CURRENT FACULTY
Raza Studies has an outstanding faculty with Ph.Ds from top research and teaching institutions across the county, including Stanford, University of California and the University of Michigan. Over 50% of the faculty are women.
Our faculty represent a range of teaching and research interests and multidisciplinary approaches. They are active in local research projects, community and public service activities. Students often participate with faculty in these activities. Please refer to the faculty page for further details about individual faculty credentials, teaching and research interests.
TERESA CARRILLO, PROFESSOR & CHAIR
Ph.D, M.A., Political Science, Stanford University; B.A.S., Liberal Arts & Sciences, The Colorado College
Teresa Carrillo specializes in Latino Politics with an emphasis on immigration and transnational connections in the Americas. Carrillo teaches Raza Immigration (RAZA 470), Latino Politics (RAZA 660), a course on globalization (RAZA 445), a course on Mexican politics (RAZA 670), and the Seminar on Raza Women (RAZA 410). She is faculty advisor for the student publication Coyolxauhqui Remembered: A Journal of Latina Voices.
Professor Carrillo comes from a large family in Tucson, Arizona. She has traveled extensively throughout Mexico and Central America and her teaching and research interests reflect her fascination with Latinos as political actors in a constant interaction with local, national and transnational political forces. At the end of each Spring semester, Carrillo leads the Department's Mexico Solidarity Travel/ Study tour to Mexico City.
Tomas Almaguer, Professor
Ph.D and M.A., Sociology, University of California at Berkeley; B.A. (with High Honors) University
of California at Santa Barbara
Dr. Tomas Almaguer is Professor of Ethnic Studies and former Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. He currently teaches course for the Raza Studies Department and for the Sociology Department, History Department, Ethnic Studies Program, Sexuality Studies Program, and Women’s Studies Department.
Professor Almaguer received his Ph.D from the Sociology Department at the University of California at Berkeley in 1979. He subsequently served as Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University in the Department of Sociology and Center for Chicano Research. He has held formal academic appointments in the Department of Sociology at the University of California at Berkeley; in the American Studies Program at the University of California at Santa Cruz; and in the Department of Sociology and Program in American Culture at The University of Michigan. While at the University of Michigan he served as Director of the Center for Research on Social Organization and Chair of the Latino/a Studies Program. He also held the Arthur F. Thurnau Chair while at the University of Michigan in recognition of his distinguished undergraduate and graduate teaching. In AY 2000-01, he received The Circle Award in recognition of his distinguished contributions to the Latino community and the University of Michigan.
Professor Almaguer’s various publications include Racial Fault Lines: The Historical Origins of White Supremacy in California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), the widely-reprinted “Chicano Men: A Cartography of Homosexual Identity and Behavior” and numerous articles in Latino/a Studies, Chicano Studies, Labor History, and Gender and Sexuality Studies. His most recent article, “Looking for Papi: Longing and Desire among Chicano Gay Men” appeared in A Companion to Latina/o Studies (New York: Blackwell, 2007) edited by Renato Rosaldo and Juan Flores. He has a forthcoming co-authored article entitled “Revisiting Activos and Pasivos: Towards New Cartographies of Latino and Latin American Male Same-Sex Desire” that will appear in Latino/a Sexualities: A Reader edited by Marysol Ascenio (New York: Rutgers University Press, 2009). He is currently completing work on a book manuscript entitled Border Men: Gender and Sexuality in the Life Histories of Chicano Gay Men, which will be published by the University of California Press.
CARLOS CORDOVA, Ed.D., FACULTY
Ed.D., Multicultural Education, University of San Francisco; M.A., B.A. San Francisco State University
Professor Córdova is a native of El Salvador and has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1965. He received a Doctorate in Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco in 1986. He joined the faculty of Raza Studies as a lecturer in 1974 and was hired as a tenure-track faculty in 1986. He presently holds the rank of Professor of Raza Studies at San Francisco State University. He has also taught in the History, Anthropology, Education, and Social Work departments at SFSU.
Prof. Córdova has worked on a variety of research projects ranging from shamanism among Guatemalan and Mexican Mayan peoples; the migration patterns and adaptation dynamics of Central American immigrants in the U.S.; the formation of Central American communities and identities in the U.S.; Caribbean art and culture; and the Lucumi or Santeria traditions in Cuba and Puerto Rico. He presently teaches Raza 280 Acculturation Issues of La Raza; Raza 320 Raza Art History; Raza 460: Central Americans in the U.S.; Raza 450: Indigenismo: Indigenous Cultures and Personality; and Raza 440: Caribbean Cultures and Spirituality.
