NACCS Tejas 2013: Featuring

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOP BIOGRAPHIES

“Storytelling as Community Based Pedagogies, Scholarship, and Activism”

Francisco Guajardo

Francisco Guajardo is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Texas Pan American. He is from the border, having been born in Rio Bravo, Tamaulipas and raised in the rural community of Elsa, Texas. He is a graduate of Edcouch-Elsa High School, where he also worked as a teacher and administrator, and is a founding member of the Llano Grande Center for Research and Development. He is also a founding member of the Center for Bilingual Studies at UTPA, and a founder of the Community Learning Exchange, a national initiative that works to bring community together. His research agenda focuses on community leadership and community building.

“Centering/Transforming Latina/o Experiences through Graduate Studies”

Dolores Delgado Bernal

Dolores Delgado Bernal is Professor of Education and Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah and the 2010 recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s Distinguished Scholar Award. Presently her research is grounded in Adelante, a university/school/community partnership that addresses the under-representation of Latina/o students in higher education by working directly with K-12 students, their parents, and their classroom teachers to create educational opportunities and a college-going culture. She is co-editor of Chicana/Latina Education in Everyday Life: Feminista Perspectives on Pedagogy and Epistemology(2006) that received the American Educational Studies Critics Choice Award and co-editor of Chicana/Latina Testimonios: Methodologies, Pedagogies, and Political Urgency (2012).

Sheila Marie Contreras

Sheila Marie Contreras earned her PhD in English from the University of Texas at Austin, with a specialization in Chicana/o Literature. She is Associate Professor of English at Michigan State University, where she is also Director of the Chicano/Latino Studies Program (CLS). Her book, Blood Lines: Myth, Indigenism and Chicana/o Literature was published by the University of Texas Press in 2008. Currently, she teaches courses in Latina/o Literary and Cultural Studies and Women’sStudies and is working on a project on comparative and critical indigenieties

Aída Hurtado

Aída Hurtado holds the Luis Leal Endowed Chair and is Professor and Chair of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara. She earned her M.A. and PhD from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the author of several books, including Voicing Chicana Feminisms: Young Women Speak Out on Sexuality and Identity. Her most recent edited book is Invisible No More: Understanding the Disenfranchisement of Latino Men and Boys. Dr. Hurtado has received numerous awards and honors, including the 2010 Women of Color Psychologies Award from the Association of Women in Psychology. In 2007, Hurtado was a recipient of the American Educational Research Association's SAGE Award for distinguished contributions to gender equity in education research.

Marcos Pizarro

Marcos Pizarro received his BA in Urban Studies from Stanford University in 1989 and his PhD from UCLA’s Graduate School of Education in 1993. He is Professor, Chair and Graduate Coordinator of the Master’s Program in Mexican American Studies at San José State University. He wrote a book on his research with Chicana/o youth in East Los Angeles and the Yakima Valley of Washington State, Chicanas and Chicanos in School: Racial Profiling, Identity Battles, and Empowerment. For over a decade, he has been working with and coordinating, MAESTR@S, a collective of teachers and educational justice workers. His latest research analyzes the processes by which historical forces and racial micro aggressions create both racial inequality and internalized racism in raza youth, and how those forces can be countered in working for social justice in disenfranchised communities

THEATER WORKSHOP BIOGRAPHIES

Roxanne Schroeder-Arce

Roxanne Schroeder-Arce currently serves as Assistant Professor of Theatre Education at the University of Texas Department of Theatre and Dance. Schroeder-Arce received her M.F.A. in Drama and Theatre for Youth from the University of Texas at Austin and her B.S. degree in Theatre and teaching credential from Emerson College. She also served as Artistic and Education Director of Teatro Humanidad in Austin for several years. Schroeder-Arce is a teacher, scholar, director, performer, and playwright. Her bilingual plays have been presented to children and youth in theatres around the United States. Her plays Señora Tortuga, Legend of the Poinsettia and Sangre de un Angel are published by Anchorage Press Plays, now Dramatic Publishing

Dr. Tiffany Ana López

Dr. Tiffany Ana López is Professor of Theatre and the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. She has over twenty years experience working to foster dialogue and programming among academics, artists, practitioners, and audiences and a national reputation for her work within Chicana/o and Latina/o arts communities. Among her awards, Dr. López is a 2004 Fulbright Scholar to Spain and the recipient of grants from the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation for her work on intellectual diversity and the creative arts. She is a member Campus Women Lead and a faculty advisory board member for the Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts. Her work with students has been recognized by a Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research (2009).

