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CSRC Newsletter - November 2015

Volume 14, Number 2

Director’s Message

Mexican singer-songwriter Ely Guerra enthralled the UCLA community at a October 21 concert in Schoenberg Hall. Guerra, who won a Grammy Award in 2010 for her alternative rock album Hombre Invisible, appeared in conjunction with her appointment as a UCLA Regents’ Lecturer (see In the News, below). She is the first Mexican woman to receive this honor. With her poetic and provocative songs and commanding stage presence, she moved fluidly between English and Spanish, addressing topics such as immigration, transnationalism, love and longing, and human sexuality. Guerra’s visit was cosponsored by the CSRC, the Institute of American Cultures, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, with additional support from the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies, the Division of the Humanities, the Herb Alpert School of Music, and the Center for the Study of Women. This collaboration reflects the CSRC’s deep commitment to interdisciplinarity and its mission to represent and engage historical and contemporary Latina/o culture on campus and in the greater community, as well as to continue to foster connections with Mexico. Guerra’s selection as a Regents’ Lecturer is one example of the promising, renewed attention to Mexico on this campus. Another is the UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative’s focus on intersections between the urban histories and contemporary realities of Los Angeles and Mexico City. Participants in Urban Humanities Initiative, which is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, include, among other faculty, myself, CSRC director Chon A. Noriega, and previous CSRC associate directors Alicia Gaspar de Alba and Kelly Lytle Hernandez.
 
The situation for many artists of color, however, is troubled. One week after Guerra’s concert, the Los Angeles Times reported on a new study that cites the “meager funding” for Black and Latino arts groups nationwide. The study warned of the imminent collapse of many “minority” arts groups, which receive a mere 5 percent of their support from private donors, in contrast to “mainstream” arts organizations, which receive 59 percent. The ramifications are profound: the lack of private funding severely impacts artistic productions and exhibitions, the training of people of color in the arts, and, ultimately, the variety of works that audiences experience. Indeed, in April, the Times revealed that in U.S. art museums, only 3 percent of curators, conservators, and museum educators are Latino, and only 4 percent are African American. The CSRC remains dedicated to supporting Latina/o arts by showcasing creative and intellectual talent through its exhibitions, publications, fellowship programs, and performances. In fact, the story about the lack of minority curators was based on a Mellon Foundation report that showcased a new pipeline program at five comprehensive art museums that Noriega helped establish in 2014. Humanities-based research can make a difference!
 
Charlene Villaseñor Black
Acting Director and Professor
 

News

 
Spotlight on Archival Research
Laslett researches Gamboa Papers for book on Chavez Ravine
John H. M. Laslett, emeritus professor in the UCLA Department of History, has published a new book titled Shameful Victory: The Los Angeles Dodgers, the Red Scare, and the Hidden History of Chavez Ravine (University of Arizona Press, 2015). The book discusses the eviction of Mexican American residents from their homes in Chavez Ravine in the early 1950s, asserting this preceded negotiations for the Dodgers’ ballpark. Laslett then places the events in a broad historical and cultural context and argues that the evictions had an impact on civil rights and urban reform movements in Los Angeles in the 1960s through the 1990s. Laslett, whose research drew in part from the CSRC’s Michelle Kholos Brooks Collection of Manazar Gamboa Papers, discusses how the evictions have also influenced Chicano/a popular music, drama, and literature to the present day. Manazar Gamboa was born in Chavez Ravine in 1934. A writer and community activist, Gamboa wrote dozens of poems, plays, and short stories about the tight-knit barrio community in Elysian Park. His papers at the CSRC Library provided Laslett with information about the artistic and literary scene in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 1990s. Look for a book talk by Laslett and Ron Lopez, professor of Chicano and Latino studies at Sonoma State University, at the CSRC during the winter quarter.
 
