Multilingual expert Araceli Tinajero is new CCNY Stuart Katz Professor

Professor and author Araceli Tinajero is The City College of New York’s 2023-2024 Stuart Z. Katz Professor in the Humanities & the Arts. The endowed professorship is supported by a $1 million gift to City College by distinguished alumnus Stuart Z. Katz, Esq., a 1964 graduate. 

A professor of Spanish at The City College who has taught Japanese in the past, Tinajero’s recent research, on the Caribbean in Asia and Asia in the Caribbean, exemplifies how CCNY, located in Harlem, is in so many ways a global crossroads. 

As Katz Professor, she will work on her latest book: "Asia in the Caribbean/El Caribe in Asia." It focuses on the work of contemporary Caribbean writers and artists that represent elements of the Far East (China, India, and Japan) and in the cultural production of writers and artists based in Asia.

About Dr. Araceli Tinajero 
Born and raised in Mexico City, Tinajero is a graduate of Rutgers University (Ph.D.). Before joining CCNY, she taught Japanese at the University of Wales in Britain and Spanish at Middlebury College in Vermont and at Yale University. She also teaches at the Graduate School, CUNY.

Her books are:

•  “El lector de tabaquería (El Lector: A History of the Cigar Factory Reader); 
• “Kokoro, una mexicana en Japón (Kokoro: A Mexican Woman in Japan); and 
• “Historia cultural de los hipanohablantes en Japón (A Cultural History of Spanish Speakers in Japan). 

Tinajero is the editor of the journals “Cultura y letras cubanas en el siglo XXI,” “Exilio y cosmopolitismo en el arte y la literatura hispánica,” and “Orientalisms of the Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian World.” In addition, she has co-edited two volumes: “Technology and Culture in Twentieth Century México” with J. Brian Freeman; and “Handbook on Cuban History, Literature, and the Arts: New Perspectives on Historical and Contemporary Social Change,” with Mauricio Font. She’s also the book review editor of the journal “Asia/América Latina.”

About Stuart Z. Katz Professorship
The Stuart Z. Katz Professorship in the Humanities & the Arts was established in 2017 by a generous gift from Stuart Z. Katz, a 1964 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of The City College. The endowment supports one outstanding professorial faculty member in the Division of Humanities & the Arts for an academic year, providing the professor up to two months of summer salary plus $10,000 to support research and creative activity. A retired attorney, Katz established the gift for the importance of the study of humanities and the arts for a thorough education and life.

About The City College of New York
Since 1847, The City College of New York has provided a high-quality and affordable education to generations of New Yorkers in a wide variety of disciplines. CCNY embraces its position at the forefront of social change. It is ranked #1 by the Harvard-based Opportunity Insights out of 369 selective public colleges in the United States on the overall mobility index. This measure reflects both access and outcomes, representing the likelihood that a student at CCNY can move up two or more income quintiles. Education research organization Degree Choices ranks CCNY #1 nationally among universities for economic return on investment. In addition, the Center for World University Rankings places CCNY in the top 1.8% of universities worldwide in terms of academic excellence. Labor analytics firm Emsi (now Lightcast) puts at $1.9 billion CCNY’s annual economic impact on the regional economy (5 boroughs and 5 adjacent counties) and quantifies the “for dollar” return on investment to students, taxpayers and society. At City College, more than 15,000 students pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in eight schools and divisions, driven by significant funded research, creativity and scholarship. This year, CCNY launched its most expansive fundraising campaign, ever. The campaign, titled “Doing Remarkable Things Together” seeks to bring the College’s Foundation to more than $1 billion in total assets in support of the College mission. CCNY is as diverse, dynamic and visionary as New York City itself. View CCNY Media Kit.