Part 1: CUTV News Radio spotlights Dr. Nicolas Shumway

Houston, TX – Dr. Nicolas Shumway is a professor of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies. Throughout his 43-year career, he has gained wide recognition as a leader in international studies and foreign language education. For 11 years, Dr. Shumway served as director of the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He recently completed a seven-year appointment as Dean of Humanities at Rice University. He continues to hold the Frances Moody Newman Chair of Humanities, also at Rice.

Dr. Shumway’s scholarship explores Latin American history and culture with an emphasis on Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

Dr. Shumway has published two books on Argentina: The Invention of Argentina and Historia Personal De Una Pasión Argentina. “These books have shown me that we don’t choose our subjects; our subjects choose us. I’ve been in a dialogue with Argentina since my first visit there in 1975,” says Dr. Shumway, “and I continue thinking and writing about the country.”

“I love teaching, but I think a teacher’s goal is to become unnecessary,” says Dr. Shumway. “The teacher is the catalyst, but at some point, the subject has to take over, motivating students to continue studying because the subject itself is interesting, and not because some teacher has assigned it.”

Dr. Shumway is currently writing a third book that will explore contemporary problems in Latin America.