Dr. Suzanne Oboler, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies in the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York, will deliver the keynote address in celebration of Latino Heritage Month on September 18 at 7 p.m. in the Old Main Room in the Bone Student Center. Her talk is entitled “Latino, Hispanic…The Consequences of Ethnic Labels in Contemporary U.S. Society.” Oboler will discuss both terms, “Latino” and “Hispanic,” and the impact that such abstract language has on the everyday lives of Latino populations.“Dr. Oboler’s lecture will help us commence a campus-wide conversation about the impact of the changing racial and ethnic composition of American society on our educational mission,”  said Maura Toro-Morn, Director of ISU's Latin American and Latino/a Studies Program. Latinos are now the largest racial and ethnic minority in the U.S., representing 13 percent of the population in Chicago. LALS (Latin American and Latino/a Studies) and similar programs investigate the needs of these populations and recognize their interactions with each other and with other people in our communities.

Roxanna Curto

Roxanna Curto joins the ISU faculty as an Assistant Professor of French specializing in Francophone literature in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Roxanna earned her A.B. from Harvard in Romance Studies in 2001, and will be awarded her Ph.D. in French from Yale in December of 2008 for her dissertation, “Intertechs: Colonialism and Technology in French and Francophone Literature.” Roxanna's teaching interests include French language, Francophone literature and culture, and postcolonial and literary theory. During her time at Yale, she taught many courses in French language, and spent a year researching at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, as well as three summers in Québec and one in Senegal. Roxanna is the recipient of several grants, including a Jacob K. Javits Fellowship in the Humanities, an Enders Fellowship, and a Kenneth Cornell Research Grant. She is originally from the Midwest, and grew up in Iowa City, home to the University of Iowa. In addition to French, Roxanna also speaks Spanish (her family is originally from Argentina), and Italian.

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry James E. House recently published Inorganic Chemistry, a new textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Designed to accompany a one-semester course, it is a concise, balanced overview of the field, delving into all the major areas of inorganic chemistry, including molecular structure, acid-base chemistry, coordination chemistry, ligand field theory, and solid state chemistry. Dr. House provides many figures, tables, and end-of-chapter problems to assist students in understanding this complex but important field. House was a faculty member at ISU from 1966 to 1998 and taught a diverse range of courses in general chemistry, inorganic chemistry, chemical kinetics, and special topics courses in solid state, nuclear, and descriptive chemistry.