Marysa Navarro-Aranguren, the Charles A. and Elfriede A. Collins Professor Emerita in History at Dartmouth College, passed away on March 2. She was 90 years old.
Dr. Navarro-Aranguren taught at Rutgers University, Yeshiva University, Kean College, and Long Island University before beginning her 42-year career with Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. During her long tenure, she was a champion for coeducation, supporting women faculty, and advancing the field of Latin American studies.
When Dr. Navarro-Aranguren arrived at Dartmouth in 1968, the Ivy League school only taught male students. She was a key leader in sparking discussions to open the school to women students, leading to the board’s decision to make Dartmouth coeducational in 1972. Throughout her career, she advocated for the recruitment of more women faculty and staff, demanded equal pay for her fellow women colleagues, and helped establish on-campus day care.
Dr. Navarro-Aranguen established and chaired what is now Dartmouth’s women’s, gender, and sexuality studies program, as well as the Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean studies program. She also supported the development of the college’s Native American and Indigenous studies program. In 1985, she became the first woman to serve as associate dean of social sciences. After retiring from Dartmouth in 2010, she became a permanent resident scholar at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University.
As an academic, Dr. Navarro-Aranguen dedicated her career to disseminating Latin American history and feminism. She was the author of numerous scholarly publications and nine books, including an influential biography of Eva Perón published in Spanish and Women in Latin America and the Caribbean: Restoring Women to History (Indiana University Press, 1999). She served on the editorial board for several journals and had stints as president of the New England Council for Latin American Studies and the Latin American Studies Association.
A native of Pamplona, Spain, Dr. Navarro-Aranguen earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York City.