As evidence of our strengths, every year our faculty and students win numerous awards.
Awards + Recognition
2024 - 2025 Spanish and Portuguese Faculty Accomplishments
Patrícia Amaral co-organized a workshop at the IU Europe Gateway in Berlin titled “Time and Events in Language and Cognition” in March 2025, which brought together semantics scholars from several European universities as well as IU Alumni. In addition, Amaral was awarded the GSAC Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award in 2024.
Deborah Cohn was an invited speaker and delivered the lecture “Notes from an Accidental Advocate” for the Opening Plenary of 2025 MAPS Leadership Institute: “Creative Vision, Pragmatic Victories: Strategies for Impactful Humanities Leadership” in June 2025. She was also elected and assumed the position as the MLA's ALD Executive Committee.
Manuel Díaz Campos delivered a lecture titled “La enseñanza de la variación para aprendices de segunda lengua” on March 29, 2025, for the Centro de Estudios de la ANLE (CEANLE). He also received a grant from the College Arts and Humanities Institute in support of his project, “Second Edition of Introduction to Hispanic Sociolinguistics.” In recognition of his excellence in teaching, he was also awarded the 2025 Trustees Teaching Award. Additionally, his forthcoming book, Enciclopedia concisa de los dialectos del español, will be published by Wiley in August 2025.
Melissa Dinverno was awarded an IU Presidential Arts and Humanities Fellowship for 2025-26, forming part of an 8-person cohort of IU scholars for the academic year. Dinverno also received a Jean Monnet Faculty Travel & Research Grant from the Institute for European Studies in partial support of a virtual tour of the exhibit she co-curated in Granada titled Lorca and the Archive: Memory in Motion. For more information see the Faculty Spotlight.
Cesar Félix-Brasdefer co-organized the Pragmatics and Language Learning Conference at Indiana University.
Andrés Guzmán published the article “Loops, Loops, Loops: Torsion, Freedom, and Form in Tomás Rivera’s…y no se lo tragó la tierra” in theMELUS: Multi-Ethnic Literature of the US, vol. 49, no. 4, 2024, pp. 1-22. He was also named the new director of the Cultural Studies Program at Indiana University, beginning July 1, 2025.
Israel Herrera won the 2024 IU FACET P.A. Mack Award for Excellence and Distinguished Service to Teaching; the Indiana Latino Educator of the Year Award; the national Klett/AATSP World Languages Award in Leadership and Program Innovation in Spanish and Portuguese; and the Martin Luther King Jr. Building Bridges Award. Read more about these awards in the Faculty Spotlight.
Edgar Illas published two articles: “Mythic, National, Global, Geological: The Countryside in Catalan Literature” in the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies 25.4 (2024): 477-91, and “Ontological Magma: Between Difference and Relation,” in the Special Issue: “Thinking with Glissant” in the Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy 32.1/2 (2024): 84-91. He was also invited to give the Inaugural Lesson of 2024-25 Course “La universitat medieval-global” for the College of Letters, Universitat de Girona, October 2024. Illas also received the Gregory A. Huffman International Travel Faculty Fellowship, Indiana University, for the project "Catalan Natural Wine: A Hyperpolitics of the Earth."
Virginia Hojas Carbonell won the inaugural FACET Brancato-Orr Award.
Consuelo López-Morillas (Prof. Emerita) translated Stefania Pastore’s, An Invisible Thread: Heresy, Mass Conversions, and the Inquisition in the Kingdom of Castile (1449-1559), Leiden: Brill, 2024.
Sandra Ortiz received two teaching-related fellowships: a Learning Analytics Faculty Fellowship and a Global Community Engaged Learning Course Design Institute Fellowship.
Robin Reeves was awarded a 2025 Trustees Teaching Award and received two teaching-related fellowships: a COAS Career Connections Fellowship and a Digital Gardener Fellowship offered by UITS Learning Technologies.
Olimpia Rosenthal was invited to give a lecture and participate in a workshop at the University of Michigan in February of 2025. She also received a research travel grant from the College Arts and Humanities Institute in support of research travel to Poland and Ireland as part of new book project: Weeping Trees’ Tales: Narratives of Hevea Brasiliensis, the Global Rubber Boom, and the Political Ecology of Empire.
