Professor Profile: Madeleine Lopez

by Emily Gerston
FEATURES EDITOR

This is part of a series on the staff and employees of Hamilton College. The series is an attempt to foster communication between faculty, staff, employees and students to create a more cohesive Hamilton community. Madeleine Lopez is Consulting Director of the Cultural Education Center and Lecturer in education.

What brought you to Hamilton?

I left New York City to come with my husband, Chad Williams, associate professor in the History Department. Family is paramount to me, so I wanted all of us to be together.

How did you get to where you are today?

I took the “road less traveled,” literally, and ended up in Clinton, New York.

What is your specialty in your field?

Latino history and history of education.

What are your research interests?

I have two big ones: documenting the Puerto Rican experience in the United States and creating a culturally relevant curriculum for students.

What are your passions outside of academics?

My children, Gabriel and Michael.

What is your favorite Hamilton College tradition?

Class and Charter Day.

If you could go back in time to when you were in college and give yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?

True love will find you. You don’t have to settle.

What’s currently in your car CD player? (or, if that’s not applicable, if someone were to open your mp3 player to “last played,” what would it be?)

MANA, Te Solte la Rienda; Cee-Lo Green, Forget You; U2, One Love.

What are you currently reading?

Chicano!: the History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement by Arturo Rosales and David Rogers and 110 Livingston Street: Politics and Bureaucracy in the New York City School System by David Rogers.

Commons, McEwen or Diner?

McEwen.

If you could have any other profession in the world, what would it be and why?

Writer for a TV detective drama series, ideally Law & Order. Watching Law & Order is an enjoyable pastime, so I imagine that it would be an easy job.