Suzanne Panferov Reese, director of the Critical Languages Program and chair of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Second Language Acquisition & Teaching, has received the 2025 James E. Alatis Award for Service to TESOL. 

Founded in 1966, TESOL International Association, or Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, is the largest professional organization for teachers of English as a second or foreign language. The service award was established in 1987 to honor James E. Alatis, TESOL’s first executive director, for his 21 years of devoted service. 

Panferov Reese, also a faculty member in the Department of Public and Applied Humanities, previously served as president of the TESOL International Association Board of Directors from 2012 to 2013 and on the organization’s board from 2008 to 2014. The award was presented by current TESOL President Justin Shewell at the TESOL convention earlier this month in Long Beach, Calif. 

“I am so grateful and honored to receive this award. Jim Alatis recognized and valued language education and multilingualism, values which I hold near and dear to my heart,” she said. “And now, after more than three decades of TESOL giving this award, amplifying these values and advocating for our students and our profession is more critical than ever.” 

The award recognizes “genuine and long-lasting support of TESOL International Association through leadership and service, exemplary professionalism and representation of TESOL values” and a commitment to the mission of TESOL. 

Panferov Reese’s research focuses on language program administration, professional development, teacher training, pedagogy and literacy acquisition. She has published on topics ranging from teachers transitioning into professional leadership roles, ESL program marketing and parental support for K-12 ELL students.

Currently, she serves on the Board of Trustees for the International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF) as the Vice President. Since joining the University of Arizona in 2003, she has also been director of the Center for English as a Second Language, director of the National Center for Interpretation and Associate Vice President of Global Engagement. 

We are pleased to announce our 2024-2025 Inaugural Humanities Fearless Scholars (listed with their College of Humanities majors)! 

Jezaniah Allen (Major:  Africana Studies)
Bryanna Alvarado (Majors:  Spanish, Applied Humanities)
Dorian Andrews (Major:  Classics)
Santino Armenta (Major:  Russian)
Athina Bella Ballenger-Maurelli (Majors: Spanish, Italian)
Laurel Burkholder (Major:  German Studies)
Genna Burns (Major:  French)
Anna Chen (Major:  East Asian Studies)
Sydney Crouthers (Major:  Spanish)
Italia Delgado (Majors:  East Asian Studies, Applied Humanities)
Simon DeMangus (Major:  Religious Studies)
Josephine Desmarais (Major:  Russian)
Tokujiro Ellis (Major:  Spanish)
Brynn Feinstein (Major:  French)
Alec Gibson (Major:  Spanish) 
Rebekah Herrera (Major:  East Asian Studies)
Isabella Hightower (Major:  Spanish)
Caiden Horn (Major:  French)
Eleanor Jolly (Major:  Applied Humanities)
Sid Kabra (Major:  Religious Studies)
Elise Kerr (Major:  Interdisciplinary Studies)
Maddie Klein (Major:  Applied Humanities)
Anna Latimer (Major:  Humanities)
Jay Leslie (Major:  East Asian Studies)
Rayanne Lockhart (Major:  Russian)
Maddie McCaskill (Major:  German Studies)
Sarahi Mejia (Major:   Spanish)
Alma Melendez (Major:  Spanish)
Zabrina Meza (Major:  Applied Humanities)
Madelyn Miller (Major:  Interdisciplinary Studies)
Tana Miros (Majors:  World Literature, Classics)
Lillie Nieves (Major:  Applied Humanities)
Ana Ojeda (Major:  Applied Humanities)
Andrea Ortega Delfin (Major:  Spanish)
Samantha Osteen (Major:  Spanish)
Isabella Perez (Major:  Spanish)
Catherine Peterman (Majors:  Russian, East Asian Studies)
Ayden Rappa (Major:  East Asian Studies)
Meagan Rausch (Major:  East Asian Studies)
Isabel Richardson (Major:  Spanish)
Aylin Rochin (Major:  Spanish)
Selene Romero (Major:  French)
Josh Ruiz (Major:  Applied Humanities)
Lily Schmidt (Major:  Classics)
Molly Schreiner (Major:  Italian)
Jazmin Stein Torres (Majors:  French, Italian) 
Chloe Thompson (Major:  Spanish)
Angel Villa (Major:  Applied Humanities)
Angela Villela Salazar (Major:  Spanish)
 

The College of Humanities has designed a Recruitment Workshop to provide GATs and faculty with hands-on instruction in the college’s progress and vision for recruitment, as well as strategies and best practices for recruiting in and out of the classroom.  

Started by the COH Recruitment Task Force, the workshop includes topics like: communicating the value of a Humanities education, fostering student success, recruiting Gen Z, developing humanities-oriented career readiness, talent spotting, enhancing sense of belonging and sharing practical strategies for recruitment of majors. In its third year, the workshop is a requirement for first-year graduate assistants, but returning GATs and faculty are also welcome to attend.

“We are being very proactive in the College of Humanities. These workshops introduce how to do that and why it’s important. It’s the number one topic nationally in the humanities,” said Dorrance Dean Alain-Philippe Durand. “When we do a national search for a faculty job, whenever we do a national search for a job, we bring about three finalists to campus and when I interview people, I ask every one of them about how they will recruit students. Most cannot really answer the question.”  