2024 - 2025 Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Student Honors and Awards
Filipe Dias Vieira, Master´s student in Portuguese, received the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs (OVPIA) International Enhancement Grant for summer travel.
Santi Arróniz, Ph.D. student in Hispanic Linguistics, received the College of Arts and Sciences (COAS) Dissertation Completion Fellowship.
Leonardo Renda Amaral, Ph.D. student in Portuguese, received the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs (OVPIA) Summer Pre-Dissertation grant, and DAA grant.
Bruna Kalil Othero, Ph.D. student in Portuguese, received the Graduate Pathways Fellowship, the 2025 Latino Studies´ Dávila Paper Prize for her paper “Matriarchal Identity Between Brazil and U.S.: Anando Lima´s work in Latinx Studies”, and a travel grant from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
Katie Jonard, Ph.D. student in Hispanic Linguistics, received the Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) Travel Award.
Jessica Jurado Eraso, Ph.D. student in Hispanic Linguistics, received the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs (OVPIA) Summer Pre-Dissertation grant, and the Fred W. Householder Best Research Paper Award from the Department of Linguistics.
Ollin Garcia Pliego, Ph.D. student in Hispanic Literatures, received the College Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI) Travel Award, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Travel Award, the Merle E. Simmons Fellowship, and the College of Arts and Sciences Dissertation Research Fellowship for the 2025-2026 academic year.
Jingyi Guo, Ph.D. student in Hispanic Linguistics, received the Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) Travel Award, and the College Arts and Humanities Institute (CAHI) Graduate Conference Travel Award.
Monica Vega Gonzalez, Ph.D. student in Hispanic Literatures, received the Graduate Student Caucus Travel Award.
Giada Mirelli, Ph.D. student in Hispanic Literatures, received the Associate Instructor Teaching Award, the Timothy J. Rogers Dissertation Fellowship, a travel grant from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and the Motivación, Inspiración, Dedicación (MIND) Award for Impactful Teaching.
Anthony Brandy, Ph.D. student in Hispanic Linguistics, was nominated for the Householder Best Paper Award in Linguistics, and received the J.M. Hill Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award.
2024 - 2025 Spanish and Portuguese Outstanding Undergraduate Awards
Outstanding Undergraduate Research Achievement Award
Audrey Waite
Outstanding Graduating Senior
Meghan Cunningham
Outstanding Undergraduate Community Engagement Award
Sophia Nix
Neennara “Belle” Chatpunnarangsee
2024-2025 Hispanic Honorary Society
Sigma Delta Pi
The past year, seventeen Spanish majors were inducted into the IUB Chapter of Sigma Delta Pi National Collegiate Hispanic Honorary Society. Sigma Delta Pi recognizes the most outstanding students of Spanish on our campus and in the nation who have an impressive academic record, impactful service, and a strong interest in literature, culture, cinema, and music.
Isabella Wilson
Delaney Garner
Sarah Eisenberg
Maggie Haney
Ivy Walker
Audrey Engel
Andrea Ruiz
Victoria Tellez
Francisco Caceres
Dylan Cardona
Kade Moon
Kyle Fowler
Anson Reynolds
Naina Dublish
Maggie Essmann
Lauren Hadland
Benjamin Blacketer
Phi Lamda Beta
Three Portuguese students were inducted into the IUB Chapter of Phi Lamda Beta, also known as Sociedad Honorária de Língua Portuguesa. This society rewards outstanding achievements in the field of Portuguese language and Portuguese, African, Asian, and Brazilian cultures and literatures.
Lia Castro-Sauer
Meghan Tierney
David Hernandes Rasmussen
Phi Beta Kappa Inductees
In the 2024-25 Academic Year, fourteen of our majors were elected to Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor society for students in the arts and sciences:
Ana Camorlinga Abrego
Carlin Barksdale
Megan Cunningham
Rachel Hoffman
Lauren Hadland
Zane Sanders
Aaron Toland
Elaina Eells
Declan Gallagher
Hannah Gerstler
Paige Stephens
Faith Stimson
Liz Utley
Reagan Walhof

The College of Arts