Name: Maura I. Toro-Morn, Ph.D.
Title: Director of Latin American and Latino/a Studies and Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
Units: Latin American and Latino/a Studies and Sociology and Anthropology
Years at Illinois State: 30+ years
Tell us about your teaching and research in the College of Arts and Sciences?
“My career at ISU had unfolded into two significant parts. I was recruited in the 1990s to teach courses on the topics of race and ethnic relations at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. For example, the department needed someone to teach SOC 264, Minority Relations, a popular class required of social work and criminal justice majors. I taught it for many years and expanded its lens more in keeping with my training and sociological perspectives. In other words, I incorporated intersectional perspectives shaped by women of color. Today the class still exists in the curriculum but as a fully transformed course: Race, Class, and Gender Inequality. I also added global content through my research on gender and migration to other classes that I taught early in my career. In the second phase, I turned my focus to course development and leadership in Latin American and Latina/o Studies, particularly during the implementation of the University’s general education program. Today, Introduction to Latino Studies is a popular class in our program because it is connected to initiatives that seek to recruit and retain and create community and a sense of belonging among first time college students. Planning and organizing Latinx Heritage Month is also an important part of work as director of the program.”
What are your proudest accomplishments during your time at Illinois State?
“Given my tenure at ISU, it is hard to select one thing that I am proud of in terms of accomplishments. A quality that has characterized my academic life is the connection that exists between my teaching and research. I have devoted significant energies to developing classes and working with undergraduate and graduate students on topics that are closely aligned with my research. I am very proud to have been awarded the Distinguished Lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences. I am also very proud to have received the Strand Diversity Award twice as the only person at the institution that bears that honor. And lastly, I am very proud of having received the respect and honor of my Latino colleagues in the State of Illinois by having received ILACHE’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2025.”
What’s your favorite thing about Illinois State or the College of Arts and Sciences?
“There are many things I admire of the College of Arts and Sciences. The support of general education. The leadership the college has exercised through the most recent restructuring of the general education program. The college’s support Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, African American Studies, and Latin American and Latino/a Studies is also significant. But what I have most admired in the College of Arts and Sciences is the strong sense of community, interdisciplinarity, and collaboration.”
Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology Joan Brehm on Toro-Morn:
“Dr. Toro-Morn’s impressive and sustained body of work in teaching, scholarship, and service spans decades and continents and has left a powerful and lasting impact on how we view issues of migration, gender, power, and globalization. In 2019, she was awarded the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Lecturer honor, and she has been recognized for her scholarship and teaching accomplishments in many other venues, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Illinois Latino Council on Higher Education (ILACHE) in April 2025. We are deeply honored and grateful for her commitment to not only our department, but to ISU and the broader community of scholars and students that spans the globe.”
