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Marya Pulaski

@maryapulaski.bsky.social

Gastroenterology Fellow at Boston Medical Center | Penn Medicine / UMass Med Chan trained | Digestive Health, Food Justice, Health Equity, Harm Reduction | views my own

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Reposted by Marya Pulaski

Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 19/08/2025

I am pasting here the very beautiful remembrance written by our chair Patrick O'Malley, which helps give a sense of the generosity & humane intelligence that Ricardo radiated to everyone he ever came into contact with, no matter their place or station. It is an immeasurable loss.

It is with great sadness that the Office of the Provost shares that Professor Ricardo L. Ortiz passed away on Monday, August 18.

A member of Georgetown’s Department of English since 1998, Professor Ortiz's leadership included service as Chair of the English Department (2015–2021) and Director of the Master of Arts Program in Engaged and Public Humanities (2022-2025). As a scholar, teacher, and mentor, he left an immeasurable impact on the University.

Born in Cuba in 1961 and raised in Los Angeles, Professor Ortiz held a BA in English and Economics from Stanford University (1983), and an MA (1987) and PhD (1992) in English from UCLA. Before joining Georgetown, he taught at San José State University and Dartmouth College. He also served as Director of the American Communities Program and held the Joseph A. Bailey II, MD, Endowed Chair at California State University, Los Angeles from 2006 to 2007.

Professor Ortiz was a leading member of a generation of scholars whose research helped to institutionalize Latinx literary studies and Queer Studies in the United States. His first book, Cultural Erotics in Cuban America, was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2007; it was awarded Honorable Mention for the Modern Language Association’s 2008 Alan Bray Book Prize, which recognizes outstanding scholarly contributions to Queer Literary and Cultural Studies. His second book, Latinx Literature Now: Between Evanescence and Event, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2019. In addition, Professor Ortiz was the author of nearly forty articles, chapters, reviews, reference works, and online essays devoted to Latinx literature, queer theory, and gender studies, among other topics. At his passing, he was beginning a new book on Cuban Paris.

At Georgetown, Professor Ortiz was a deeply committed teacher and mentor, beloved by students and colleagues for his brilliance, warmth, and good humor. In addition to his offerings in the Department of English, he taught courses across the programs in American Studies, Comparative Literature, Performing Arts, and Women’s and Gender Studies. Professor Ortiz was especially devoted to underrepresented and first-generation students. Over the course of his career, he regularly taught in the Community Scholars Program, and he served as a faculty sponsor and ally for the Georgetown Scholarship Program, Casa Latina, the Black House Diversity Initiative, MEChA de Georgetown, the Georgetown LGBTQ Resource Center, the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access, the Center for Social Justice, the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor, the Patrick Healy Fellows, and the Provost’s Diversity Action Council. He was the recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Ally Award from both the LGBTQ Resource Center (2011) and the Georgetown Student of Color Alliance (2019).

In recent years, Professor Ortiz worked as an advocate for public humanities scholarship and teaching, a commitment that evolved out of his administrative leadership at Georgetown and his tenure as President of the Association of Departments of English (2022-2023). He helped to establish Georgetown’s new MA in Engaged and Public Humanities, which he has directed since 2022. One of his last published works was "How to Do Things with Public Humanities" (2025), which introduced the inaugural edition of the online journal Public Humanities, published by Cambridge University Press.

Professor Ortiz was a beloved teacher and tireless supporter of the humanities and of Georgetown. His students and colleagues will miss him tremendously, and we share our condolences with his family and loved ones. Professor Ortiz is survived by his partner, Paul O’Neill (C ‘86, MPP ‘96), his sisters, Ana and Ana, and his nephew Colin.

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Reposted by Marya Pulaski

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 01/07/2025

“There’s a level of terror I haven’t seen before.” A psychiatrist who provides care to undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles talks about the psychological harm caused by recent ICE raids and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

newyorker.com

What Therapists Treating Immigrants Hear

Some mental-health-care providers are trying new approaches to treat patients whose worst fears have come true.

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