Professor Mirelsie Velázquez has been named a Conrad Humanities Scholar for her contributions in education and research in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Velázquez is interdisciplinary scholar whose work centers the history of education, women's history, Puerto Rican studies, gender and sexuality, and teacher education. Her award-winning book, Puerto Rican Chicago: Schooling the City, 1940-1977 (University of Illinois Press 2022), chronicles the Puerto Rican community’s response to the urban decay in which they were forced to live, work, and especially learn. She’s currently working on her second book, Genealogies of Empowerment and the Makings of Home: Latina/o Activism at the University of Illinois, 1970–1992, and an oral history project, “De Isla a Chicago: Stories of Puerto Rican Teachers, 1970-1990,” that collects oral histories of Puerto Rican educators who were recruited to work in Chicago in the 1970s to serve the needs of a diverse student population.
The Conrad Humanities Scholars Award recognizes promising mid-career scholars and provides financial support for continued achievement, research, and scholarship in the humanities. The designation is for three years. The awards are funded by a gift from the late Arlys Conrad (AB, ’44, education).