CSRC Affiliated Graduate Students

Below are UCLA graduate students currently doing Chicana/o-related research. To be added to this page, email the center with your information.

Milo M. Alvarez. Ph.D. Student, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles. Mr. Alvarez dissertation will examine the Brown Berets of Aztlan in a national and comparative urban context. In particular, I intend to compare the activities and development of Brown Beret organizations in California and the Midwest as a window to understanding how the Chicano Movement unfolded in “Aztlan” and “Aztlan Afuera.” In addition, to outlining Movement “precursors” this dissertation will discuss issues revolving around nationalism, alliances with 'third world' struggles at home and abroad, political repression, masculinity and the organization’s decline, within the backdrop of the War on Poverty, the Antiwar Movement, urban unrest and anti-colonial, anti-imperial struggles abroad.

Nadine Bermudez. UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, Social Science and Comparative Education, Race and Ethnic Studies. Community College Chicano/a studies instructor. Serves as the UCLA CSRC Graduate Representative to the Faculty Advisory Committee and is a UCLA CSRC Graduate Associate. Interests: Chicanos/as in education, Chicana feminism, Chicano/a culture. Dissertation: "Mendez v. Westminster: The Story of a Mexican American Community's Battle to End Race Discrimination in their Neighborhood Schools."

Rebeca Burciaga. UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, Social Science and Comparative Education, Race and Ethnic Studies. Interests: Chicana feminist theory/methodology/epistemology in education, student of color access to GATE and AP programs, social mobility, racialized gender discrimination, testimonio as method, nepantla. Dissertation: "Having It All: Chicanas' Aspirations of Family and the Professoriate."

Nolan León Cabrera, UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, Higher Education and Organizational Change. Interests: Chicana/o student-specific models of college student retention; Latina/o perceptions of campus racial climate; Hegemonic Whiteness in higher education; impacts of dismantling affirmative action on underrepresented minority students.

Bert María Cueva, UCLA Women's Studies Program. Interests include Chicana Feminisms (methods/theory production); American Indian Feminisms (pedagogy); and non-conventional methodological approaches in feminist analysis, predominantly through indigenous, colonial, “third world,” and post-colonial frameworks.

John Alba Cutler. UCLA Department of English. Chicana/o literature, identity politics, violence and mass media.

Vilma Enriquez-Haass. UCLA School of Public Health, Department of Community Health Sciences. Interests: Immigrant health from a life-course perspective, social-stratification of health, access and utilization of health services, Latino Epidemiological Paradox, Gerontology and mental health. Current research: Determinants of health status among US day laborers.

Robb Hernandez. UCLA Department of Film, TV and Digital Media. Queer Chicano Visual Culture, Media Geographies, Audience Theory, Queer TV. MA Thesis: "Cine Chicano Interrupted: The Oppositional Narratives of Chicano Film and Video Artists in Queer Los Angeles."

Gloria Gonzalez, UCLA Department of Sociology. Interests: Race and Ethnicity, Chicana Feminist Theory, Gender, Education. Current Project: Body Image Influences for Mexican Immigrant and Chicana Adolescent Girls.

Rita Gonzalez. UCLA Department of Film, Television & Digital Media. Dissertation: Incidents of Travel: Translocated Identities in Contemporary Mexican and Latino Media and Visual Art. Also, editorial associate for A Ver: Revisioning Art History, the first monograph project devoted to Latina/o artists.

Linda Greenberg. UCLA English Department. Interests: Comparative approaches to contemporary Chicano/Latina and Asian-American literature, particularly examining practices of consumption and production, sex tourism, and violence. Dissertation: Dangerous Consumptions: American Consumerism and the Spectre of Mutilated Bodies in Contemporary Asian American and Chicano/Latina Literature.

Omar Gudiño. UCLA Department of Psychology. Interests: Children's social development, socialization, culture and parenting, childhood anxiety disorders, Latino mental health, and unmet need for mental health services.

Georgina Guzmán. UCLA Department of English. Interests include Chicana/o Literature, Chicana Feminisms, and intersectional identity theory/politics.