CSRC scholars present in Cuba 
Two affiliates of the CSRC recently made presentations in Cuba. CSRC visiting scholar Juanita Heredia, professor of Spanish and global languages and cultures at Northern Arizona University, participated in the third international colloquium  on Latino presence in the United States at the Casa de las Américas in Havana on October 13–15. Her paper, “La literatura transnacional de los latinos en el siglo veintiuno,” spoke to the conference theme, “Más allá de los bordes y las fronteras: Transnacionalismo y creación.” On behalf of the CSRC, Heredia donated CSRC publications to the Casa de las Américas library to help expand its Latino studies collection. Maria Elena Ruiz, assistant adjunct professor at the UCLA School of Nursing and former CSRC associate director, gave a talk titled “Alianzas Innovativas: Enfermeras Como Dirigentes Comunitarios” at Enfermería 2015, the fourteenth annual meeting of the Federación Panamericana de Profesionales de Enfermería and the sixteenth annual meeting of the Sociedad Cubana de Enfermería, October 5–9. Ruiz was the only presenter at the conference invited from the United States.
 
Gunckel’s Mexico on Main Street reviewed in Somos en escrito
Mexico on Main Street: Transnational Film Culture in Los Angeles before World War II by Colin Gunckel, assistant professor of screen arts and cultures, American culture, and Latina/o studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and former CSRC arts project coordinator, received in September a terrific review by Michael A. Olivas for the online publication Somos en escrito. “Gunckel has a grand architectural eye, and has provided maps and photos of the dozens of theaters and entertainment venues along Main Street. But his real strength is in his narrative power,” writes Olivas. The review can be read here.
 
CSRC presents at Chican@/Latin@ Theme House Mixer
CSRC staff members Rebecca Epstein and Andrea Vargas spoke to students at the Chican@/Latin@ Studies Theme Community Mixer in Sproul residential hall on October 7. Epstein and Vargas talked about the CSRC’s resources, publications, and programs. The UCLA Office of Residential Life oversees a variety of theme communities, which are designed to ease undergraduate students’ transition into university life. Charlene Villaseñor Black, professor of art history and CSRC acting director for Fall 2015, is the faculty in residence for the Chican@/Latin@ Studies Theme Community.
 
Hernández publishes essay
Robb Hernández, assistant professor of Latina/o literary and cultural studies at UC-Riverside and the CSRC’s IAC visiting researcher for 2015-16, has contributed an essay to the exhibition catalog for Art AIDS America. The essay, which Hernández wrote with L.A. artist Joey Terrill, examines the “coastal traffic” of AIDS visual discourse across the Americas. The exhibition surveys artists’ responses to the AIDS crisis. Currently at the Tacoma Art Museum, it will travel to the Zuckerman Museum of Art and Bronx Museum of the Arts in 2016.  The catalog is available through University of Washington Press.
 
Visiting scholars for 2015-16
The CSRC welcomes the following visiting scholars and researchers:
 
Mercedes Álvarez San Román, MA
Álvarez San Román is a doctoral student at Sorbonne University in Paris, France. She has an MA in gender and diversity from Oviedo University, Oviedo, Spain, as well as an MA in journalism. Her dissertation is focused on representations of gender and nation in Spanish contemporary animated films, and she will use her time at the CSRC to study how Spanish animation has reacted to the discourses transmitted by representations of Latinos in Hollywood films. Her research includes addressing issues pertaining to immigration, conquest, and territory in the United States, Mexico, and Spain.
 
Juanita Heredia, PhD
Heredia holds a doctorate from UCLA in Hispanic languages and literatures and is a professor of Spanish and global languages and cultures at Northern Arizona University. She will use her time as a visiting scholar to explore the literature and cultural production by U.S. Latinas with South American backgrounds between 1983 and 2014. She will examine how these authors have contributed to U.S.–South American relations through their writings on gender and sexuality and their transnational travel. Heredia is researching the Tatiana de la Tierra Papers, which is part of the CSRC Library’s LGBT and Mujeres Initiative. Heredia was the IAC visiting researcher at the CSRC in 2012-13.
 
