Norma Elia
Cantu

Murchison Professor of the Humanities
Modern Languages and Literatures

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Norma Elia Cantu, Murchison Professor of the Humanities

About

Born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and raised in Laredo, Texas, I am intimately bound to the US-Mexico border region. As a folklorist, as a scholar of Chicane literature, and as a writer of poems, novels, and essays, I focus on issues of borders and borderlands. Whether scholarly or creative, my writing is autobioethnography. My life formation as a working-class Chicana shapes my intellectual and aesthetic endeavors and impels me to act to deconstruct the oppressive structures that exist in society. Following Anzaldúa, I seek to “do work that matters,” and to make our world a better one for all sentient beings.

Honors & Awards

Third Fulbright Fellowship: Senior Specialist Fellowship to Universidad Complutense de Madrid/Universidad de Alcalá de Henares
Inducted into the San Antonio Women’s Hall of Fame
Lifetime Achievement in Literary Arts Recognition by The Gemini Ink Literary organization at Inkstravaganza
Tejano Heritage Award, Texas A&M, Kingsville
Galardón Don Luis Leal from the HISPAUSA organization based at the Instituto Franklin at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. June 21, Barcelona June
Outstanding Alumni Award, Texas A&I Alumni Association, Kingsville, Texas
Luis Leal Literary Achievement Award, University of California, Santa Barbara
American Folklore Society, Lifetime Achievement Award
Texas Institute of Letters, member
Latin American Studies Association Latina/o Studies Section, Frank Bonilla Public Intellectual Award
Escuela Tlatelolco’s Champion of Change Award for Art, Literature, & Culture, Denver, Colorado
Letras de Aztlán, NACCS Tejas Foco
Beca Nebrija de Creación Literaria, Instituto Franklin, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares
Fellow of the American Folklore Society
Américo Paredes Distinguished Lecture, UT-Austin
Exceptional Texas Woman, Veteran Feminists of America, Texas
Elvira Cordero de Cisneros Macondo Foundation Award
National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies Scholar of the Year
Cátedra Laboris from the Universidad de Monterrey, Monterrey, Nuevo León