CLS Spring 2026 Graduate Student Meetup

CLS is organizing a meet-up event for grad students interested in the Program, its events, and its doctoral minor. This is a chance to get to know some other folks on campus who are interested in Latine studies and hear some useful ideas from a speaker. We will serve food and drink with the event. This semester, our speaker will be Diana Leon-Boys, a new Assistant Professor in Communication Arts.  Her research and teaching center on critical media and cultural studies, with a focus on Latinx/e media and popular culture, girlhood, media industries, and transnational feminisms. She examine how media both reflect and reinforce social inequalities, as well as how marginalized communities challenge these narratives—often through digital platforms. In particular, she investigates the global representation of girls of color in the post-network digital era, situating these portrayals within contemporary postfeminist and neoliberal frameworks. In addition to that analytical work, Dr. Leon-Boys has served as a consultant on non-academic projects, including Mattel’s effort to create a Latina character in the “American Girl” line of dolls. She will share tips for interacting with audiences outside the academy and finding outlets and applications for your work beyond traditional scholarly outlets.