Robb Hernández, PhD
Hernández, this year’s IAC visiting researcher at the CSRC, is an assistant professor in the Department of English at UC Riverside. His time at the CSRC will be used to finish his book manuscript “Finding AIDS: Archival Body/Archival Space and the Chicano Avant-garde.” Hernández will also organize talks on the theme “BiblioAzteca: On the Chicano Library’s Ruins” with the intent to “shift the discourse from the Chicano library’s neutralizing arrest to its subversive potentiality in origin, formation, and relevance in our current era of paperless libraries.” Hernández, who earned his MA at UCLA, is the author of the scholarly essay in two publications from the CSRC Press’s Chicano Archives Series: The Fire of Life: The Robert Legorreta–Cyclona Collection (2009) and VIVA Records, 1970–2000: Lesbian and Gay Latino Artists of Los Angeles (2013).
 
Carlos M. Haro, PhD
Haro, assistant director emeritus of the CSRC, will continue his multiyear research into Chicano education, oral histories, and comparative and international education. Haro organizes the CSRC’s annual Latina/o Education Summit series, which assesses the critical issues facing Latinas/os in the education pipeline from kindergarten through graduate studies. The tenth annual summit will take place on November 6 (see Events, below).
 
Leonard Melchor, PhD
Melchor is an adjunct instructor at East Los Angeles College in the history and Chicana/o studies departments. He employs interdisciplinary research methodologies to unfold the complicated relationship between historical and contemporary cultural practices among Mexicans living in West Los Angeles. His primary research endeavor is to understand the relationship between community formation and cultural activities. His dissertation, “Mexican in Four Images: Cinema, Self and Soccer in the Creation of Real and Imagined Mexicans,” focuses on the first soccer clubs created by Mexicans in West Los Angeles and argues that soccer clubs were crucial to the formation of stable social circles for postwar Mexican immigrants that had exited the Bracero Program and settled in West Los Angeles. His time at the CSRC will include curating a photo exhibition and organizing a public presentation on surfing and soccer organizations among Mexicans in West Los Angeles.
 
Lindsay Pérez Huber, PhD
Pérez Huber holds a doctorate from the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and is an assistant professor of social and cultural analysis of education in the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach. Her research and publications use interdisciplinary perspectives to analyze racial inequities in education, the structural causes of those inequities, and how they mediate educational trajectories and outcomes of students of color. Pérez Huber is co-coordinator of the CSRC’s tenth annual Latina/o Education Summit, which will take place at UCLA on November 6, and she is co-author of the CSRC Policy and Issues Brief and the CSRC Research Report that have been published for the conference (see Press, below). Pérez Huber assisted with the planning of the first summit in 2006.
 
New video on CSRC YouTube
 
  • Book Talk: Rubén G. Rumbaut presents Immigrant America: A Portrait (May 22, 2015) (video). Rubén G. Rumbaut is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine and the founding chair of the International Migration Section of the American Sociological Association. His talk at the CSRC, “Reflections on Immigrant America: From the Great Inclusion to the Great Expulsion” addressed the fourth edition of his groundbreaking book. The talk was part of the Irene Flecknoe Ross Lecture Series presented by the Department of Sociology Contentious Politics and Organizations Working Group and cosponsored by the CSRC and the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies.

CSRC in the News

 
“Exchanging Ideas Through Música”
UCLA Newsroom published an article written by CSRC’s Rebecca Epstein about Ely Guerra’s performance and visit to UCLA as a 2015-16 UC Regents’ Lecturer.
UCLA Newsroom, October 29, 2015 (PDF)
 
“Ely Guerra Presenta El Origen en UCLA”
Rockeros.net, an online publication, reported on Ely Guerra’s performance of her concert “El Origen” at Schoenberg Hall on October 21. Guerra was named a 2015-16 UC Regents’ Lecturer, and among her activities on campus during her visit was this concert for the UCLA community.
Rockeros.net, October 22, 2015 (PDF)
 
“Singer Ely Guerra Will Be a Guest Lecturer at UCLA Today”
Remezcla reported on Ely Guerra’s visit to a Spanish course as part of her 2015-16 UC Regents’ Lecturer appointment. Guerra, a Mexican singer-songwriter, was chosen as a lecturer for the UCLA campus as part of an effort to increase cultural exchange between Mexico and Los Angeles.
Remezcla, October 22, 2015 (PDF)
 