Edna Ochoa

Edna Ochoa, Associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages and Literature, earned her PhD from the University of Houston. She is the author of many books including Respiración de raíces (La tinta del Alcatraz 1993), Sombra para espejos (H. Ayuntamiento de Toluca 1989), Ruinas (Luzbel, 1987), El Método más efectivo y otras obras breves (sediento Ediciones 2011), La cerca circular (SEI, 1986) and Jirones de ayer (Plaza y Valdés Editorial 2012). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Archipielago, BorderSense, Ventana Abierta, Lucero, Grafemas, La mujer rota (Literalia 2008), El Mundo Zurdo (Aunt Lute Books 2010), and many other publications. Translations to Spanish include Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez (Arte Publico Press 2004) among others

Eric Wiley

Eric Wiley is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Holder of the Interim Henry W. and Margaret Hauser Endowed Chair in Communication Studies at the University of Texas - Pan American, where he is Faculty Advisor for the Latino Theatre Initiative, a student organization dedicated to the promotion and celebration of Latino theatre and culture. His articles and reviews have appeared in TDR, Theatre Journal, Theatre Studies, American Culture and Theatre InSight, and his plays have been produced across the country

PLENARY BIOGRAPHIES

“The State of Mexican American Studies in Texas”

Stephanie Alvarez

Stephanie Alvarez is Director of Mexican American Studies and Assistant Professor of Spanish at The University of Texas-Pan American. She is the recipient of the Outstanding Latina/o Faculty in Higher Education Award for Teaching and Service from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (2011), the University of Texas Board of Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award (2009), and co-founder with Tato Laviera and José Martínez of Cosecha Voices: Documenting the Lives of Migrant Farmworker Students. She is the author of several essays on Latin@ identity, language, literature, culture, and education

Roberto R. Calderón

Roberto R. Calderón received his A.B. in Political Science at Brown University in 1978. Accepted into the doctoral program at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1980, he completed his Master’s in History in 1983, and received his Doctorate in History in 1993. Dr. Calderón began his full-time university teaching career as an Acting Assistant Professor at the University of California at Riverside (UCR) in 1991. He was named Assistant Professor in 1993, and went on to serve as a founding faculty member of the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Riverside until 1999. He moved to Texas where he joined the faculty of the Division of Bilingual-Bicultural Studies as an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). In fall 2000 he accepted a tenured appointment as an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of North Texas, where he continues to teach courses in Chicano History at the graduate and undergraduate level. He was NACCS-Tejas Foco Chair from 2006-2008. Since March 2003 he has been the host and editor for Historia Chicana [Historia].

Dennis Bixler-Márquez

Dennis Bixler-Márquez is Professor of Multi-Cultural Education and Director of the Chicano Studies Program at UTEP. He received his B.A. in Political Science and M.Ed. in Sociocultural Education from The University of Texas at El Paso. Bixler-Marquez then obtained his M.A. in Spanish and a Ph.D. in Bilingual/Multi-Cultural Education from Stanford University. His primary areas of research are border security issues, educational sociolinguistics, language policy, and multicultural education, immigration, and Vietnam War Latino issues.

Josie Méndez-Negrete

Josie Méndez-Negrete, Associate Professor in Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, received her PhD at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her autoethnography/testimonio, Las Hijas de Juan: Daughters Betrayed, was published by Duke University Press as a revised edition in 2006 and was reprinted in 2010. Her essay “Nopales, amor y corazón: Legacies of Food Through Love,” appeared in Moctezuma’s Table: Rolando Briseño’s Mexican and Chicano Tablescapes (2010). “Editorial Conocimientos as Narrative: Voicing Ways of Knowing,” premiered at the “Critical Ethnic Studies and the Future of Genocide: Settler Colonialism/Heteropatriarchy/White Supremacy” conference at the University of California, Riverside. She continues to workshop Cancionera Naci: Toña La Negra—a multimedia one-woman show that engages a discussion on the third root or African presence in Mexico

V. June Pedraza

V. June Pedraza is an assistant professor at Northwest Vista College. She received her PhD in U.S. Latino/a Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She works for Department of English, as well as with the NVC MAS program. Her research is in Mixed Race Chicano/a Identity Politics within Contemporary America. Her work has been published by Pecan Grove Press, Wings Press, and in the Sagebrush Review. In addition to teaching, V. June Pedraza is also a community activist is San Antonio. She works with community organizations such as: Somos MAS, NACCS Tejas Foco, The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, as well as MALCS. Currently she is working on her book “Third Space Mestizaje: A Critical Approach to Literature” with Palgrave Press.