Each academic year, the College of Humanities enrolls about 100 incoming students as majors. But as of the start of the fall semester, the College of Humanities had 1,689 enrolled majors, more than half of whom have double or even triple majors. So most students who select a Humanities major do so after they’ve started at the university, said Karina M. Rodríguez, Director of Recruitment.

“The vast majority of our current students have declared or switched to humanities or added a second or third major after taking humanities classes. Every class is an opportunity to interact with students who are not already humanities majors,” she said.

Stephanie Springer, Director of Internships and Career Readiness and a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Public & Applied Humanities, said when students feel seen and valued, they’ll want to be in your classroom.

“We teach skills that employers seek, but sometimes graduating seniors are falling short in their ability to articulate their skills in resumes, cover letters and interviews. We can help COH students stand apart from their peers by being explicit about the connections,” she said.

Tania Leal, Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, said mentoring and talent spotting are crucial, but ultimately good teaching is the best recruitment.

“Confidence building can play a huge role. It may be the first time they hear ‘This is possible. This is an option for everyone who has a passion for it,’” Leal said. “Encourage involvement, in events, talks, clubs and research opportunities. Know how to connect students with opportunities outside the classroom.”

Veronika Williams, Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Russian and Slavic Studies, said recruitment mindset is all about sharing information

“When I’m teaching 101 classes, every time I have somebody declare a major or minor, I announce it in class and I give them a gift of an official department sticker,” she said. “This creates a sense of community and a snowball effect.”  

Participants in the workshop also submitted ideas and questions through an online portal, which were answered by Recruitment Task Force member Borbala Gaspar, Lecturer in the Department of French and Italian and faculty advisor of the student-run Dolce Vita Italian club. Several questions and suggestions revolved around students participating in clubs and other campus activities

“I personally tell my students how important it is to be active members of clubs. For any job application if they mention that, it is a great example of how they are socially engaged,” she wrote in response. “Mentioning that they active in a club or they take an officer role is important in scholarship applications as well or study abroad scholarships. It matters!”

Sandra Kofford, a graduate assistant teaching a 101 course in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, said she appreciated the workshop for how it encouraged instructors to engage with students.

“Humanities is about being able to connect with others and understand them,” she said. “We need to share something about ourselves that we love to make a connection.”  

All who complete the workshop receive a certificate of completion from the College.

There are more than 7 million humanities graduates in the U.S. workforce, in every occupation.

As Jenna Finfrock, Manager of Alumni and Donor Affairs, has connected and cultivated relationships with College of Humanities alumni over the last decade, she's heard time and time again about how their humanities stills have given them a unique advantage on the job market.

In 2019, the College launched its Love Your Future event, a multifaceted career readiness workshop that brings alumni and students together to discuss how to translate a humanities education into a real-life career. And that’s just one component of this event, which invites current humanities students and recent graduates.

"We all know that humanities students are passionate about their studies. But they’re also gaining the most in-demand skills on the global job market. Love Your Future helps students learn how they can best articulate those skills on cover letters and during interviews," Finfrock said. 

Experts like Stephanie Springer and Brittney Crawford from the Department of Public and Applied Humanities have presented on strategies for internship and job searches, including how to interview. Alumna Jessie Bustamante, Chief Advancement Officer for ACCEL, has presented on the secret value of networking. Alumna Dolores Durán-Cerda, Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at Pima Community College, has presented on how to make a difference in the community with a humanities degree. Andrea Holm, Director of the Writing Skills Improvement Program, has demonstrated best practices in resumes and cover letters. And the College is archiving all those resources to offer to new students, year after year.

"By designing a humanities-specific series of career-oriented presentations and workshops, we’re giving our students additional support at crucial moments in their educational journeys. And we’re connecting them to the best resources we know – fellow College of Humanities alumni who’ve been there and done that," Finfrock said. 

This year’s event will take place on March 21. Email jfinfrock@arizona.edu for more information. 

The UA Poetry Center’s renowned library collection, which began more than 60 years ago with a personal donation of about 500 volumes, has now reached 60,000 books.

The 60,000^th book itself is an artist’s book titled Rescuing Q: Quandaries and Queries, by Suzanne Moore, a painter, printmaker and lettering artist who now lives in Tucson.

“I’d had her on my radar for several years before this, looking for the right fit for our collection. This book came across a rare book dealer site at exactly the right time,” said Sarah Kortemeier, Poetry Center Library Director. “It’s a book that requires a whole network, an ecosystem of artists who are working in Southern Arizona and it’s just gorgeous. We could not be more proud to have it in our collection.”

The book, which Moore created over a period of 20 years, is focused on a series of poetic questions that she sourced from friends and family, like “Can a mirror keep a secret?” The book is limited to 26 copies, numbered A to Z. The Poetry Center has copy F. It was printed by lone goose press in Bisbee on paper handmade by Tucson’s Cave Paper. The book was bound by Moore’s husband, Don Glaister.