“CTG Announces Three Finalists for 2016 Sherwood Award”
BroadwayWorld Los Angeles announced that Chantal Rodriguez is a finalist for the 2016 Sherwood Award, presented by the Center Theatre Group of Los Angeles. Rodriguez is the author of the scholarly essay in The Latino Theatre Initiative/Center Theatre Group Papers: 1980-2005 (CSRC Press, 2012), which was nominated for three Latino Literacy Now International Book Awards.
BroadwayWorld Los Angeles, October 8, 2015 (PDF)
 
“Leo Estrada Leads Academic Senate in Tackling Tough Issues”
UCLA Newsroom reported on Leo Estrada’s service in leading the Academic Senate. Estrada is an associate professor of urban planning and a CSRC Faculty Associate.
UCLA Newsroom, October 5, 2015 (PDF)
 
“Artist Brings Life to Latino Heritage, Community Concerns”
NBC Los Angeles reported on the murals by artist Sergio Hernandez and their connection to the community as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. Hernandez, along with Eduardo Carrillo, Ramses Noriega, and Saul Solache, contributed to Chicano History, a mural painted in 1970 for the CSRC’s first home in Campbell Hall. Chicano History will be featured in a traveling exhibition opening in Fall 2017.
NBC Los Angeles, October 3, 2015 (PDF)
 
All “In the News” articles are available in PDF format on the CSRC website.
 

Events

 
Book Talk and Ofrenda: Mikamoxtzin, Little Book of the Day of the Dead Ritual
Wednesday, November 4, 4:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
CSRC Library–144 Haines Hall
Please join us for a book talk and ofrenda with professors Martha Ramirez Oropeza and Alicia Valencia Reyes, co-authors of Mikamoxtzin, Little Book of The Day of the Dead Ritual / El Librito del Ritual del Día de Muertos (Astrolabio Editorial, 2015). The presentation will explore the deep roots of this ancient tradition, its evolution throughout Mexico’s various epochs, and the impact it has on celebrations today. Bring a photo or memento to contribute to the community altar and help make paper flowers to invite the spirits! Ramirez Oropeza is a visual artist and mural painter, a theater arts performer and director, and a researcher on Nahuatl philosophy. She apprenticed under David A. Siqueiros and under Frida Kahlo’s apprentice, Guillermo Monroy. Currently she lectures at UCLA in art and Chicana/o studies. Valencia Reyes is a professor of education at the National University of Pedagogy in Morelos, Mexico. Born in Michoacán, a state with a rich Day of the Dead tradition, she also coordinates creative writing workshops for women and youth and produces a radio program in Mexico that focuses on migrant rights. Books will be available for purchase at the event.
 
The Tenth Annual CSRC Latina/o Education Summit
“Ten Years of the Latina/o Education Pipeline: Lessons Learned and Sites of Possibilities” 
Friday, November 6, 9:00 a.m.—6:30 p.m. 
UCLA Faculty Center–California Room
Ten years ago the CSRC hosted the first Latina/o Education Summit to highlight significant issues related to the Latina/o education pipeline, from K-12 through graduate school. The CSRC has continued to hold this event to examine urgent issues and current research, practice, and policy through discussions among faculty, administrators, students, policymakers, educators, and community members. This year the summit will explore how educational access and opportunity for Latina/o students in California has changed since these discussions began at the first conference. This year’s keynote address, “Immigration and the State of Latina/o Education in 2015,” will be given by Marcelo M. Súarez-Orozco, Wasserman Dean and Distinguished Professor of Education in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. A CSRC Issues and Policy Brief and a CSRC Research Report have been published for the conference (see Press, below). This event is sold out. This event will be recorded for CSRC YouTube. Visit the CSRC website for details on live streaming.
 
IAC Fall Forum and Reception
Monday, November 9, 4:30 p.m.—7:00 p.m.
UCLA Faculty Center–California Room
Please join us for a reception honoring the 2015–16 IAC visiting researchers and scholars, graduate and predoctoral fellows, and research grant awardees at UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers, including the CSRC. For more information and to RSVP, click here.
 
