Latina/o Culture Professor Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes receives Circle Award

Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, professor at the American Culture Department will receive the prestigious Circle Award from the University of Michigan today, during the Celebración Latina 2008, the graduation ceremony for Latino students of the U-M. The celebration will be held in Lydia Mendehlsoon Theatre at 8 pm.

The Circle Award was created along with the Celebración Latina eight years ago to honor
U-M faculty and staff members who contribute significantly to the university community and whose work, leadership and service have positively impacted Latino students.

Graduating Hispanic students, active in all areas of university affairs, select the winner, along with the Celebración Latina organizing committee.

Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, 40 years old, who was born and educated in San Juan, Puerto Rico, later studied at Harvard ( Hispanic Studies ) and Columbia ( Masters and Doctorate in Spanish ) feels that receiving the Circle Award is an indication that he does not work in vain. “Through this award, students show that they appreciate my efforts, and that they fully support active faculty involvement in university life inside and outside of the classroom.”

The researcher, who began teaching at the University of Michigan in 2003 where he specializes in Hispanic Caribbean and Puerto Rican Studies, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, as well as Gay, Lesbian and Queer Studies, indicates that the Award “is a generous sign of recognition and a stimulus to continue doing what I do every day to help to strengthen knowledge about Latinos and Latinas in the United States.”

Considered one of the pioneers in a new field of study in the United States, which encompasses not just one culture, but the many complex cultures of the Latino world, La Fountain-Stokes regularly offers undergraduate classes and also some graduate seminars.
In addition, La Fountain-Stokes is the author of Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora ( to be published by the University of Minnesota Press, 2009 ) and a book of short stories called Blue Fingernails ( to be published by the Bilingual Press, Arizona, 2008 ).
Circle Award winners of 2007 were Maria Cotera, Ph.D. and Robert Ortega, Ph.D—
More information:

Contact: Vivianne Schnitzer
Phone: ( 734 ) 615-1563″*

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