TRABANT AWARD
recognizes advances for women's equity

Alvina Quintana, associate professor of English and women's studies, has received the 2002 E. Arthur Trabant Institutional Award for Women's Equity, awarded by the Commission on the Status of Women.

President Emeritus E. A. Trabant made the presentation to Quintana at an awards luncheon in May at the Blue and Gold Club.

Given annually to any individual, department or administrative unit or committee that has contributed to the equity and enhancement of existing services to women, the award recognizes the contributions in this area by Trabant, who served UD as its 22nd and 24th president.

Quintana's contributions to women's equity at UD include her scholarship, particularly her book Home Girls: Chicana Literary Voices, one of the first scholarly studies of women who write from an historical experience that is grounded in American and Latin American history.

She holds a bachelor's degree from Mills College and a Ph.D. degree from the University of California. She has published articles and reviews on multicultural literature and cinema studies in Cineaste, Cultural Studies, Aztlan and American Studies Quarterly.

The Trabant Award also recognizes Quintana's efforts in serving as a mentor for graduate and undergraduate women students and taking an energetic lead in providing mentoring to women students.

She also was cited for her work in developing curricula and her involvement with a study abroad program that examines the multicultural aspects of London and other British cities.

The study abroad course, "Investigating Multicultural Britain–Rethinking Race in the United States," an interdisciplinary course that Quintana co-teaches with Elizabeth Higgenbotham, professor in sociology, challenges students with a criteria that combines day trips, cultural events, lectures and keeping a journal.

To develop a more sophisticated analysis of the issues, students look at the differences in opinion that exist in a country like Great Britain, where race is viewed as a political entity, and they examine the advantages and disadvantages that occur when disenfranchised social groups are consolidated under a single banner.

Quintana was also recognized for her efforts in bringing several prominent scholars to UD, including Lourdes Ortillo, Charlotte Pierce-Baker, Paul Lauter, Elaine Kin and Andrea Herrera.

Quintana, who joined UD's faculty in 1989, chaired the 1999-2000 UD Commission to Promote Racial and Cultural Diversity and she has chaired the American Studies Association's Women's Committee.

JERRY RHODES