In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships is recognizing a couple of the exceptional researchers who are making a difference at OU and beyond.
Robert Con Davis-Undiano, executive director of World Literature Today, the director of the Latinx Studies Program, and Neustadt Professor and Presidential Professor of English in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences discusses the importance of Hispanic Heritage Month and creating community at the University of Oklahoma.
“So much of what's Hispanic history is not an official part of the history. There's a lot of amnesia in America, not just in the U.S., but really across all of Latin America, where the Hispanic impact and the indigenous impact that was a part of that just too often doesn't become a formal part of the way people think about the past,” Con David Undiano said. “So Hispanic Heritage Month is a time to gain some ground on that and try to make some inroads into the true history that we don't always remember.”
Lara Souza, director of the Oklahoma Biological Survey and an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Oklahoma, discusses the importance of diversity and mentorship in this profile for Hispanic Heritage Month 2023.
“Hispanic Heritage Month means to me an opportunity to create inclusivity and promote diversity within the STEM field. Mentorship is an important process to diversify or to improve diversity within the STEM fields because it provides the opportunity to connect students with resources,” Souza said. “My research addresses how global changes such as climate change impacts ecological systems, and how those changes in ecological systems affect their function.”
