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IUPUI associate professor inducted as full member of North American Academy of the Spanish Language

For Immediate Release Feb 20, 2018
Rosa Tezanos-Pinto
Rosa Tezanos-PintoPhoto by Liz Kaye, IU Communications

INDIANAPOLIS – Rosa Tezanos-Pinto, director of the Program in Spanish in the Indiana University School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI, has been inducted as a full member into the North American Academy of the Spanish Language, one of the top honors that can be bestowed upon scholars and researchers of the language.

Tezanos-Pinto has also been appointed as the editor of the academy’s bulletin, one of the most prestigious in the field, covering the language, linguistics, literature and future of Spanish in the United States.

“Dr. Rosa Tezanos-Pinto’s induction as a full member of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language is a worldwide recognition of her distinguished career as an academician, researcher, author, cultural promoter and editor of prestigious critical magazines of Hispanic-American and Latino studies,” said Luis Alberto Ambroggio, president of the Washington, D.C., delegation of the academy and a critically acclaimed poet and essayist.

Tezanos-Pinto, a native of Lima, Peru, was formally inducted in December at the Embassy of Peru in Washington, D.C.

“I’m humbled by this distinction,” Tezanos-Pinto said. “I wanted to share this honor with my students and colleagues, but to be in Washington and the embassy was very moving for me.”

The North American Academy of the Spanish Language is a corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy, founded in 1713. The U.S. is the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.

“Her membership stands as testimony to a lifetime of work dedicated to her discipline,” said Thomas Davis, dean of the IU School of Liberal Arts at IUPUI. “As a school, we are extraordinarily proud to count her as a colleague and friend.”

Tezanos-Pinto has been at IUPUI since 2006 and has served as founding director of the Latino Studies program in the School of Liberal Arts as well as an associate professor of Spanish literature. She has received many accolades, including the Harold Eugene Davis Prize from the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies in 2012; the IU Trustees’ Teaching Award in 2010, 2012 and 2015; the Indiana Teacher of the Year award from the state’s chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese in 2013 and 2014; and IUPUI’s Joseph T. Taylor Excellence in Diversity Award in 2014.

In 2017, she received the NAACP Certificate of Appreciation for her advocacy to pass Act 337, a groundbreaking law that requires every Indiana high school to offer ethnic studies.  

Tezanos-Pinto has edited a number of top scholarly journals and now adds the annual bulletin of the academy to her repertoire.

“Most importantly for us, she’s a great writer, and her knowledge of the Spanish language is incredible,” said Gerardo Piña-Rosales, director of the North American Academy of the Spanish Language. “You have to know the language very well and be acquainted with literature and important works. She has it all.”

There will be dedicated space in the Latino Studies program for the academy, which Tezanos-Pinto said will serve as a gathering area for Spanish scholars from around the state. This space will also house several library collections from members of the academy, including the Ambroggio library collection recently donated to the Latino Studies program.

“I am delighted that these impressive collections will be housed in my university that I’m so fond of, for use by many generations of students to come,” she said.

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