November

Honoring the life of Laresh Jayasanker, Ph.D.

MSU Denver mourns the loss of a talented and passionate history professor.

November 27, 2018

Associate Professor of History Laresh Jayasanker died Nov. 19 at age 46 after a struggle with pancreatic cancer. Services will be held Friday at 10 a.m. at the Olinger Chapel Hill Mortuary and Cemetery, 6601 S. Colorado Blvd. in Centennial. Donations can be made in Jayasanker’s name to Food Bank of the Rockies, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network or the Sierra Club.

Jayasanker joined the MSU Denver faculty in 2011 and before that taught at Carroll University and the University of Texas at Austin and as a high school social-studies teacher. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, a master’s degree in education from Stanford University and a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas at Austin. His research focused on immigration- and globalization-spurred transformations in U.S. food culture. In addition to publishing numerous articles on the topic, he completed a book manuscript that is expected to be published posthumously.

Jayasanker is remembered as an outstanding teacher, advisor and mentor to MSU Denver students, especially history students who aspired to teach. He taught popular courses on recent U.S. history, race and ethnicity in American history, methods of teaching history and food in American history — which always ended with him treating the class to a nice lunch. He is survived by his wife, Susanne, daughters Holly and Ella, parents M.R. and Theresa, and sisters Lara and Leah.