Latin American and Latino Studies
2017-18 General Catalog
32 Merrill College
(831) 459-4284
http://lals.ucsc.edu
Program Statement | Course Descriptions
Faculty and Professional Interests
Professor
Lourdes Martínez-Echazábal, Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies
Latin American and Caribbean literatures; Afro-Latin American literatures, cultures, and societies; Latin American critical race theory; literatures of Cuba and the Cuban diaspora, cinema and social change in Cuba; gender and dissident sexualities in Latin American literature and cinema; queer theory in/and Latin America
Associate Professor
Gabriela Arredondo
Migration histories, Latina/o studies, Chicana/o history; U.S. social history; critical race and ethnicity theory; Feminist Chicana and Mexicana Histories; “borderlands” studies; history of modern Mexico
Sylvanna Falcón
Human rights, transitional justice, racism/antiracism, globalization, transnational feminism, Latin America (Peru)
Fernando Leiva
Latin American political economy; critical cultural political economy; social movements; state-society articulations under neoliberalism and post-neoliberalism; epistemologies of the South
Patricia Pinho
Brazil, race and ethnicity, blackness, whiteness, black diaspora and transnational black relations in the Americas, tourism, Latin American cultural studies, social and cultural theory
Catherine Ramirez
United States cultural history, with a focus on immigration and assimilation; theories of citizenship; Latino literature; comparative ethnic studies; feminist and gender studies; cultural studies and the study of visual culture
Cecilia M. Rivas
Transnationalism; media and communication (Internet, newspapers); migration; globalization; race, ethnicity, and gender; bilingualism; consumption; El Salvador, Central America, Southern Mexico
Jessica K. Taft
Youth activism; childhood and youth studies; social movements; participatory democracy; girls studies; Latin American radicalisms; feminist theory; qualitative and participatory research methods
Assistant Professor
Adrián Félix
International migration; Mexico-U.S. migration; migrant transnationalism; racial/ethnic politics and identity; politics of citizenship; Latino politics
Research Faculty
Peggy Estrada
Education; Latino and English learner students; linguistic, instructional, and curricular policies and practices and their consequences for core curricular access, achievement, and integration; pedagogy, instructional quality, and achievement; mixed methods
Emeritus Faculty
John G. Borrego
Jonathan Fox
Rosa-Linda Fregoso
Walter L. Goldfrank (Latin American and Latino Studies and Sociology)
Patricia Zavella
Participating Faculty
Mark D. Anderson, Anthropology
Racial formation, diaspora, nationalism, transnationalism, indigeneity, consumption, Central America, Honduras, Latin America, African diaspora
Jeffrey T. Bury, Environmental Studies
Political ecology; sustainable development; Latin American studies; international relations; institutional dimensions of natural resource conservation in the global south
Cynthia Cruz, Education
Feminist ethnography; community-based learning; decolonial pedagogies; LGBTQ street youth; women of color thought; cultural studies and education
Grace Peña Delgado, History
Chicano/a history; Mexico-US-Canadian borderlands; Latino/a studies; Asian and Asian American studies; immigration; gender and sexuality; modern Mexico and Latin America
Kent H. Eaton, Politics
Comparative politics, Latin America international relations, political economy, public policy, political institutions
Miriam Greenberg, Sociology
Urban sociology, media studies, cultural studies, political economy, globalization, and urban political ecology
Lisbeth Haas, History, Feminist Studies
U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Chicano and Native American history; visual culture in the colonial Americas; the U.S. West and California; historical memory, theory, and historical methodology
Eduardo Mosqueda, Education
Mathematics education of English learners; large-scale dataset quantitative analysis; urban education issues
Marcia Ochoa, Feminist Studies
Gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, Latina/o studies, media and cultural studies, ethnography of media, feminism, queer theory, multimedia production, Latin American studies—Colombia and Venezuela, political philosophy, geography
Juan Poblete, Literature
Latin(o) American literatures; transnational/global cultures (literature, radio, film); Latin(o) American cultural studies; 19th-century studies; the history of reading practices
Renya K. Ramirez, Anthropology
Native American studies, Indian identity, Native Americans and anthropology, urban Indians, Native American women, cultural citizenship, expressive culture, and anti-racist education
B. Ruby Rich, Social Documentation, Film and Digital Media
Specializes in documentary film and video, new queer cinema, feminist film history, Latin American and Latina/o cinema and other global/regional cinemas, U.S. independent film and video, the essay film, film festival studies, and the making/marketing of foreign films in the U.S.; editor of "Film Quarterly" advising on writing, editing, and journal submission
Barbara Rogoff, Psychology
Human development in sociocultural activity; informal and formal arrangements for learning; adult/child and peer communication in families and schools in diverse cultural communities (especially in Guatemala, Mexico, and the U.S.); learning through observation and collaboration
Felicity Amaya Schaeffer, Feminist Studies
Transnational feminism, migration, Latin American/Latino studies, Chicana/o studies, Internet, technology and the body, sexuality, gender and globalization
Helen Shapiro, Sociology
Political economy, Latin American economic history and development (with an emphasis on Brazil), industrial policy, the auto industry, the state and transnational corporations
Veronica Terriquez, Sociology
