Three faculty members from the College of Arts & Letters are being honored by the university as recipients of 2024-25 Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awards. These awards, presented by MSU’s Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion, recognize exceptional and innovative contributions that advance diversity, equity, and inclusion at Michigan State University through their teaching, research, programming, service, community outreach, and/or organizational change.
Two of the College of Arts & Letters faculty are receiving individual Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awards. They are Jonathan Choti, Associate Professor of African Languages and Cultures in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures, and Leonora Souza Paula, Assistant Professor of Literary Studies in the Department of English.
Another College of Art & Letters faculty member, Delia Fernández-Jones, Associate Dean for Equity, Justice, and Faculty Affairs in the College of Arts & Letters, Associate Professor of History in the College of Social Science, and core faculty member of Chicano/Latino Studies, is part of the Counseling and Psychiatric Services/College of Arts & Letters/Graduate School/Career Services/Womxn of Color Initiative collaborative team that is receiving a Team Award.
This year’s Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award Ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 6, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the University Club.
For a complete list of all the 2024-25 winners, including information about each recipient, see the 2024-25 Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Awards article in MSU Today.
Jonathan Choti
In addition to his role as Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures, Jonathan Choti is a core faculty member of the African Studies Center and a faculty affiliate with the Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities program and the Center for Gender in Global Context.
He teaches Swahili language classes and courses focusing on African cultures. He also is the faculty director of the Sustainable Community Development in Tanzania, a six-week summer education abroad program. Through his teaching, he employs a range of approaches that consider the diverse needs and backgrounds of all students to create a learning environment where all students feel valued and have equal access to learning.
Choti has consistently launched and participated in diversity, equity, and inclusion-related initiatives that promote and educate internal and external communities about domestic and global issues. He has achieved remarkable success through public lectures, research, training workshops, curriculum design, mentoring, and teaching.
His collaboration with the Naitolia Village of northern Tanzania and faculty from the University of Dar es Salaam addressed livelihood challenges and the needs of this rural community in ethical and culturally proper ways. This partnership was supported by a Residential College in the Arts and Humanities Network for Global Civic Engagement Grant and an Office for Institutional Diversity and Inclusion Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant. Choti also has collaborated with faculty in Uganda and Kenya on diversity, equity, and inclusion projects.
“Dr. Choti has been a mainstay of global cultural engagement, collaborations, and partnerships. His strong advocacy and unwavering commitment to education and research that advance DEI locally and globally have been wide-ranging, innovative, and highly impactful.”
Yen-Hwei Lin, Interim Dean of the College of Arts & Letters
“Dr. Choti is keen on advancing DEI locally and globally, and his effort goes above and beyond his job description, especially in fostering engagement, collaborations, and partnerships as well as promoting learning and educating for inclusivity,” wrote Yen-Hwei Lin, Interim Dean of the College of Arts & Letters, in her letter nominating Choti for the award. “Dr. Choti has been a mainstay of global cultural engagement, collaborations, and partnerships. His strong advocacy and unwavering commitment to education and research that advance DEI locally and globally have been wide-ranging, innovative, and highly impactful.”
Galen Sibanda, Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the African Languages Program in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures, supported Choti’s nomination for the award. He wrote: “Dr. Choti’s sustained effort in advancing DEI is innovative, extends beyond his assigned duties, reaches past MSU, and cuts across several categories. His efforts in promoting learning and educating for inclusivity through teaching and curriculum design have been highly impactful.”
Leonora Souza Paula
With expertise in Literary Studies and Latin American Studies, Leonora Souza Paula’s scholarship focuses on the intersections of race, gender, urban culture, and memory in contemporary Afro-Brazilian and Afro-diasporic cultures. Her research investigates the Black spatial imagination, exploring its transformative role in reclaiming literature and cultural expression as tools for heritage preservation and epistemic reparation.
