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Creative Writing Program welcomes poet and visual scholar Roberto Tejada

Dr. Tejada joins English Dept. as full professor and will contribute to School of Art

robertoIn August, Dr. Roberto Tejada will join the Department of English and its Creative Writing Program as the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of English and Creative Writing.

A poet and visual scholar, Dr. Tejada comes to the UH from Southern Methodist University, where he held the Distinguished Endowed Chair and Professorship in Art History, and The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williams College, where he was a visiting Fellow.

“A distinguished figure in the literary and arts communities in the United States, South and Central America, Dr. Tejada brings the Department and the University a wide range of artistic, cultural, and critical interests and expertise,” said Wyman Herendeen, chair of the Department of English.

Dr. Tejada is the author of five books of poetry, a translator, an essayist, art historian and critic. His multifaceted cultural studies investigations and creative activities have been recognized with numerous fellowships and grants including awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Foundation, Creative Capital Warhol Foundation and Brazilian university Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado.

He founded and co-edits the journal Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas and has served as executive editor of Artes de México and on the editorial board of the magazine Vuelta.

In his own words, Dr. Tejada said “my practice as a poet is linked to questions of culture, issues in ethics, and the dynamics of history. I advocate on behalf of Hispanic poets and writers who explore forms of Latinidad.”

As an art historian and curator, Dr. Tejada specializes in Latino and Latin American art.

His publications on art history include National Camera: Photography and Mexico’s Image Environment (2009) and Celia Alvarez Muñoz (2009) and, as co-editor, Modern Art in Africa, Asia and Latin America: An Introduction to Global Modernisms (2012).

Dr. Tejada has co-curated exhibitions on photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo and sculptor and photographer Luis Gispert.

“Roberto Tejada is one of the world's most incisive and inventive commentators on contemporary art in Latin America, as well as Latino art in the U.S.,” said Rex Koontz, director of the School of Art and an expert on art of the Ancient Americas.

“We applaud the University of Houston's English Department and Creative Writing program for recruiting Dr. Tejada,” he said, “and we look very forward to his contributions to our program in art history and criticism.”

Dr. Tejada earned a bachelor of arts in comparative literature from New York University and a PhD in interdisciplinary media studies from the English Department at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Prior to his appointment at SMU, he was a professor at the University of California at San Diego and the University of Texas at Austin.