Since the 1990s, the Department of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies [LALACS] has hosted the César Chavez Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellowship. The fellowship has a long history of placing promising young Latino Studies scholars into the academic profession, including many leading figures of the field. We are immensely proud of that work of mentorship and scholarly excellence.
In light of recent information regarding the credible allegations against César Chavez, the LALACS tenure line faculty have unanimously voted to remove his name from the fellowship while keeping the original intent, to support scholars in the field of Latino Studies, intact. We agree that Chavez’ treatment of young girls and women is abhorrent and in direct opposition to the values we hold as educators who study the power dynamics of race, class, gender, and sexuality in our society. We stand in solidarity with his accusers and with women everywhere who have and continue to be victims of abuse.
In replacing the fellowship, our unit feels strongly that enshrining any single individual is a faulty enterprise and ultimately reductive. To that end, the tenure line faculty approved the new “Dissertation and Postdoctoral Fellowship in Latino Studies”. We have also reached out to past fellowship recipients and offered them the use of the new fellowship title for all professional needs.
*Dartmouth’s policy on institutional restraint requires the department to state that “the LALACS faculty does not speak for Dartmouth as a whole”.