Paula bridges the gap between academic research and public engagement, advancing the global conversation on equity, cultural preservation, and reparative justice. In recognition of her exceptional impact on global public engagement, she was honored with the 2024 Michigan State University GenCen Inspiration Award. This award highlights her commitment to addressing critical racial justice issues and her accountability to marginalized communities.
Through her interdisciplinary work, Paula continues to shape critical discussions at the intersections of literature, culture, and the impact of the public humanities in international collaboration, inspiring academic and non-academic audiences worldwide. Her work reflects her leadership in advancing scholarship at the intersection of traditional research and community engagement.
“Dr. Paula is doing excellent DEIJ work across the range of our research, teaching, service, and community outreach and engagement missions. She is a committed public intellectual who shares her knowledge generously to advocate for marginalized voices and perspectives.”
Justus Nieland, Chairperson of the Department of English
In her letter nominating Paula for the award, Laurie Medina, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, wrote: “Leonora has made a significant impact through her scholarship, her teaching and mentoring, and her engagement/advocacy work with and for Black communities on campus, across the U.S., and at a diasporic scale. She has worked tirelessly to bridge these scales through collaborations between MSU and organizations in the U.S., Latin America, and Africa that enrich scholarly conversations and support the development of new coalitions and strategies in pursuit of racial and gender justice. Her public engagement also extends well beyond academia, as she applies the theoretical insights that shape her scholarship to racial and gender justice challenges in real-world contexts and at a global scale…Her leadership in pursuing justice — through global coalitions and in global venues such as the UN — is not only exemplary, it is a great credit to our institution.”
Supporting this nomination was Justus Nieland, Professor and Chairperson of the Department of English, who wrote: “Dr. Paula is doing excellent DEIJ work across the range of our research, teaching, service, and community outreach and engagement missions. She is a committed public intellectual who shares her knowledge generously to advocate for marginalized voices and perspectives. This work is making a clear, tangible impact on our department, college, and the various communities served by Dr. Paula’s scholarship and expertise.”
Delia Fernández-Jones
As Associate Dean for Equity, Justice, and Faculty Affairs for the College of Arts & Letters, Delia Fernández-Jones works to create and sustain equitable relationships and policies. Since 2021, she also has served as the Womxn of Color Initiative Director at Michigan State University, an initiative that works to make sure womxn of color have access to holistic and culturally validating support and resources.
Through her role as the Womxn of Color Initiative Director, Fernández-Jones collaborated with others across campus including Ashley Bustamante, Meg Moore, Theresa Murphy, and Jessica Oyoque Barron to establish the Navigating Mental Health and the Job Market: A Graduate Womxn of Color and Allies Workshop Series, which offered support for graduate womxn of color. This work earned the team the Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Team Award.
The workshop series focused on career-based strategies and resources and provided socio-emotional management skills to address graduate-level systems and expectations. All activities were designed to help graduate students discover possibilities outside academia to help prepare them to navigate industry and academic job markets. The series was followed up with In Transition Group Therapy provided by Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS). These free group counseling services offer ongoing emotional and social support.
“This collaboration provides a model for how to work across units to truly serve marginalized communities on campus.”
Terah Venzant Chambers, Associate Dean of MSU’s Graduate School
This collaboration models a public health framework, using existing community-based and departmental resources to address public health needs, particularly for marginalized groups at a predominantly white institution. It further proves best practices in collaboration across units, staff, and faculty members through effective communication and organization.
Terah Venzant Chambers, Associate Dean of MSU’s Graduate School and Professor in the College of Education, supported the nomination for the team award and wrote: “These individuals leveraged their time and resources to fill a gap in services and tailored them to the womxn of color’s intersectional identities and the obstacles they face. The pairing of grounding exercises, practical job market strategies and tips, and socio-emotional skill building provides a holistic approach that each of their respective units could not do alone. Lastly, to follow this up with a group therapy meeting that will take students throughout the rest of year shows how these collaborators understood the issue the students face. A workshop series is helpful, but also could not provide everything the students need to handle the stress that this time in their lives brings. This collaboration provides a model for how to work across units to truly serve marginalized communities on campus.”
