“I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn’t occur to me to burn the bookshop down. If you don’t like a book, read another book.”  

Rafael is an accounting major with a minor in psychology and will graduate in 2026. He is part of the Promising Scholars Program and is a recipient of the Sutton Scholarship. Rafael is proud to share that he is a Mexican, first-generation student, and he is the youngest of six children in his family and the only one to have attended college. He serves as secretary of LaSO (Latino Student Organization) and as vice president and community service chair for Lambda Sigma Upsilon Latino Fraternity, Inc. He is a member of UBORA Men of IUP and the IUP Ambassadors. Rafael is currently assisting the Dean’s Office in the Eberly College of Business with collaborative events between Hispanic students at IUP and students visiting from Yucatan. We thank you, Rafael!

Michael is a faculty member in the Department of English and is director of the Literature and Criticism doctoral program, for which he teaches British Literature, World Literary Theory, Classical Literature, Holocaust Literature, and Science Fiction. He has published articles and given conference presentations on 19th-century women’s poetry, women’s war writing, Holocaust poetry, romantic and symbolist poetry, surrealism, and science fiction. His background with war literature and conflict resolution enabled him to serve as a founding member of organizations that provide implicit bias training for law enforcement at IUP’s Criminal Justice Training Center. His expertise in world, classical, and European literatures led to his collaboration with Special Collections at the IUP Libraries and is essential to his work as codirector of the Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative. As faculty advisor to the English Graduate Organization from 2016 until earlier this year, Michael assisted with the group’s annual conference and organized student panel presentations for past IUP Banned Books Weeks. We thank you, Michael!

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