Symposium: “This Is the City: Preserving Moving Images of Los Angeles”
Friday, November 13, 7:30 p.m. (Opening night)
Billy Wilder Theater, Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90024
“This Is the City: Preserving Moving Images of Los Angeles” is a two-day symposium that will explore portrayals of Los Angeles in rare films, newsreels, home movies, and television programs. The symposium will convene leading curators, archivists, and academics, who will discuss how these visual documents represent Los Angeles and its diverse communities. Participants will also consider how to best preserve this legacy. On opening night CSRC director Chon A. Noriega will introduce artist and ASCO cofounder Harry Gamboa Jr., who will present the keynote address, “Forever/Never on a Smoggy Day.” For more information, visit: https://www.cinema.ucla.edu/events/2015/this-is-the-city-symposium-1. This symposium is open to the public, with a special $15 pass granting access to all discussions and screenings on both Friday, November 13, and Saturday, November 14. Passes can be purchased online, or at the Billy Wilder Theater box office beginning at 6:30 p.m. on November 13, and throughout the symposium. The event is sponsored by UCLA Moving Image Archive Studies, the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television, and the UCLA Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media.
 
All CSRC events are free and do not require an RSVP unless otherwise noted. Programs are subject to change. For the most current information, visit the Events page on the CSRC website.
 

CSRC Library

 
Librarian position open
The CSRC is conducting a national search for a librarian. Former CSRC librarian Lizette Guerra has taken a new position, and the CSRC wishes her well in her endeavors. The library is continuing to provide full services. For more information about the position and to apply, please see Opportunities below.
 

CSRC Press

 
New CSRC Press publications
In conjunction with the upcoming tenth annual CSRC Latina/o Education Summit, CSRC Press has released two new publications:
 
In Racial Microaggressions: What They Are, What They Are Not, and Why They Matter, CSRC Policy and Issues Brief No. 30, Lindsay Pérez Huber and Daniel G. Solórzano discuss these everyday manifestations of racism. Racial microaggressions, which can be verbal or nonverbal, are a significant obstacle in the professional, education, and life trajectories of Latinas/os. Pérez Huber and Solórzano discuss their impact and offer recommendations for disrupting their occurrence.
 
Still Falling through the Cracks: Revisiting the Latina/o Education Pipeline, CSRC Research Report No. 19, presents a review of the research and findings reported in the briefs and research reports published for each of the previous nine Latina/o Education Summits. The authors, Lindsay Pérez Huber, Maria C. Malagón, Brianna R. Ramirez, Lorena Camargo Gonzalez, Alberto Jimenez, and Verónica N. Vélez, conclude that most of the research and recommendations presented in these documents are still pertinent because degree attainment for Latinas/os is still disproportionately low.
 
Both documents will be distributed at the conference and made available online.
 
Aztlán, the premier journal of Chicana/o studies, is inviting new submissions! Aztlán publishes scholarship relevant to Chicana/o studies from all disciplines and interdisciplinary research as well. We welcome submissions in English and Spanish. We are seeking submissions for all three areas of the journal:
 
Essays
Our essays are research-based and come from a wide variety of disciplines—literature, sociology, history, political science, the arts, linguistics, gender studies, ethnic studies, and many other fields—but they always engage the Chicana/o experience. All essays are peer reviewed and are frequently revised to meet the journal’s standards for quality research. Essays typically run about 10,000–12,000 words in length.
 
Dossiers
The dossier section provides a forum for multiple and shorter engagements with a specific theme that examines an aspect of Chicana/o studies; this might be an object of study, theoretical or disciplinary questions, a methodology, or one scholar’s work. The dossier section, while still of a scholarly nature, is designed to be exploratory, provocative, or experimental in approach. Aztlán will consider working with a guest curator—a scholar who wishes to create a dossier theme and can help manage dossier development. Contact Karrmen Crey at kcrey@chicano.ucla.edu to explore this opportunity.
 
Book Reviews
If you are interested in writing a book review for us, we will gladly consider suggested titles, or we can recommend a book for you that matches your field of interest. To inquire about reviews, contact our book review coordinator, Daniel Zweifach, at revieweditor@chicano.ucla.edu.
 
