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September 13, 2011
Metropolitan State University of Denver
Pulitzer Prize journalist selected for Castro professorship.
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| Sonia Nazario is the author of “Enrique’s Journey.” |
The Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship Committee at Metropolitan State College of Denver has announced award-winning journalist and author Sonia Nazario as the 2011 Castro visiting professor. The theme for the professorship, to be held Oct. 18-20, is “Canto y grito: The Power of the Voice.”
The professorship was created in 1997 in honor of Metro State alumnus Richard T. Castro (1946-1991), an educational and civil rights activist and one of Colorado’s true champions of disenfranchised communities.The professorship brings renowned Latina and Latino scholars, artists and leaders of distinction to Metro State to conduct classes, seminars, performances and lectures for students, faculty and the larger Denver community.
This year’s visiting professor has spent 20 years reporting and writing about social issues, most recently as a projects reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Nazario’s stories have tackled some of this country's most intractable problems: hunger, drug addiction and immigration.
In 2003, Nazario's story of a Honduran boy's struggle to find his mother in the U.S., titled "Enrique's Journey," won more than a dozen awards, among them the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, the George Polk Award for International Reporting, the Grand Prize of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Guillermo Martinez-Marquez Award for Overall Excellence.
Expanded into a book, "Enrique's Journey" became a national bestseller that garnered two book awards. It is now required reading for incoming freshmen at dozens of colleges and high schools across the United States. It is the featured book for the Center for Urban Connections' 1 Book/1 Project/2 Transform. The recurring book series, open to all Metro State faculty, staff and students, combines a book discussion with a related service project, with the idea that all can be transformed.
For a schedule of events and more about Castro, visit http://www.mscd.edu/news/castro/.
