Professor Elpidio Laguna-Diaz to be awarded “Order of the discoveries” March 10 by National Collegiate hispanic honor society

WHAT:    Rutgers University Professor Elpidio Laguna-Diaz will be welcomed by the National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society as a member of the “Order of the Discoverers,” a distinction given to a select group of professors for outstanding contributions to Hispanism in the U.S.

WHO:    Professor Laguna-Diaz is being honored for his long and distinguished teaching and scholarly career at Rutgers. During 36 years at the university he has distinguished himself for his dedication to the teaching of Spanish Medieval, Golden Age, and 19th and 20th century Spanish literature. He has created many new courses and seminars, including “Ibero American Thought,” “La imagen de los EEUU en el ensayo hispanoamericano de los siglos XlX y XX,” “Ortega y Gassett,” “Los místicos espa oles,” “La construcción textual de la realidad histórica,” “España e Hispanoamérica durante las luchas de independicia,” and “Approaches to Civilizational Studies.”  He has served as Vice-President of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (1998-2004), and is a member, since 1994, of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. As a scholar Professor Laguna-Díaz is widely published, including El tratamiento del tiempo subjetivo en la obra de Gabriel Miró; Pablo (prosa poética); Sombra azul (poemario), Los retratos y biografías de Ramón Gómez de la Serna, and essays on Pedro Mir, Julia de Burgos, Nominalist and Christian-medieval thought, and Americanization and globalization in leading academic journals. In addition, he has devoted much time to supporting and advising Rutgers student organizations such as the Spanish Club, the Portuguese American Club and the newly founded PASO (Peruvian Americans Student Organization).

WHEN:        Monday, March 10, 2008, 7:00 PM

WHERE:    Dana Room, 4th Floor, John Cotton Dana Library, Rutgers University, 185 University Ave, Newark, NJ