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."
The 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.