Darrel Wanzer-Serrano wins Book of the Year award

Award is from the Critical/Cultural Studies Division of the National Communication Association
Monday, October 2, 2017

 

Darrrel Wanzer-Serrano
Darrel Wanzer-Serrano

Darrel Wanzer-Serrano, associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has received a top honor for his book, The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation (Temple University Press, 2015).

The National Communication Association announced that the book has been awarded the 2017 Book of the Year Award from its Critical/Cultural Studies Division. The award honors the best book published in the prior two years.

An August 2017 review in the Quarterly Journal of Speech (the journal of record for Wanzer-Serrano's field), said in part, "The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation serves as a model for scholars interested in race, ethnicity, and rhetorical theory of what culturally nuanced criticism should look like as he turns to liberation rather than democracy as a key frame.... While Wanzer-Serrano’s intersectional rhetoric is itself an important contribution, his exploration of the relationship between decoloniality and love is significant and compelling....  The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation is a carefully crafted project that not only examines decoloniality and revolutionary nationalism, but also performs and embodies decoloniality. The book is an important first step in decolonizing rhetorical studies."

Book coverThe Young Lords were a revolutionary, multi-ethnic, grassroots political organization comprising young men and women throughout New York City. It had branches across the country, including in Puerto Rico.

Wanzer-Serrano, whose research interests focus on the relationships between race, political possibilities, and rhetoric in the United States, joined the UI faculty in 2012. He is editor of the collection The Young Lords: A Reader (New York University Press, 2010), and in 2012 received the Córdova & Puchot Award for Scholar of the Year by the Latino/Latina Communication Studies Division and La Raza Caucus of the National Communication Association.

 

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.