Ilenia Colon Mendoza was honored with the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching award for the College of Arts and Humanities at the 2013 Founder’s Day Convocation. Mendoza was nominated by Margaret Ann Zaho, an art history professor in the School of Visual Art and Design. She teaches art history and specializes in 17th century Spanish art.
In addition to the visual arts of the Baroque, she also studies Caribbean and Latin American art, and the art and architecture of Ancient Rome. Her book entitled The Cristos yacentes of Gregorio Fernandez: Polychrome Sculptures of the Supine Christ in Seventeenth-Century Spain examines the significance of the Cristo yacente sculptural type within the context of the theatrical elaborations of the Catholic Holy Week in Baroque Spain.