May 26, 2003
UCSC celebrates the life of Lionel Cantu on May
30
By Jennifer McNulty
The sudden death last year of 36-year-old sociologist Lionel Cantú
stunned his family, friends, and colleagues at UC Santa Cruz, who have
established a memorial scholarship fund to honor Cantú's life
and work.
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Lionel Cantú Photo: UCSC
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The first scholarships will be presented during a celebration of Cantu's
life on Friday, May 30.
Cantú, an assistant professor of sociology at UCSC, died of
cardiac arrest May 26, 2002, while hospitalized after suffering a ruptured
intestine earlier in the week.
Funded by more than $10,000 in contributions in Cantú's memory,
the Lionel Cantú Memorial Award Fund was established to support
graduate students who are pursuing studies in one or more of the areas
in which Cantú worked: immigration studies, transnational/cross-border
studies, Latino/Latina sociology, gender and sexuality, and gay men
and masculinity. The fund will be administered by the UCSC Chicano/Latino
Research Center (CLRC).
The first recipient of the Lionel Cantú Memorial Award Fund
will be named during a May 30 tribute, "A Celebration of Life:
Lionel Cantú as Scholar, Mentor and Activist." Craig Reinarman,
a professor of sociology and chair of the Sociology Department, will
announce the recipient during a memorial gathering from 3 to 5 p.m.
on the lawn adjacent to College Eight.
The day's celebration will also include a sociology colloquium--presented
by several of Cantús graduate students on the significance
of his mentoring and activism--from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in the Red Room
at College Eight. Cantú's parents will present UCSC Chancellor
M.R.C. Greenwood with Cantú's library and papers, which will
be permanently housed at the Womens Studies Library at Kresge
College on the UCSC campus.
In addition to the UCSC memorial fund, the UC Office of the President's
Postdoctoral Fellowship Program has created The Lionel Cantú
Memorial Fellowship to recognize Cantú's support of the fellowship
program. Each year, a Lionel Cantú Postdoctoral Fellow engaged
in research on international migration, HIV/AIDS, Latino/a Studies,
Feminist Studies, or Queer Theory will be named.
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