Phi Lambda Beta

Phi Lambda Beta is the national honor society for students of Portuguese. Originally founded in the 1960s at the Vanderbilt University Campus, Phi Lambda Beta is now under the auspices of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. It has over a dozen active chapters at universities throughout the United States. The society strives to stimulate greater interest in the advanced study of the Portuguese language and Luso-Afro-Brazilian cultures and literatures; reward outstanding achievement in the field; and strengthen ties between Portuguese college and university faculty members, their students, and the AATSP. It offers recognition to those students with high achievement in the area of advanced Luso-Afro-Brazilian Literature and Culture, both at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Read more about the society at the Phi Lambda Beta web site.

Members rank in the upper 35% of their college class, and have maintained a 3.0 or better GPA in their coursework in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese. Macalester’s chapter, Mu Nu, was begun in the spring of 2017. Chapter advisor, Professor Ernesto Ortiz-Díaz typically inducts neophytes at a special ceremony once a year, where the honors and obligations of the society are conferred on a new group of members.