Nic Flores specializes in public and sexual health, HIV/AIDS prevention, ethnography, comparative ethnic and racial studies, and gender and sexuality studies with additional interests in queer of color critique, disability studies, and feminist science and technology studies.
Spotlights
During the summer of 2024, Trinity Mitchell, a Latina/Latino studies and history major worked for the Illinois Department of Human Services Asylum and Resettlement Team. She wrote to us about her experience.
During the summer of 2024, Graciela Best, a sophomore majoring in Latina/Latino studies and history, interned with the Chinese Historical Christian Database. She wrote to us about her experience.
Elizabeth Velásquez Estrada seeks to produce knowledge that supports the development of a holistic and substantial peace. Her research interests include violence and grassroots peacemaking, racialization and gender in El Salvador, transnational feminisms and activist research, and the politics of intersectional inequalities and justice.
Natalie Lira is an interdisciplinary scholar who examines the politics of reproduction and histories of medicine in the United States. Her research interests include the politics of reproduction, histories of medicine, and the ways that struggles for racial and reproductive justice intersect.
Mirelsie Velázquez is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work centers history of education, women's history, Puerto Rican studies, gender and sexuality, and teacher education.
Isabel Molina-Guzmán's research examines the relationship between ethnoracial, gender, sexual identity and media discourses in the reproduction of inequality.
Gilberto Rosas's research interests include “the state,” racism and its broad complexities, critical ethnography, and experimental writing.
This past summer I was given the opportunity to interview LLS alum Celina Villanueva (BA, ’08, Latina/Latino studies) who represents Illinois' 12th District in the Illinois State Senate. Sen. Villanueva represents much of the southwest side of Chicago, including her home neighborhood of Little Village and other neighborhoods such as Pilsen, Bridgeport, and Brighton Park. She began...
Nancy Cambron Perez earned her BA in Latina/Latino Studies and Sociology from UIUC in 2012. Reflecting on her decision to major in Latina/Latino Studies, she explained, “I was passionate about understanding the diverse history, culture, and experiences of the Latinx community.” She also credits her interaction with LLS faculty in shaping her decision to major in Latina/Latino Studies, noting, “...