UW professor found dead outside home
Meg Lanker
Monday, December 28, 2009 1:21 PM MDT
A popular professor at the University of Wyoming has died.
Laramie resident Margaret "Margie" Zamudio, 45, was found dead outside her home Saturday after a concerned resident called police shortly after noon after seeing boots outside of a snowdrift. Authorities discovered Zamudio's body outside her home at approximately 12:30 p.m.
According to Commander Mitchell Cushman of the Laramie Police Department, authorities do not believe any foul play was involved and Zamudio's death appears to be accidental. "We believe she stepped outside at some point, slipped and became unconscious. Due to the weather conditions, she most likely froze to death," he said.
On Friday and Saturday, temperatures in Laramie dipped into the single digits with wind chills as low as -20°F. Cushman said extreme winter weather conditions of this type can quickly take a toll on an individual.
Cushman said the investigation is ongoing and toxicology results could take six to eight weeks.
University of Wyoming President Tom Buchanan released a statement Monday. "I know I speak for the University of Wyoming community when I say we’re all saddened by Margaret’s death; we will all miss her and her contributions to UW very much," he said.
Zamudio was an associate professor at UW and taught several classes, specializing in Chicano studies and social inequality. According to the UW Department of Sociology's website, she was beginning research "examining the political economy of pre-1960's gendered migration to the U.S. with an emphasis on Salvadoran women."
She received her doctorate from the University of California in 1996 and focused her research on issues of immigration and labor, on race, class, and gender, and on critical race studies in education.
