It is with deepest sadness that we share the news that professor Luisa Elena Delgado, our former director of the School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics, passed away on Tuesday, March 19 after a long battle with cancer.
In her leadership position as SLCL director between 2020-2022, she demonstrated a strong commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration among SLCL units while advocating to the College of LAS on our behalf. She led the 2021 intercultural competency initiative as part of the Presidential Initiative to Celebrate the Impact of the Arts and the Humanities. This was part of her commitment to fostering cross-collaboration among SLCL units. She was devoted to the wellbeing of her employees and worked very hard to make SLCL a strong community.
In addition to her long-standing service to her Department of Spanish & Portuguese, SLCL, LAS, and campus, she served in some of the most important editorial boards and societies in her profession. Her scholarly career also gained her national and international recognition in her field of expertise, Spanish literatures and cultures with a special emphasis on 19th modernist literature and the cultural production of Spain in the 20th and 21st centuries. She was also a stellar mentor and teacher. Her University Scholar recognition in 2018 was a clear testament to the impact of her contributions in the areas of research, teaching and student mentoring, and leadership in service.
As a colleague, and particularly in her position as SLCL director, I always admired her commitment to equity, transparency, and to making sure that the initiatives we pursued were sought to benefit all SLCL units as a whole and not only few. She always contributed to our discussions with brilliant ideas, thorough knowledge, care for others, and intellectual respect.
Elena will be sorely missed by those who collaborated with her and especially by those of us who had the privilege to consider her a close friend.
Our thoughts are with her close family in this moment of grief.
Thank you, Elena, for your relentless commitment to making SLCL a strong community.
Mariselle Meléndez
Director, School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics