M.A. Samad-Matías Memorial Service

The Passing of Professor Margarita-Asha Samad-Matías

The Colin Powell School mourns the loss of Professor Margarita-Asha Samad-Matías, who served for fifty years as a member of our Anthropology Department. She passed away on Friday, September 8. Professor Samad-Matías came to CCNY in 1973. Over the course of her five decades at City College, she taught across a range of programs and departments from Black Studies to Anthropology; she also served for a time as Director of the Women's Studies Program. She was a fierce advocate for CCNY students and remained committed to diversifying the curriculum.

Professor Samad-Matías spoke five languages and brought an enormous wealth of personal and professional experience to the classroom. She was known for holding students to high standards, making them engage deeply with the most pressing global and local issues of our times. Her signature courses focused on medical anthropology and always placed human rights at the core of the social sciences. She was an expert on immigrant and refugee rights and spent years conducting human rights work within and outside of the academy. She embodied the best of public scholarship in these pursuits. Professor Samad-Matías received her BA from Hunter College and an MA from NYU.

We learned of her death from her daughter, Laala-Yasmin Matías. We send our deepest condolences to Ms. Matías, the entire Samad-Matías family, and all of the friends and former students of Professor Samad-Matías.

Please join us to remember our dear colleague and friend who passed away on September 8th, 2023.

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