José Emilio Pacheco Distinguished Lectures and Seminars Series

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese (SPAP) at the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (SLLC) of the University of Maryland in College Park, is pleased to announce the creation of the José Emilio Pacheco Distinguished Lecture Series / Cátedra José Emilio Pacheco in collaboration with the Mexican Cultural Institute.

The new Cátedra will serve as a forum for exceptionally great writers, thinkers, philosophers, and scholars who articulate their creative work around Mexico and Latin American literary and cultural traditions, and on the aesthetic, ethical, and human values that José Emilio Pacheco championed. Pacheco was a Distinguished University Professor at Maryland from 1984 to 2006, and he taught and trained a long list of prominent Mexican writers and intellectuals and an international cohort of students. Our department’s relationship with Mexican letters was strengthened by the presence of other important writers and specialists, like Professor Emeritus Jorge Aguilar Mora, Villaurrutia Prize 2016, and Professor Emerita Sandra Cypess, who had long research and teaching careers at the University. This Cátedra also honors their contributions.

The Mexican Cultural Institute has been an ideal partner, not only for its receptiveness and generous past collaborations, but also for the effective models of Cultural Diplomacy that it has systematically fostered in the Greater Washington Area. We are delighted that this collaboration has become a reality.

2020