Accomplishments: Department of English
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 Garc铆a鈥檚 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 Ch茅vere 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 鈥溾橧t Ain鈥檛 Real Estate鈥: Tribal Sovereignty in Pulitzer-Prize Author, Louise Erdrich, and Utah Senator Arthur Watkins鈥 in Utah Tech University Library鈥檚 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鈥檚 '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.
Roberto Lovato (English) was invited to deliver a talk on the Urgency of Unforgetting, via Zoom, to the University of Puerto Rico's English department on April 9, 2025.
Assistant professor Roberto Lovato (English) was awarded the Marion Weber Healing Arts Fellowship, which supports writers working in the healing arts fields. His fellowship will be used to support his time at the Mesa Refuge writer's retreat in November 2025.