The Poetry Center will host a celebration of the 60,000^th book on Saturday, March 8, at 11 a.m. Rescuing Q will be on display and Moore will talk about the making of the book, with a cake and lemonade reception to follow.

“Collecting 60,000 books is such an exciting milestone for the Poetry Center—it is a threshold moment, and we are so excited for what this means for future visitors to our collection.  Most of all, we celebrate the careful librarianship of many who have worked at the Poetry Center and helped bring us to this point, including current library staff Sarah Kortemeier, Julie Swarstad Johnson and Aria Pahari,” said Tyler Meier, Executive Director of the Poetry Center.

The Poetry Center was founded in 1960 with a donation from the personal collection of Ruth Walgreen Stephan (1910-1974), who gave about 500 books, focused on contemporary poetry in English and translations of great poets from around the world. Intending for the collection to have national and international significance, Stephan later created an endowment that has supported library acquisitions ever since.

The Poetry Center’s Ruth Stephan and Myrtle Walgreen Collection is intended to be as representative as possible, but is particularly strong in Southwestern poetry and languages of the borderlands.

“We’re trying to document contemporary American poetry in particular,” Kortemeier said. “We try to balance our collecting between really big publishers and small indie publishers, all the way to people doing kitchen-table DIY publishing. It’s important to be able to preserve and platform the works of people who don’t have a huge reach.” 

The Poetry Center buys about 100 books a month and about 50 rare books every year, a pace that has held for more than a decade.

“It’s a very steady river of poetry,” Kortemeier said. “An interesting thing about the Poetry Center’s collecting is we’re frequently the first library in the country to buy these books. So we’re often creating the first catalog records for those books, which other libraries can then use.”

Most of the books live on open stacks in the Poetry Center’s main reading room, while the rare books are placed into an archival enclosure and stored in closed stacks in the rare book room. But everything is available to library patrons for on-site use.

In addition to the book collection, the Poetry Center subscribes to more than 300 literary journals, which is particular useful for students who can look at places to submit their work. The Poetry Center library includes more than 30,000 back issues of those periodicals.

The Poetry Center began marking milestones with the 40,000^th book in 2010, which paid homage to the late Steve Orlen, a poet and beloved University of Arizona professor. The Poetry Center holds the only copy of A History of Our Family: Orlen Dynasty.

The 50,000^th volume was book artist Charles Hobson’s rendering of W.S. Merwin’s Trees, published in an edition of only 30 copies. The late Merwin developed a close relationship with the Poetry Center, visiting for public readings over a span of more than 40 years.

“It takes about a decade to collect 10,000 books, so we’re happy to be able to mark this occasion in a special way,” Kortemeier said.

The College of Humanities is proud to announce the following recipients of the Spring 2025 Fearless Inquiries Abroad Scholarships

Each of the following students will receive $2,000 to participate in a College of Humanities Study Abroad program. Please join us in congratulating them on their outstanding achievements!
 

College of Humanities Fearless Inquiries Abroad Scholarships
Amanda Akyol | Major: East Asian Studies
Alivia Alexander | Majors: Spanish; Leadership and Learning Innovation
Athina Bella Ballenger-Maurelli | Majors: Spanish; Italian
Nicco Boudou | Majors: French; Business Management
Laurel Burkholder | Majors: German Studies; Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences
Genna Burns | Majors: French; Business Management
Abigail Chavez | Majors: Spanish; Psychology; Mexican American Studies
Josephine Desmarais | Majors: Russian; Political Science
Rachel DeWitt | Majors: French; Physics
Lei Lani Effort | Majors: Russian; Linguistics
Andres Eusebio | Majors: Spanish; Business Management
Anastasia Finch | Major: French
Dana Gonzalez | Majors: Spanish; Medicine
Adiba Haque | Majors: German Studies; Biomedical Engineering
Paige Hatch | Majors: Spanish; Physiology & Medical Sciences
Hope Hendry | Major: Spanish
Anthony Jimenez | Majors: Spanish; Personal & Family Financial Planning
Elizabeth Lendo | Majors: Spanish; Art History
Rayanne Lockhart | Majors: Russian; Psychology
Pablo Martinez Bojorquez | Major: Spanish
Maddie McCaskill | Majors: German Studies; Architecture
Alice Miranda | Majors: Italian; Biochemistry; Molecular & Cellular Biology
Daniella Mota | Majors: Italian; Business Management
Ronald Palmenberg | Majors: German Studies; Biochemistry
Mayra Parra-Landaverde | Majors: Spanish; Criminal Justice Studies
Catherine Peterman | Majors: Russian; East Asian Studies
Frida Quintana | Major: Spanish
Meagan Rausch | Majors: East Asian Studies; Political Science
Aylin Rochin | Majors: Spanish; Law
Selene Romero | Majors: French; Architecture
Benjamin Rothermich | Majors: German Studies; Performance
Alba Sabelli | Major: French
Andrea Sandoval Martinez | Majors: Spanish; Physiology & Medical Sciences
Jazmin Stein Torres | Majors: French; Italian
Emily Valencia | Majors: Spanish; Criminal Justice Studies
Chase Velasquez | Major: East Asian Studies
Alexis Young | Major: Classics