Felipe Hinojosa, Latino civil rights historian from Texas A&M, to speak at 125th Commencement
Felipe Hinojosa will be the keynote speaker at Goshen College’s 125th commencement ceremony on Sunday, April 30, 2023 at 3 p.m. in the Roman Gingerich Recreation-Fitness Center. Hinojosa is a civil rights historian whose research is focused on how Latino communities have harnessed the power of faith to improve their daily lives. He is a professor of history, assistant provost for Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) initiatives, and director for the Carlos H. Cantú Hispanic Education & Opportunity Endowment at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He served on the Goshen College Board of Directors for 12 years from 2009-2021.
Hinojosa’s work and research has all centered around the intersection of religion and politics, a topic that is deeply personal for him and has shaped his world view from a young age. Growing up as the son of a Mennonite pastor in the Texas/Mexico borderlands exposed Hinojosa to the power of the Gospels and how communities can harness religion and politics at the grassroots level to do good and implement change.
Hinojosa’s work examining non-religious movements in religious spaces has appeared in Zócalo Public Square, Western Historical Quarterly, Mennonite Quarterly Review, American Catholic Studies, and in multiple edited collections on Latino Studies. He is the author of two award-winning books. The first, Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical Culture (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014), won the 2015 Américo Paredes Book Award for the best book in Mexican American and Latino Studies. The second and most recent book, Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio (University of Texas Press, 2021), was awarded the 2022 Outstanding Book Award by the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education.
He is currently working on a third book about the Latino civil rights movement and its impact in a post-World War II America.
Tickets are required for this year’s commencement ceremony, and are provided to graduates to distribute, though all other events during the weekend are open to the public. Masks are optional for all event attendees. The event will be streamed live at goshen.edu/livestream. See the graduation webpage (goshen.edu/graduation) for a full schedule of events and other helpful information about Commencement Weekend.
Weekend Activities Schedule:
Note: Masks are optional at all events
See the graduation webpage (goshen.edu/graduation) for a full schedule of events and other helpful information about Commencement Weekend.
Saturday, April 29, 2023
1-5 p.m. – Department receptions
2 p.m. – Nurses’ Pinning Ceremony, Church-Chapel
7:30 p.m. – Baccalaureate Celebration & Reception, Music Center’s Sauder Concert Hall
Sunday, April 30, 2023
3 p.m. – 125th Annual Commencement Ceremony, with address by Felipe Hinojosa, Roman Gingerich Recreation-Fitness Center. Admission tickets are required.
Spanish translation headsets and assisted listening devices are available for all who need them. ASL translation is also offered and the space is wheelchair accessible. (For those unable to attend, watch the live-streaming of the ceremony at goshen.edu/livestream.)