Ana Isabel Cornide

Associate Professor of Spanish

Dr. Ana Cornide is an Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and Critical Service Learning and a faculty member of the Program in Human Rights Practice.

At the U of A, Dr. Cornide's outreach work promotes development through arts and humanities to serve as a means of overcoming social barriers. As the Director of the Critical Service Learning and Community Outreach Program for the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, she created a critical service-learning program that involves integrating experiential opportunities for students in the department to focus on critical service learning, social entrepreneurship, leadership, and community-based projects and outreach. Amplifying the work on civic engagement in the department builds off the plan to become a potential institutional base for helping community-based development in general. Since the beginning of the program in the fall of 2014, partnerships have been established with more than 50 organizations in the fields of education, human rights, law, public health, counseling, and diplomacy.  

Her research is firmly situated in contemporary cultural and performance studies, with a strong commitment to the examination of race and ethnicity and their interchange with gender and sexuality studies. For the past years, a central focal point for her academic research has been the cultural politics of migration and the figure of the migrant as a site of cross-cultural dialogue, which places her interests in a larger and broader scale: that of transatlantic border studies and theories of globalization.  She has conducted research, presented at conferences and taught a contemporary group of writers, performance artists, and film directors – individuals who have then gone on to shape and be shaped by this trend. 

In Spring 2016, Dr. Cornide was selected as the recipient of the Richard Ruiz Diversity Leadership Faculty Award for the 2015-2016 academic year. This prestigious award honors faculty who have significantly contributed to enhancing the academic distinction of the University of Arizona by creating a diverse and inclusive community. In spring 2017, she received the College of Humanities Distinguished Teaching Award that places particular emphasis on teaching at the undergraduate level. In Fall 2021, she received the College of Humanities Chatfield Impact Award for the significance of my work, and its relevance to Helen H. Chatfield’s commitment to celebrate new voices, fight racism, and recognize distinguished contributions to the world. 

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