Diversity Statement
I grew up in Pomona, a city referred to by Mike Davis as the “The Suburban Nightmare” for its downward trajectory from a garden city to a crabgrass slum.
The combination of family financial struggles, a disinterested high school guidance counselor, and a demanding work- study schedule as an on-call maintenance worker marks my academic career as unlikely. However, it is my personal trajectory as a bicultural (Mexican and Puerto Rican) working- class woman raised in the "suburban nightmare" that draws me to promote diversity in higher education.I credit overcoming the barriers of economic and social inequity to mentorship by faculty of color and pipeline programs, first as an undergraduate at Pomona College in the McNair Program, later as a National Science Foundation EDGE Fellow, and most recently as a Ford Dissertation Fellow. Realizing the important role played by teachers from underrepresented groups to my own success, as an undergraduate I took on leadership roles as a Latino Student Affairs Mentor, Board Member of the student organization Empowered Latinos in Action, and a resident advisor at the Oldenborg Center for Modern Languages and International Relations.
As a graduate student, I actively sought academic service opportunities allowing me to institutionalize a commitment to diversity within higher education. For instance, as a member of the Graduate Admissions Committee and Faculty Staffing Committee within the urban planning program at UCLA, I was responsible for reviewing and making recommendations on student selection and faculty promotion. At USC, I individually mentored and held workshops on professionalization targeting underrepresented students. And, as a mentor for the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity at Yale, I work closely with first generation graduate students as they pursue their doctoral degrees.
In my teaching, I strive to create opportunities where student learning and the public humanities align. For instance, I promote community partnerships and project based assignments that produce a learning environment examining contemporary social inequities. My most current efforts in this regard are in the digital humanities, where I have served as a member of the critical race and ethnic studies committee of the international collective FemTechNet and have designed coursework for the history department at Yale and Chican@ studies department at UCLA at the intersection of new media and ethnic studies. Through my interdisciplinary training, participation and service in pipeline programs, and commitment to pedagogical principles promoting diversity, I aspire towards a model of higher education characterized by full and equitable inclusion.
Select "Biography" to continue on the main path: