The American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) has named Israel Herrera-Cárdenas, a Teaching Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese within the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington (IUB), the winner of the 2023 AATSP Outstanding Service Award.
The AATSP promotes the study and teaching of the Spanish and Portuguese languages and their corresponding Hispanic, Brazilian and other related literatures and cultures at all levels of education.
Spotlight: Israel Herrera-Cárdenas
Professor Herrera-Cárdenas has served as President of the Indiana Foreign Language Teachers’ Associations (IFLTA), and twice as President of the AATSP-Indiana chapter. “Under Israel’s leadership, new committees were formed to fulfill the needs and gaps of underrepresented groups, giving voice to minority groups such as Portuguese teachers and students, and highlighting the accomplishments of heritage speakers of both languages at the middle school, high school and university levels,” according to an AATSP announcement.
“It was a huge honor to receive this prestigious award in Salamanca, Spain that recognized my dedicated service to the profession, to several world language organizations, to the community, and to Indiana University” said Herrera-Cárdenas. “Service will always be a part of my personal and professional life and representing IU in any way with what I do will always be a great pleasure.”
“This latest recognition of Prof. Herrera-Cárdenas’ service to the field, the profession, and to communities in Indiana and beyond exemplifies the excellence of those among the College’s non-tenure track faculty who achieve the rank of teaching professor, a rank only recently created on campus,” said Rick Van Kooten, Executive Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
The American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese was founded in 1917 in New York City as the American Association of Teachers of Spanish. The name was changed in 1944 to reflect the addition of Portuguese to the Association’s mission.
In addition to his teaching and research, Prof. Herrera serves as the outreach coordinator for the department and the faculty advisor for the Spanish Theater group (VIDA), the Grupo Ñ (Spanish Club), Sigma Delta Pi (National Collegiate Hispanic Honor Society), the International Latin American and Spain Student Association, and the Iberoamerican Film Crew. He organizes the Spanish and Portuguese Song Festival, Film Series at the IU Cinema, and different cultural activities for the Hispanic Heritage Month on campus and in the Bloomington community.