Dr. Córdova has published numerous research articles in professional and art journals and is the author of “The Salvadoran Americans” published by Greenwood Press in 2005. He is also the author of a chapter on Salvadoran communities in the U.S in the forthcoming book series entitled “Multicultural America: The Newest Americans” by Ron Bayor (ed) Greenwood Press.
Prof. Córdova is an active participant in the cultural and political life in the Mission district in San Francisco. He was one of the founding members of the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, and has been a member of various community Boards including the Board of Directors of the Friends of the Mission Cultural Center, the founding Board of Directors at the Center for the Arts in the Yerba Buena Gardens, and the Board of Directors at the Mission Neighborhood Centers.
JOSE CUELLAR, Ph.D, FACULTY
Ph.D., M.A., Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles; B.A., California State University, Long Beach
A native of San Antonio, Texas, I came to higher education in1966, following four years of active duty in the United States Air Force, and two-years as a saxophonist-singer with Tom Cellie and the Charades. I have held positions at the Claremont Colleges (1971-73, 1975-77), USC (1973-75), the Univesity of Colorado at Boulder (1977-78), the University of California at Santa Barbara (1978-79), Allied Home Health Association (1979-80), San Diego State University (1980-83), Stanford University (1983-88), the Prevention Research Center and the University of California at Berkeley (1988-90). I have been Professor of Raza/Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University since 1990. I am also internationally known as “Dr. Loco”, the founding director of the acclaimed Dr. Loco’s Rockin’ Jalapeño Band since 1989, and have produced and performed on four music CDs (Con Safors in 1991, Movimiento Music in 1992, Puro Party in 1995, and Barrio Ritmos & Blues in 1998) and a feature film musical soundtrack Alambrista! The Director’s Cut (2002). My recent publications include: “Chicanismo” in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures (2001); “El Saxofón in Tejano and Norteño Music” in !Puro Conjunto! An Album in Words and Pictures. U of Texas Press (2001); “Cesar E. Chavez” and “Farm Labor” in Pollution—A to Z. Macmillan (in press). My recent honors, grants and awards include: The Rockefeller Humanities Gatesway Fellowship (1997-98);The Diversity in Teaching and Learning Distinguished Faculty Award (2000); A Ford Foundation Grant (2001-2003); The Distinguished Alumnus Award, California State University at Long Beach’s College of Arts and Letters (2002); and the Pillar of Achievement Award, Golden West College (2003).
BRIGITTE DAVILA, FACULTY
J.D., Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California, Berkeley; B.A., Rhetoric,University of California, Berkeley
Brigitte Davila is from Los Angeles with roots in Colorado and New Mexico. Davila has taught in the Raza Studies Department for the last six years. Among her classes are Raza, Government & Constitutional Ideals, Raza in California, Community Organizing and the occasional Critical Thinking course. Currently, her area of focus is law and public policy, with an emphasis on community activism.
As Program Director of Raza Studies Community Service Learning Program, Davila has the opportunity to work closely with community based organizations actively supporting Raza. She has received acknowledgment and awards for her innovative community service learning curricula. Brigitte is also the webjefa (webmistress) for this website. Check out her new course, Raza 205 - Cyberaza: Latino Culture & Community Online.
JEFFREY MICHAEL REIES DUNCAN-ANDRADE, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Raza Studies and Education Administration and Interdisciplinary Studies, and Co-Director of the Educational Equity Initiative at San Francisco State University’s Cesar Chavez Institute (http://cci.sfsu.edu/taxonomy/term/28).
In addition to these duties, he has been an urban secondary school teacher for the past 16 years where he researches the use of critical pedagogy in urban schools. Before joining the faculty at SFSU, Duncan-Andrade taught English and coached in the Oakland public schools for 10 years, and completed his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley.
Duncan-Andrade has lectured around the world about the elements of effective teaching in schools serving poor and working class children. He works closely with teachers, school site leaders, and school district officials nationally, and as far abroad as Brazil and New Zealand, to help them develop classroom practices and school cultures that foster self-confidence, esteem, and academic success among all students. His research interests and publications span the areas of urban schooling and curriculum change, urban teacher development and retention, critical pedagogy, and cultural and ethnic studies. He has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters on the conditions of urban education, urban teacher support and development, and effective pedagogy in urban settings (see http://cci.sfsu.edu/taxonomy/term/68). He recently completed The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools with Peter Lang Publishing, a co-authored book on effective pedagogical strategies. He is currently completing a second book on the core competencies of highly effective urban educators with Routledge Press.
VELIA GARCIA M.S.W., Ph.D, FACULTY
Ph.D., M.A., Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley; M.S.W, B.A. Social Work, San Francisco State University
Velia Garcia is a native-born Chicana with roots deep in California history. One of a family of seven, Dr. Garcia was born in Huntington Park and raised in San Mateo County. Her areas of interest and specialization include race and ethnicity, social inequality, crime and justice, social history, the United States and women.
She teaches Raza 485 - Criminalize Raza Youth, Introduction to Raza Studies, La Raza Women, Issues in Political Economy, Race, Crime and Justice, Sociological Perspectives and Step-to-College. Recent research centers on Mexican immigrant women. She serves as Chair of Raza Studies.
FELIX KURY, FACULTY
M.S. Counseling; B.A., International Relations, San Francisco State University, Universidad de El Salvador
Felix Kury specializes in mental health policy issues facing Latinos in the U.S. He has taught at SFSU since 1988. Felix teaches Latino Health Care Perspectives, Psychodynamics of the Raza Family, Cuban Health, Education & Culture, Community Organizing, and other courses. In addition to his teaching duties, Felix is a licensed therapist. He has worked with Survivors International and provides pro-bono consultation for the Center For Justice and Accountability. He has published research in: trauma and war; torture survivors; depression, resilience, and other protective factors among Latinas in the context of intergenerational cultural change and gender.
Felix established the SFSU Cuba Educational Project in 1996, the first such academic exchange between Cuba and SFSU, taking over 350 students to Cuba on the study-tour. Felix has also organized other study tours to Venezuela and El Salvador.
Felix is Program Director and Faculty Advisor for Clinica Martin-Baro SFSU-UCSF.
Clínica Martín-Baró is a student-organized free clinic operating Saturdays out of CARECEN (Centro de Recursos Centroamericanos) in the Mission District of San Francisco . Clinica Martin-Baro has been open for almost two years now, serving hundreds of uninsured, low-income persons who would otherwise have limited or no access to healthcare on a regular basis. Many of these patients have not seen a doctor in years, if ever in their lifetime. Clinica Martin-Baro was conceived and inspired by two of Felix’s former students, Dr. Caro Monico and Dr. Zoel Quinonez. Clinica’s model is based on Liberation Theology. Ignacio Martin-Baro, a Jesuit priest from El Salvador who was murdered by the Salvadoran Army in 1989, developed a model of Liberation Psychology, which is integrated into the services that Clinica provides. SFSU and UCSF students have learned that making a preferential option for the poor is now part of their mission in life:
Click here for more information about Martin-Baro.
Click here for an online video about Martin-Baro.
KATYNKA MARTINEZ, FACULTY
Ph.D., Communication, University of California at San Diego; BA, Sociology, University of California at Santa Cruz
Katynka Martínez's research areas include cultural studies, media studies, Latino studies, communication, and studies of youth and new media/technology. Prior to beginning her post at SF State, Professor Martínez was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Southern California where she worked on the research project, “Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media: An Ethnographic Investigation of Innovative Knowledge Cultures.” http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/ Here in the Raza Studies Department, she teaches media studies and communication courses on topics such as film, television, and journalism. The students in her Raza Journalism class have published articles in the Mission District bilingual newspaper El Tecolote. http://news.eltecolote.org/news/ Martínez is also the faculty advisor for the student journal Coyolxauhqui Re-Membered: A Journal of Latina Voices.
Publications by Martínez include: "American Idols with Caribbean Soul: Cubanidad and the Latin Grammys" in Latino Studies 4:4 (2006); "Monolingualism, Biculturalism and Cable TV: HBO Latino and the Promise of the Multiplex" in Cable Visions: Television Beyond Broadcasting, Ed. Banet-Weiser, Chris, and Freitas (2007); "Real Women and Their Curves: Letters to the Editor and a Magazine’s Celebration of the 'Latina body'" in Latina/o Communication Studies Today, Ed. Angharad N. Valdivia (2008); “The Garcia Family: A Portrait of Urban Los Angeles,” “Sharing Snapshots of Teen Friendship and Love,” and “Being More Than ‘Just a Banker:’ DIY Youth Culture and DIY Capitalism in a High School Computer Club” in Hanging Out, Messing Around, Geeking Out: Living and Learning with New Media, Mizuko Ito, et al. (2008).
NANCY RAQUEL MIRABAL, Ph.D., LA MISSION ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Ph.D. History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor;
B.A. History, University of California, Berkeley
Coordinator: Graduate Program in Ethnic Studies, College of Ethnic Studies. Director: Community Oral History of Gentrification in the Mission District and its Impact on Latina/os.