Immigrant incorporation, civic engagement, social inequality, Latinos in the U.S., youth transitions to adulthood, quantitative methods, mixed-method
Affiliated Faculty
Chelsea Blackmore, Anthropology
Pre-Columbian archaeology (Mesoamerican focus), identity formation, complex societies, class and state formation, gender, feminist/queer theory
Rebecca Covarrubias, Psychology
Culture, self, and identity; social representations of race, gender, and social class in educational/health contexts; student performance, belonging, and well-being; community and school interventions
Carolyn Dean. History of Art and Visual Culture
Cultural histories of the native Americas and colonial Latin America
Maria Elena Diaz, History
Atlantic world, Colonial Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuba; social and cultural, global and local histories; colonialism, slavery and freedom, race/ethnicity, gender and class; legal, political, popular, and religious culture
Robert W. Fairlie, Economics
Labor economics, entrepreneurship, education, applied econometrics
Dana Frank, History
Late 19th- and 20th-century U.S. social history, including women's, labor, and working-class history, race and ethnicity; modern Honduras; U.S. history in transnational perspective
Gregory S. Gilbert, Environmental Studies
Disease ecology, forest ecology, tropical ecology, biological invasions, conservation biology, applied evolutionary ecology
María Victoria González-Pagani, Spanish Language
Language teaching methodology; Spanish syntax; computer-assisted foreign language learning; Latin American cultural studies, especially women's contributions
Shelly Grabe, Psychology
Social movements, activism, and justice: women’s resistance/activism/empowerment; human rights; globalization/neoliberalism; transnational intersectionality/decolonial feminism; structural inequities; partnerships with grassroots organizations
Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Literature
Chicano/Latino literatures and cultures, Comparative Americas studies, language ideologies and bilingualism in literature
Daniel Guevara, Philosophy
Kant, moral philosophy, moral psychology, environmental ethics, history of modern philosophy
Craig Haney, Psychology
Applications of social psychological principles to legal settings, assessment of the psychological effects of living and working in institutional environments, social contextual origins of violence, development of alternative legal and institutional forms
Karen D. Holl, Pepper-Giberson, Environmental Studies
Restoration ecology, conservation biology, landscape ecology
Regina D. Langhout, Psychology
School-community-university collaboration; how schooling and neighborhood experiences are informed by social class, race, and gender; young people and empowerment; participatory action research
John Leaños, Social Documentation
Documentary animation, social documentation, social art practice, community arts, Chicana/o art and culture, new media, critical media studies, cultural studies, documentary photography, installation art, public art and interventionist art practice
Deborah Letourneau, Environmental Studies
Agroecology, tropical biology, insect-plant interactions, biological conservation for ecosystem services, biological processes as an alternative to pesticides, environmental risks of genetically engineered organisms, redwood forest community ecology
Kristina Lyons, Feminist Studies
Feminist and decolonial science studies, environmental humanities of the global South, politics of "nature" and "matter," ethnographic theory, literary ethnography and poetics, politics and the political in Latin America, socioenvironmental justice and ethics
Steven McKay, Sociology
Work and labor markets; globalization and social change; political sociology; race; masculinity; migration; ethnography/qualitative methods
Andrew Salvador Mathews, Anthropology
Environmental anthropology, science and technology studies, conservation and development, climate change, environmental history, Mexico, Latin America, Italy
Judit Moschkovich, Education and Mathematics
Mathematical thinking and learning; student conceptions of functions; mathematical discourse; everyday mathematical practices; bilingual mathematics learners
Matthew D. O’Hara, History
Modern Latin America and Mexico; late colonial Latin America; religion, spirituality, and ritual; urban history; race, ethnicity, and identity; political culture
Lucinda Pease-Alvarez, Education
Language and literacy development, language-minority education, bilingualism, informal learning, teachers as policy makers
Ana Maria Seara, Portuguese Language
Portuguese language; literature, film, and music of Brazil and the Portuguese-speaking world; acquisition and teaching of foreign, second, and heritage languages
Helen Shapiro, Sociology
Political economy, Latin American economic history and development (with an emphasis on Brazil), industrial policy, the auto industry, the state and transnational corporations
Amanda Smith, Literature
Contemporary Latin American literatures, indigeneity and shamanism, ecocritical theory, geocriticism, space and mapping
Kip Telléz, Education
Preparation of teachers for linguistic and cultural diversity, second language learning, studies of the school curriculum, educational assessment
Gustavo Vazquez, Film and Digital Media
Film and video production, documentary and experimental cross-cultural experiences in film
Rasmus Winther, Philosophy
Philosophy of science, philosophy of biology, philosophy of mind, pragmatism, Latin American philosophy, continental philosophy, philosophy of multiculturalism, post-colonial theory, feminism, ontology, evolutionary theory, cognitive science
Karen Tei Yamashita, Literature (Creative Writing)
History and anthropology of Japanese immigration to Brazil, Asian American literature, modern fiction, playwriting
Zac Zimmer, Literature
Contemporary and comparative colonial-contemporary Latin American literatures and cultural studies; science and technology in society; politics, aesthetics and technology; new media; science fiction
Revised: 09/01/17
