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Community Resources
We've put together a list of campus, local, and national resources on harassment and discrimination, immigration, and wellness to support our community.
- Saraí Blanco Martinez co-authored new pedagogical research that identifies four key practices for creating a trauma-informed and healing-centered classroom. Read full story
- Latina/Latino studies professor Aja Y. Martinez and gender and women's studies professor and Latina/Latino studies affiliate Damian Vergara Bracamontes are two of eleven faculty members across campus to receive the Cohen Innovation Award from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation. Read full story
- A new collection of essays co-edited by Angharad N. Valdivia, emerita professor of Latina/Latino studies and the Institute of Communications Research, with alumnae Jillian M. Báez (PhD, ’09, communications) and Diana Leon-Boys (PhD, ’20, communications and media studies, Latina/Latino studies minor), explores the increasing visibility of quinceañeras in popular culture. Read full story
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Why Study Latina/Latino Studies?
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Why Study Latina/Latino Studies?
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Professor Mirelsie Velázquez shares the value of the major, favorite spots in Champaign-Urbana, and why the Latina/Latino studies department is the best kept secret on campus in an interview with the College of LAS.
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Alumni Spotlight
Antonio Ortega ’14 – Instructional Technologist, School of Professional Studies, Northwestern University
Being a first-generation college student, I remember electing Latina/Latino Studies 100 as one of my initial courses during my first fall semester at the University of Illinois. I was so enthralled by what I was learning. The history of the Latino/Latina population in the United States. Subjects and topics that were never discussed in my elementary and high school history classes. The history of “mi gente.” I was so fascinated that I chose Latino/Latina Studies as my second major to go along with my History major.
I became an elementary school teacher in the South side of Chicago and took...
Faculty Spotlight
Elena Guzman
Elena Guzman is an Afro-Boricua documentary filmmaker, educator, and anthropologist. She is currently writing her book manuscript tentatively titled, "Chimera Geographies: Spiritual Borderland Performances of the Afro-Caribbean," which focuses on the way Black women and non-binary people throughout the African diaspora use ritual performance in African diaspora religions.