Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 2, 2008|Volume 36, Number 28|Two-Week Issue

Stephen Pitti

Alumnus Stephen Pitti named
new master of Ezra Stiles College

Stephen Pitti ’91 B.A., professor in the American Studies Program and director of the Program in Ethnicity, Race and Migration, has been appointed as the new master of Ezra Stiles College, for a term of five years, effective July 1.

Joining Pitti as the residential college’s associate master will be his wife, Alicia Schmidt Camacho, the Sarai Ribicoff Associate Professor of American Studies.

“It is a relatively rare occasion when a person who was once a student in a residential college then becomes its master,” wrote President Richard C. Levin in a letter to the Stiles community announcing Pitti’s appointment.

Levin noted that Pitti was “part of a college era when Stiles dominated the Tyng Cup” — an accomplishment to which the alumnus “contributed personally” while playing on the intramural basketball, baseball, softball and soccer teams. “There are those today in other residential colleges who likely will be made very nervous by this announcement, knowing that the new master’s IM history bodes ill for the future possession of the Tyng,” wrote the president.

During his years as a Yale undergraduate 1987-1991, Pitti majored in history. He was one of the first students to be awarded the Mellon Fellowship, a pipeline program developed to encourage minority students to earn Ph.D.s. Under the auspices of that fellowship, he worked with Howard Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History and former president of the University. Pitti was also active in many aspects of the Yale and New Haven communities — playing with the Yale Precision Marching Band, taking part in MEChA through the Latino Cultural Center, coordinating Yale volunteers at Columbus House and serving as a student recruiter for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

Pitti later earned his M.A. and Ph.D. at Stanford, and came to Yale as an assistant professor of history and American studies in 1998, with a specialty in Mexican-American studies and in immigration reform.

The new Stiles master is the author of “The Devil in Silicon Valley: Northern California, Race and Mexican Americans” and is currently working on “The World of Cesar Chavez,” now in process with Yale University Press. The Council on Foreign Relations has published his “Dynamics of Immigration and Integration in the Western Hemisphere.” In April 2007, he testified before Congress on the issue of immigration reform.

He has been the director of the Ethnicity, Race and Migration Program at Yale since 2005, has chaired the Faculty Advisory Committee of the Mellon-Mays and Bouchet Fellowships, and is a member of the President’s Minority Advisory Committee. He is also a member of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the Yale-New Haven Teacher’s Institute, where he has twice been an instructor, and served Ward 1 in New Haven as a member of the Democratic Committee 2004-2006.

Schmidt Camacho focuses her research on topics such as the feminicide in Ciudad Juárez in Mexico, transnational migration, border governance and social movements in the Americas. Her book “Migrant Imaginaries: Latino Cultural Politics in the Mexico-U.S. Borderlands” examines the relationship between Mexican and Mexican-American expressive culture and the practices sustaining labor and social movements.

Since 2003, Schmidt Camacho has been a member of a bi-national consortium of feminist scholars and activists working to document and contest the murders of poor girls and women in the border state of Chihuahua, Mexico. She has written extensively on the human rights violations and gender violence that include the killing of an estimated 480 girls and women in Chihuahua and Ciudad Juárez, and her articles on feminicide have been published in journals and books, both in Mexico and the United States.

A graduate of Columbia University, Schmidt Camacho earned her M.A. and Ph.D. at Stanford University. At Yale’s 2007 Commencement, she was honored with the Sarai Ribicoff Award for the Encouragement of Teaching in Yale College. Her award citation praised her for incorporating literature, the visual arts, music, film, theater, historical documents and personal testimony in her classes and for her passion for her subject and deep commitment to her students.

Accompanying Pitti and Schmidt Camacho to Ezra Stiles will be their twins, Antonio and Thalia, who are in the first grade at St. Thomas’ Day School, and the family’s four-year-old Boston terrier, Henry.

In his letter, Levin thanked the current Stiles master and associate master — Stuart Schwartz, professor of history, and Maria Jordan, senior lector in Spanish — for their stewardship of the college during the past five years.

“They brought to Stiles warmth and friendliness, and together continued the hospitality, good will and ‘spirit of The Moose’ for which Stiles masters have long been known,” wrote Levin. “Professor Schwartz also made a great contribution to the future of Stiles by overseeing the complex first portion of the future renovation plans. His patience and energy in helping the college to shape its future will be enjoyed by Stilesians for many years to come.” Levin expressed his hope that the couple “will return to the college often, before the renovation, and after, to enjoy the transformation they helped to develop.”

The president also expressed his gratitude for the work done by the members of the search committee, chaired by Paul Fry, former Stiles master and the William Lampson Professor of English. Other members of the committee were Professors Aníbal González-Perez and Francesca Trivellato; Laurie Ongley ES ’81, managing editor of Yale College Publications; and students Martin Erzinger, Fentress Fulton, Anna Goddu, Nicholas Kline, Colin O’Leary and Suzanne Salgado.

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