Carlos Diego Arenas Pacheco

Research Communications and Events, Institute Coordinator

Carlos Diego Arenas Pacheco is the Research Communications and Events Institute Coordinator for the Pulte Institute for Global Development. Carlos is an educator at heart, a technologist by chance, and a humanist by profession. He has over 15 years of experience deploying his knowledge of languages, pedagogy, public speaking, and IT to serve the public good. Before coming to the University of Notre Dame in 2017, he taught the Nahuatl language to over 200 people while working for the Comisión Nacional para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas (Mexico). At the Medieval Institute at Notre Dame, Carlos platformed the work of Indigenous intellectuals and translators as the main organizer, project manager, and technology coordinator for the Indigenous Storytelling/Narraciones Indígenas virtual conference hosted by ND International.

Carlos’ research in the humanities deals with the historical roots and legacy of residential schools for non-European and Indigenous children from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. His research has been published in the Journal of World Literature and has been recognized with awards from the National Academy of Education, the Spencer Foundation, the John Carter Brown Library, and the Newberry Library, among other institutions. He is still an active educator, teaching Latin and other languages at Notre Dame.

Carlos holds a Ph.D. and a master’s in Medieval Studies from the University of Notre Dame, a Master’s in Humanities from the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana – Iztapalapa (Mexico City), and a Licenciatura in Philosophy from Universidad La Salle (Mexico City). An avid self-taught polyglot, Carlos has a professional command of over five languages, including Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Swedish, Latin, and Nahuatl, as well as a deep understanding of over 15 other written languages, from Japanese to Farsi.