Nancy Raquel Mirabal is the historian of the department who specializes in oral history, theory, and the migration of Caribbean diasporas to the United States. She teaches courses in the history of Latina/os, Caribbean diasporas, Afro-Latina/o diasporas, theory and methods, gender and sexuality, and oral history. She also teaches the graduate course in Latina/o Studies. Mirabal was the Cesar Chavez Dissertation Fellow at Dartmouth College, the Chancellor's Post-doctoral Fellow in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, and an International Migration Fellow with the Social Science Research Council.
Mirabal has published widely in the field of nineteenth and early twentieth century Caribbean migrations, most recently, "Sus Diferencias: Melba Alvarado, El Club Cubano Inter-Americano, and the Creation of Afro-Cubanidades in New York City, 1928-1995," (The Afro-Latino Reader, Duke University Press, 2009) and "Scripting Race, Finding Place: African-Americans, Afro-Cubans, and the Diasporic Imaginary in the United States," (Neither Friends nor Enemies, Palgrave Press, 2005). She has also published the results of the community oral history project on gentrification in "Displaced Geographies: Latina/os, Oral History, and the Politics of Gentrification in the Mission District of San Francisco," (The Public Historian, 2008-9)
She is the first editor of Technofuturos: Critical Interventions in Latina/o Studies, (2007)and is completing a book on the early history of Cuban migration to New York entitled, Hemispheric Notions: Diaspora, Masculinity, and the Racial Politics of Cubanidad in New York, 1823-1933.
Mirabal currently serves on the editorial board for the Latino Studies Journal, the International Oral History and Narrative Editorial Board for Transaction Press, and is a "Distinguished Lecturer" for the Organization of American Historians, (2005-2009).
ALEJANDRO MURGUIA, M.F.A., FACULTY
M.F.A. Creative Writing; B.A., English, San Francisco State University
Writing specialist in Raza Studies. He teaches Second Year Written Composition, Raza Creative Writing Workshop, Introduction to Raza Literature, Contemporary Literature of Raza, and Central American Literature. Also faculty advisor for the student publication, Cipactli: Raza Studies Journal of Literature and Art.
Alejandro Murguia is a two-time winner of the American Book Award, most recently (August, 2003) for This War Called Love: Nine Stories, City Lights Books. His memoir The Medicine of Memory: A Mexica Clan in California, University of Texas Press, has been nominated for the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing. His past books include Southern Front, (American Book Award winner in 1992 ) and Volcan, Poetry from Central America. He was also a founding member and the first director of the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts.
BELINDA I. REYES, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
Ph.D., Economics University of California, Berkeley; B.S. , Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Belinda I. Reyes is an Assistant Professor at Raza Studies in the College of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University. Formerly a Founding Faculty member at the University of California, Merced, and a Research Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Her publications include: Holding the Line? The Effect of the Recent Border Build-up on Unauthorized Immigration; Taking the Oath: An Analysis of Naturalization in California and the United States; and A Portrait of Race and Ethnicity in California: An Assessment of Social and Economic Well-Being. They explore different dimensions of immigration, policy, and the social and economic progress of racial and ethnic groups in the United States. She also conducted research on racial diversity on education. In Systems of Elections, Latino Representation, and Student Outcomes in Central California and Faculty, Managers, and Administrators in the University of California, 1996 to 2002, Reyes explores ethnic diversity in higher ed and k-12 and the potential consequences of under-representation. Her research focuses on the policy issues confronting the Latino and immigrant population in the United States. She has briefed various federal, state, and local governmental bodies and addressed numerous civic organizations. She has been a senior program associate at PolicyLink; lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley; a research fellow at the University of Michigan; and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She holds a B.S. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
ROBERTO RIVERA, FACULTY
Ph.D. Comparative Humanities, University of California, Santa Cruz; B.A. Philosophy, University of San Francisco
Roberto has been teaching at San Francisco State University, since the Third World Strike created the College of Ethnic Studies. Currently he teaches Raza World Views and Philosophy, Aztec Philosophy and Critical Thinking. He also teaches classes in the Humanities and NEXA. He is interested in cultural studies, discourse theory and the foundations of social science. His views on theory are influenced by the work of Raza critics in both the U.S. and Latin America.
Roberto is presently finishing a book on Liberation Discourse which examines the semantics of counter-hegemony in the philosophies of Gustavo Gutierrez and Paulo Freire
