Randy Rodriguez completed a Ph.D. in American Studies at the University of Minnesota, did graduate work in Government, focusing on political theory, at The University of Texas at Austin and Cornell University, and obtained a B.A. in Political Science with a minor in Spanish from Brigham Young University. He taught Chicana/o literature and cultural studies as a graduate instructor at the University of Minnesota, the Introduction to Minority Studies as a Visiting Assistant Professor at St. Cloud State University, and a variety of Latina/o Studies courses as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Lecturer at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Dr. Rodriguez exemplified his critical, interdisciplinary approach to scholarship in a path-breaking article "Richard Rodriguez Reconsidered" chosen by preeminent Latino Studies scholar Jose Limon to lead a special issue of Texas Studies in Literature and Language focusing on the successful and controversial essayist Richard Rodriguez who has confounded and angered scholars for decades. In the piece that one Chicano Studies scholar called "...probably the best interpretive piece on Rodriguez's work...," he argued that central to the trouble caused by Rodriguez was an inadequately addressed and understood gender/queer performance aesthetic that challenged and undermined the "straight" heterosexual expectations of his mainstream and academic readers. To properly understand the Richard Rodriguez "problem" one had to reevaluate and complicate the hardened demands of a limiting and, too often, uncritical heroic, resistant masculinity. Dr. Rodriguez brings this kind of innovative work to his teaching as well and looks forward to engaging with University of Illinois students to thoughtfully reimagine how we can engage and shape our worlds.

COURSES TAUGHT:

LLS 100 (INTRO TO LATINA/LATINO STUDIES): SPR-22

LLS 240/SPAN 240/ENGL 224 (LATINA/O POPULAR CULTURE): FA-21, SPR-22, FA-22, SPR-23, FA-23

LLS 250/MACS 250 (LATINAS/OS ON THE BRONZE SCREEN): FA-21, FA-22

LLS 316/PS 316 (LATINA/LATINO POLITICS): SPR-23, FA-23

LLS 365 (CHICANA/LATINA AUTOBIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR, TESTIMONIO): SPR-22, SPR-23