To submit: All submissions should be sent to our submission inbox at submissions@chicano.ucla.edu. For complete information about Aztlán and our submission guidelines, please visit the CSRC website. Please direct queries to Karrmen Crey, assistant editor, at kcrey@chicano.ucla.edu. We look forward to receiving your submissions!
 
Register for online access to Aztlán
Current subscribers to Aztlán may now register for online access to the journal through ingentaconnect.com. If you have problems accessing your account or questions about your subscription, please contact support@chicano.ucla.edu. Subscriptions to Aztlán include two print issues a year plus full online access to every issue published.
 

Opportunities

 
Employment Opportunity: CSRC Librarian
The Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) is currently accepting applications for a librarian to oversee its library services, archival and digitization programs, and related campus and community relations. The CSRC Library and its archival holdings are considered the most extensive in the field. Since its establishment in 1969, the CSRC has played a crucial role in the development of interdisciplinary research on the Chicana/o population. The CSRC houses externally funded research projects, an academic press, academic and community programs, and the library. The CSRC librarian serves as a member of the CSRC managerial team and develops policies and procedures for the library. The CSRC librarian oversees all library activities and is responsible for securing extramural funding and developing donor relations. Duties further include management of library operations and budget; supervision of library and archival staff; maintenance and expansion of library holdings; the development of library exhibitions; and pursuit of professional endeavors such as research, publication, and local or national committee work.
 
To apply, go to the UCLA Academic Recruitment site: https://recruit.apo.ucla.edu/apply/JPF01529.
 
Candidates who submit an application by November 17, 2015, will be given first consideration. The position will remain open until filled.
 
UCLA Institute of American Cultures
2016-17 Visiting Researcher/Scholar Fellowship Program in Ethnic Studies
The UCLA Institute of American Cultures (IAC) offers in-residence appointments to support research on African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, and Chicanas/os. We especially encourage applications that advance our understanding of new social and cultural realities occasioned by the dramatic population shifts of recent decades, including greater heterogeneity within ethnic groups and increased interethnic contact. In the event that an award is for less than three academic quarters the stipend will be prorated in accordance with the actual length of the award. For visiting researchers, these funds can be used to supplement sabbatical support for the total that does not exceed the candidate’s current institutional salary. Visiting researchers will be paid through their home institution and will be expected to continue their health benefits through that source as well; visiting scholars will receive a stipend for living expenses and may be eligible for health benefits. Awardees may receive up to $4,000 in research support. In the event that an award is for less than the nine-month appointment, the stipend will be prorated in accordance with the actual length of the award.
 
Eligibility requirements: Visiting researcher appointments are for persons who currently hold permanent academic appointments and visiting scholar appointments are for newly degreed scholars. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and hold a PhD from an accredited college or university at the time of appointment. UCLA faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students are not eligible to apply.
 
Deadline: Completed applications are due February 1, 2016, at 11:59 p.m. Recipients will be notified in April. NOTE: Offer of fellowship is contingent upon funding availability. Unfortunately, due to budget constraints, the Bunche Center for African American Studies will not be awarding a 2016-17 visiting researcher/scholar fellowship.
 
 
To apply: The application is available online at: https://sa.ucla.edu/IAC/VisitingScholar
 
For further information, please contact the coordinator of the appropriate UCLA Ethnic Studies Research Center for your application.
 
Call for applicants: IUPLR/Mellon Fellowships
The Inter-University Program for Latino Research is now accepting applications for the IUPLR/Mellon Fellowship Program (academic year 2016-17). The program supports ABD doctoral students in the humanities who are writing dissertations in Latina/o studies. Doctoral students in the social sciences whose research uses humanities methods may also be considered. The fellowship facilitates completion of the dissertation and provides professional development, job market support, and mentoring for students who will graduate in Spring 2017.
 
With support from the Andrew G. Mellon Foundation, IUPLR will select fellows through five designated research centers:
 
  • The Center for Mexican American Studies and the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin
  • The Chicano Studies Research Center at UCLA
  • The CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, The City College of New York
  • Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños at Hunter College, CUNY
  • The Latin American and Latino Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago
The fellowship includes a $25,000 stipend and travel support to attend IUPLR conferences and a required two-week summer institute in Chicago. Matriculation fees and health insurance will be paid by the home institution, provided that the fellow is in residence.
 
