Jun 16, 2020

The 2020 Rhetoric Department Citation is awarded to graduating senior Mateo Montoya. Mateo Montoya is graduating with honor’s in Rhetoric with a minor in History. His honor’s thesis, “The French State in Public View: Jacques Necker’s Compte rendu au roi (1781) and its Legacy,” is a study of state transparency and its effect on empowering citizens. A native of Eureka, CA, at Berkeley, Mateo served as a caseworker in the Student Advocate’s Office, and helped to draft and pass the Student Basic Needs Referendum. He was also a student leader in the development of ethically- and historically-centered curriculum for Data Science courses as part of the Division of Data Sciences and Information. In Fall 2020, Mateo will begin his studies in the doctoral program in the History of Science at Harvard University.