“Community-Based Activism and Pedagogy in The Rio Grande Valley”

Stephanie Alvarez

Antonia Castañeda was born in Tejas and raised in Washington. She received her BA from Western Washington State College, MA from the University of Washington, and Ph.D. from Stanford University. She held teaching appointments in Chicano Studies and Women's Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and in the Departments of History in the University of Texas at Austin, and St. Mary's University. She is the author of numerous articles, including the prizing winning "Women of Color and the Re-Writing of Western History." Her most recent work is the co-edited anthology, Gender on the Borderlands: The Frontiers Reader (University of Nebraska Press, 2007)

Juanita Valdez Cox

Juanita Valdez Cox obtained her associates degree from The University of Texas Pan American and currently continues her studies in Mexican-American Studies and Sociology. In 2000 Juanita was elected to be on the UFW National Executive Board. In 2003, all the Texas staff was transferred from UFW to LUPE, and Juanita became executive director in 2007. She serves as a Board Member of the Cesar Chavez Foundation and the Advisory Committee of the NFWSC’s Sí Se Puede Education Program. As Board Member of Proyecto Azteca, Juanita assists two other local non-profit organization that serve low income communities. Juanita has been selected to serve on the National Planning Committee for the Equal Voice for America’s Families campaign that is funded by the Marguerite Casey Foundation.

Francisco Guajardo

AUTHOR AND NOCHE DE CULTURA BIOGRAPHIES

Amalia Ortiz

Amalia Ortiz is a Tejana, performance poet and playwright who has appeared on three seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO and the NAACP Image Awards on FOX. She toured colleges and universities as a solo, artist and with the performance-poetry troupes Diva Diction, The Chicano Messengers of Spoken Word, and the Def Poetry College Tour. She was the recipient of Sandra Cisneros' "Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Award" in 2002. In August 2011, she was awarded a writing residency at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Most recently, her poem “These Hand Which Have Never Picked Cotton” was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Prize. Amalia Ortiz is a CantoMundo Fellow and Hedgebrook writer-in-residence alumni where she wrote the Latino musical, Carmen de la Calle.

Helena María Viramontes

Helena María Viramontes is the author of Their Dogs Came with Them, a novel, and two previous works of fiction, The Moths and Other Stories and Under the Feet of Jesus, a novel. Named a USA Ford Fellow in Literature for 2007 by United States Artists, she has also received the John Dos Passos Prize for Literature, a Sundance Institute Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, the Luis Leal Award and a Spirit Award from the California Latino Legislative Caucus. Viramontes is currently Professor of Creative Writing in the Department of English at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, where she is at work on a new novel.

Eva Ybarra

Eva Ybarra is one of the few female accordionists in the male-dominated Texas Mexican conjunto tradition. She is the only one with over 40 years as a professional musician. She is accomplished on the bajo sexto, guitarrón, electric bass and keyboards. Ybarra gained international notoriety via two recordings of original music for the independent Americana roots music label, Rounder Records: A mi San Antonio and Romance inolvidable, both produced by ethnomusicologist Cathy Ragland. In particular, accordion fans marvel at her instrumental polkas, huapangos and cumbia norteña such as, “A mi San Antonio,” “El gallito madrugador” (The Early Rising Rooster), “El perico loco” (The Crazy Parrot), and “A bailar con Eva” (Dance with Eva).
Photo Credit: Jane Levine.

"Testimonios and Community-Based Pedagogies”

Enrique Alemán, Jr.

Enrique Alemán, Jr. is Assistant Vice President for Student Equity and Diversity at the University of Utah. He has published articles in Harvard Educational Review, Race Ethnicity and Education, Educational Administration Quarterly, and Equity, Excellence and Education, and many chapters in edited books. In 2010-2011, Dr. Alemán served as Ford Foundation/National Academy of Sciences Fellow, conducting a research project titled, “Hernandez and Its Enduring Legacy of Racism: Developing and Applying a Critical Race Policy Framework and Methodology.” He has received many awards including the Faculty Research Award in 2010, American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, Junior Faculty Fellowship in 2007, American Education Research Association, Research on the Superintendency Special Interest Group and Dissertation of the Year award in 2005.

Aída Hurtado

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