Brian LeMeur
News and Online Editor
The college lost a friend, colleague, and mentor over spring break. Assistant Professor of English Laura Padilla passed away on Sunday March 16 due to complications from a long battle with breast cancer.
Padilla came to CC in 2006 as a Riley Scholar-in-Residence. She received her B.A. from Reed College in 1996, an M.A. from the Pennsylvania State University in 1999 and her Ph.D. from the University of Texas in 2006. She became an Assistant Professor in CC’s English department in 2007.
“Laura was our dear colleague – smart, witty, and warm,” Genevieve Love, chairwoman of the English department, told The Gazette.
Padilla was also a member of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies and worked hard to bring influential Chicano and Chicana literary figures to the Pikes Peak region. She was working on a book manuscript titled, “Land of Enchantment, Land of Mi Chante,” and presented a chapter from her book project, “The Priests: Fray Angelico, Rudolofo Anaya and Authority in Modern New Mexican Literature,” at a faculty research luncheon in 2010.
Padilla continued teaching in the face of a battle with cancer. She taught Introduction to Literary Theory, Mexican American Literature, Introduction to Native American Literature, Borderlands Theory, Song, and Literature, and Time, Place, and Inscription: The Author as Worldmaker, a senior seminar in the English department.
She also contributed to the Race and Ethnic Studies department and the Southwest Studies program at CC in her time at CC.
She is survived by her husband Peter Haney, who taught in the FYE program at CC and worked in the Writing Center.
There will be a memorial for Professor Padilla today at 3:30 p.m. in Shove Memorial Chapel.