Randy Ontiveros
Director of Honors Humanities, College of Arts and Humanities
Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English
Affiliate Associate Professor, The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Affiliate Associate Professor in U.S. Latina/o Studies, American Studies
Affiliate Faculty, Latin American and Caribbean Studies Center
rjo@umd.edu
3232 Tawes Hall
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Education
Ph.D., English Language and Literature, University of California, Irvine
Research Expertise
American
Comparative Literature
Film Studies and Cultural Studies
Latinx Studies
LGBTQ Studies
Postmodern and Contemporary
Randy Ontiveros is the Director of Honors Humanities and an Associate Professor in the English Department, with affiliations in U.S. Latina/o Studies, Caribbean and Latin American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Maryland. He received his Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of California, Irvine. At Maryland, he researches and teaches in the field of Latinx literary and cultural studies.
Professor Ontiveros has published articles and book chapters on topics ranging from Latinx environmentalism to television coverage of the Mexican-American civil rights movement. His book In the Spirit of a New People: The Cultural Politics of the Chicano Movement was published by New York University Press in 2013. Currently, he is writing a book entitled “Crabgrass Frontera: The Suburbs in Latinx Politics and Cultures.” In 2015 Professor Ontiveros won the prestigious University System of Maryland Board of Regents’ Faculty Award for Teaching. In 2016 he was awarded the Donna B. Hamilton Award for Teaching Excellence in General Education at the University of Maryland. In 2023 he won the Faculty Service Award for his service contributions to the College of Arts and Humanities.
Awards & Grants
2016 Donna B. Hamilton Award for for Teaching Excellence in General Education
Associate Professor Randy Ontiveros has won the Donna B. Hamilton Award for Teaching Excellence in General Education.
Author/Lead: Randy OntiverosAward Organization: Donna B. Hamilton
2015 USM Board of Regents' Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching
The Board of Regents' Faculty Awards are the highest honor presented by the Board of Regents to exemplary faculty members within the University System of Maryland.
Author/Lead: Randy OntiverosAward Organization: USM Board of Regents
Publications
In the Spirit of a New People: The Cultural Politics of the Chicano Movement
The book studies the literature, theater, music, non-fiction prose, and other creative genres of the Chicano civil rights movement.
Author/Lead: Randy OntiverosFocusing on cultural politics, Ontiveros reveals neglected stories about the Chicano movement and its impact: how writers used the street press to push back against the network news; how visual artists such as Santa Barraza used painting, installations, and mixed media to challenge racism in mainstream environmentalism; how El Teatro Campesino’s innovative “actos,” or short skits,sought to embody new, more inclusive forms of citizenship; and how Sandra Cisneros and other Chicana novelists broadened the narrative of the Chicano movement. In the Spirit of a New People articulates a fresh understanding of how the Chicano movement contributed to the social and political currents of postwar America, and how the movement remains meaningful today.
Read More about In the Spirit of a New People: The Cultural Politics of the Chicano Movement
In the Spirit of a New People: The Cultural Politics of a New People
Randy J. Ontiveros explores the ways in which Chicano/a artists and activists used fiction, poetry, visual arts, theater, and other expressive forms to forge a common purpose and to challenge inequality in America.
Author/Lead: Randy OntiverosReexamining the Chicano civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, In the Spirit of a New People brings to light new insights about social activism in the twentieth-century and new lessons for progressive politics in the twenty-first. Randy J. Ontiveros explores the ways in which Chicano/a artists and activists used fiction, poetry, visual arts, theater, and other expressive forms to forge a common purpose and to challenge inequality in America.
Focusing on cultural politics, Ontiveros reveals neglected stories about the Chicano movement and its impact: how writers used the street press to push back against the network news; how visual artists such as Santa Barraza used painting, installations, and mixed media to challenge racism in mainstream environmentalism; how El Teatro Campesino’s innovative “actos,” or short skits,sought to embody new, more inclusive forms of citizenship; and how Sandra Cisneros and other Chicana novelists broadened the narrative of the Chicano movement. In the Spirit of a New People articulates a fresh understanding of how the Chicano movement contributed to the social and political currents of postwar America, and how the movement remains meaningful today.
Read more at the publisher's website.
"No Golden Age: Television News and the Chicano Civil Rights Movement"
Examines patterns and omissions in television news coverage of the Chicano movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
Author/Lead: Randy OntiverosRead More about "No Golden Age: Television News and the Chicano Civil Rights Movement"