Who is eligible?
Applications will be accepted only from PhD candidates enrolled at UT-Austin, UCLA, CUNY, and UIC. Applicants will be considered by the IUPLR center at their home institution (see list above).
Applicants must have advanced to candidacy (ABD status) and be completing a Latina/o studies dissertation in the humanities or in a humanities-adjacent discipline. Applications will not be accepted from candidates who have not yet defended their dissertation proposal. As this is a dissertation completion fellowship, all applicants should already have a significant portion of the dissertation drafted. Finally, applicants should be planning to pursue a career in teaching or research.
 
During the fellowship year, students must be enrolled at their home institution. Fellows will be expected to forego other employment during the year.
 
Application materials
When applying, please prepare a dossier of the following materials:
  • A cover letter listing your name, university, department, the month and year that you advanced to candidacy (reached ABD status), the name and year of any dissertation completion fellowships you have already had (both internal and external), and a fifty-word description of your project’s relationship and significance to the humanities.
  • CV
  • Dissertation prospectus, including chapter outlines
  • Completed chapters (preferably two or three)
  • Writing plan that demonstrates ability to defend dissertation during fellowship year
  • Recommendation letters from 1) the dissertation chair and 2) a Latina/o studies faculty member or other faculty member at the student’s home campus who can speak to the dissertation’s relevance to Latina/o studies. The letter from the dissertation chair should confirm that the applicant has defended the proposal and will be able to graduate by Spring 2017. Letters must be sent directly to the contact person below by the recommenders, not by the applicant.
You should send your dossier of materials in either Word or PDF form, preferably as a single document. If your materials contain images please send a zip file.
Deadlines and important dates
  • Application materials must arrive by January 8, 2016.
  • Decisions will be made by January 29, 2016.
  • Selected fellows will attend the Latino Art Now! Conference in Chicago, April 7–9, 2016 (mandatory).
  • Fellows will attend the IUPLR/Mellon Summer Institute in Chicago, June 2016 (mandatory).
  • Fellowship stipends will begin June 15, 2016.
Send all queries and application materials (Word or PDF) to the IUPLR/Mellon program coordinator, Dr. Meghan Marie Hammond (hammondm@uic.edu), AND the appropriate IUPLR Center director(s). Contact information for applicants applying through UCLA is below. Contact information for the other four centers can be found on the IUPLR website.
UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
Dr. Chon Noriega, director
 
UCLA McNair Research Scholars Program: 2015 Program Application
The UCLA McNair Research Scholars Program is a two-year research intensive program that prepares undergraduate students to apply to the best graduate programs in the country and excel in graduate school while pursuing a PhD in the humanities or the social sciences.
 
During their two years in the program, McNair students enroll in a weekly McNair Research Seminar course and in the Student Research Program (SRP 99) where they develop an individual research project under the guidance and supervision of a UCLA faculty mentor.  In the summer between their first and second year in the program, McNair Scholars participate in the UCLA McNair Summer Research Institute, which includes faculty-supervised research, graduate mentoring, and intensive workshops on graduate school admission.  In their second year, McNair Scholars enroll in independent study courses with their respective UCLA faculty mentor, complete their individual research project, and write a senior thesis.  Students also apply to graduate school, present at an academic conference in their discipline, complete the McNair Research Seminar series, and submit their research for publication.  For more information about the program, please visit: http://www.aap.ucla.edu/mentoring/mcnair.htm
 
Eligibility criteria: To be eligible for the UCLA McNair Research Scholars Program, applicants must meet at least one of the following criteria:
·Be a low-income and first generation college student; or
·Be a member of an underrepresented group within graduate education
 
Applicants must also:
·Be a United States citizen or permanent resident
·Be a currently enrolled UCLA undergraduate student majoring in the humanities, arts, or social sciences
·Be a third-year or a transfer student who has completed 90 to 175 units by Fall 2015
·Demonstrate academic potential for graduate study
·Be available June 21 – August 8, 2016 for the McNair Summer Research Institute
 
Application due: Tuesday, November 10, 2015, 4 p.m.