Literature Prof Randy Ontiveros Receives Teaching Award

Ontiveros has been honored two years in a row for his mentorship skills and ability to foster community in the classroom

Randy Ontiveros, associate professor in the Department of English, has been awarded the Donna B. Hamilton Award for Teaching Excellence in General Education. He was nominated by nine of his students for instruction in his courses “Literary Maryland,” “Junior Honors Conference” and “The Suburbs in American Literature and Film.”

Students who nominated faculty members for the Donna B. Hamilton Award for Teaching Excellence in General Education choose educators who have the ability to change the way students view the world and their career paths. Nominated professors are also considered talented mentors and role models.

Ontiveros teaches Latina/o literature, focusing on the immigrant experience in the United States. His first book, “In the Spirit of a New People: The Cultural Politics of the Chicano Movement”, examines neglected stories from Chicano civil rights movement seen through the movement’s literature, theater, non-fiction prose, visual art and works in other creative genres.

For his second book, Ontiveros is focusing on the long history of Latinos living in the suburbs in the United States and Puerto Rico. By conducting oral histories, interviews and archival research, Ontiveros seeks to find out where Latinos stand in the history of the American suburbs.

“A lot of the anti-immigrant, anti-Latino politics that dominate America today come from the suburbs. It comes from the belief that Latinos have invaded all of America,” Ontiveros said. “In some ways, I’m trying to fight that.”

As a professor, Ontiveros strives to create personal connections with his students, even in large classroom settings. That kind of relationship allows students to have more open conversations and feel a sense of community in the classroom, Ontiveros says.

It’s important to him that students can make connections between what they’re reading and the world outside the classrooms.

Last year, Ontiveros was awarded the Maryland Regents Award for Teaching Excellence.