Alvaro Huerta. UCLA Department of Urban Planning. Interests: Chicano Studies, Community Organizing, Environmental Justice, Chicano Art, Poverty, Race, Economics (informal economy) and Politics. Master Thesis: "South Gate, CA: The Latinization of a Formerly White, Blue-Collar Suburb and Subsequent Rise of Environmental Racism in the Area."

Daniel Liou. UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Interests: Tracking and school desegregation, access to college, immigrant education, parent involvement in schools, racial inequality in K-12 education, critical race theory, law and education, charter schools.

Stacy I. Macías. UCLA Women’s Studies Program. Interests: multicultural-transnational, queer-feminist cultural production; “new” queer studies; Chicana and Mexicana lesbian feminist scholarship and activism; histories of women of color feminist knowledge production. Current Project: racialized representations and circuits of queer femininity and femme identity.

Leonard Melchor. UCLA Department of Latin American Studies. Interests: Mexican (American) cinema, Nueva Cancion, Nueva Trova and other music of protest, Charreria, music video production, Chicano/Latino punk, Radical Latin American (including Latin American communities in the US) political history and social transformation movements. Dissertation:
"The Sonal Architecture of Resistance: From Nueva Cancion to California Corridos."

María Muñoz Chacón. UCLA Department of Film, Television and Digital Media. Interests: Latino-themed programming, Chicana/o film, Chicana Feminist Theory, identity politics. Dissertation: "Expanding the Televisual Borders: The Emergence of Latino-themed Programming in Contemporary Television."

Marisol Pérez. UCLA Department of Spanish and Portuguese, concentration in Women's Studies. Interests: Chicana Literature, Latin American Literature, Feminist Theory, Chicana Art. Dissertation: "Otro modo de ver: A Transfronterista Approach to Rosario Castellanos."

Katy M. Pinto. UCLA Department of Sociology. Interests: Family, Gender, Race/Ethnicity, Immigration, Social Stratification, Research Methods. Dissertation: "Patriarchy or Egalitarianism: Gender Roles and the Household Division of Labor in Latino Families."

Vanessa Ochoa. UCLA School of Education, Social Science and Comparative Education.
Interests: Ethnic Studies; impact of the SAT on the Latino educational pipeline; athletic student services at the collegiate level and the graduation rate for basketball and football players; critical race theory, law, and education; access for high school students into the UC system.

Martha A. Rivas. UCLA Graduate School of Education; Race & Ethnic Studies. Interests: Critical Race Theory, Chicana Feminist Theory, equity and access to post-secondary and graduate education. Dissertation: From Community College to the Doctorate: "Theorizing" the Chicana/o Transfer Experience "In the Flesh."

Victor B. Saenz. UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Interests: educational impacts of diversity on college campuses; policy impacts of changing affirmative action and remedial education policies in higher education. Dissertation:
"Remedial/developmental Education Policies and College Access for Underrepresented Populations."

Martin Terrones. UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, MFA, Film Directing/Production Program. His documentary works on Chicana/o lives currently in progress are Pfc Ernesto Martinez, Sus Quince Años, Primeros Pasos/First Steps, Ranch On The Side, and Inglish Ounly Pliz.

Veronica Terriquez. UCLA Department of Sociology. Race Relations, Urban Studies, Education Inequality.

Erica Yamamura. UCLA Department of Education. Interests: Latino/a and African American college access, minority college student development, and public higher education.

Grace Yeh. UCLA Department of English. Interests: post-1965 comparative Asian American, Chicano, African American cultural studies; tracing icons in identity-based movements and cultures as a way of marking the transnational movement of people, capital, and ideas in U.S. racial formations; Oscar Zeta Acosta's works, Luis Valdez's Vietnam actos, Chicano Vietnam War literature, and a sensational novel on Narciso and Perez.

Trisha Ziff. Metropolitan University of London, was a visiting graduate student at UCLA. Chicano Studies, Ireland/Mexico cultural studies. Dissertation: "Ireland/Mexico: A Rashamon Approach to the San Patricios."