and served as a model for many younger scholars.

Acosta-Bel�n's professional achievements and scholarly and institutional contributions are truly outstanding. She has not only generated a substantial body of original research, but has also actively sought to identify and promote the work of emerging scholars and colleagues at the mid-professional level through her numerous edited works. In addition to her teaching and research, she also serves as Director of the Center for Latino, Latin American, and Caribbean Studies (CELAC) at UAlbany. Her areas of research include Puerto Rican, Hispanic Caribbean, and U.S.- Latino cultural studies, literature, and cultural and social history; and postcolonial and women's studies.

She is the cofounder and current editor of the Latino(a) Research Review, a journal that focuses on the U.S.-Latino experience and the transnational connections between Latino groups and their Latin American and Caribbean countries of origin. She is the author or co-author of numerous books and has more than 50 articles published in scholarly anthologies and journals.

Acosta-Bel�n is a former president of the Puerto Rican Studies Association (PRSA). She chaired the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) 1994 Congress Program Committee and has co-chaired the LASA Feminist and Gender Studies and Latino Studies Sections.

She earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University (1977), and has been a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton and Yale universities. She has received numerous grants in support of her research and other special projects from the Ford Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education (Title VI, VII), the U.S. Information Agency, and the LASA.

To R.S.V.P., call (518) 437-5040 by April 18.