The Department of Latina/Latino Studies celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006 with the inauguration of the annual Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, Jr. Lecture Series. Prof. Hinojosa-Smith is a University of Illinois alumnus, a distinguished scholar in the field of Latino studies and an internationally renowned author. He received his Ph.D. in English from the University of Illinois in 1969. He was awarded an Alumni Achievement Award by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1988 and an Alumni Achievement Award by the University Alumni Association in 1998. He is currently the Ellen Clayton Garwood Centennial Professor in Creative Writing in the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses in American literature, creative writing, Mexican-American literature and culture, Chicano literature, and life and literature of the Southwest. Prof. Hinojosa-Smith’s publications include more than a dozen novels as well as other works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written in English and Spanish. Because of his illustrious career and his significant contributions to the fields of Chicano Studies and Latino Studies, the Department's annual lecture series was renamed in his honor as part of our tenth anniversary celebration. Each academic year the Department invites one or two prominent Latino scholars, writers, or artists to give a public lecture as part of this series.

Past Series guests:

Emma Pérez, 2024
Miguel Diaz-Barriga & Margaret Dorsey, 2017
Alicia Schmidt Camacho, 2014
Gustavo Arellano, 2013
Pat Mora, 2012
Josefina Lopez, 2012
Clara Rodriguez, 2010
Ruth Behar, 2010
Leo R. Chavez, 2009
Junot Díaz, 2009
Cherríe Moraga, 2008
Helena María Viramontes, 2008
Manuel Muñoz, 2008
Frances Negrón-Muntaner, 2007
Harry Gamboa, 2007
Jason Ferreira, 2006