College of Letters & Science
Biography Nidia Bañuelos is an Assistant Professor of Adult, Continuing, and Higher Education. She studies the design and implementation of new postsecondary programs for working adults, as well as the assets that low-income students with caregiving responsibilities bring to their education. She has a special interest in the history of “non-traditional” learners and the institutions …
Biography Edna Ely-Ledesma, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Director of the Kaufman Lab for the Study and Design of Food Systems and Marketplaces. She holds a PhD in Urban and Regional Science from Texas A&M University, Master of Architecture and a …
Biography As a cultural and linguistic anthropologist, Falina Enriquez studies music and language as an ensemble that helps us understand how people construct the world and emplace themselves—and others—within it. She focuses on the cultural politics of music as a form of artistic practice and labor in Recife, Brazil, a city long known as a …
Biography Micha Espinosa is an internationally recognized multi-hyphenate artist, educator, director (theatre and film), producer, and editor whose work spans voice, acting, actor training, pedagogy, authorship, and performance practices. She advances culturally responsive methodologies and centers Chicana/o/x, Latinx, and historically excluded narratives in theatre and film, shaping inclusive approaches to voice, performance, and storytelling. Professor Espinosa is …
Biography Dr. Gloria has several research teams exploring the educational processes and coping strategies that facilitate academic persistence and educational wellness for students of color. Studies are conceptualized using the Psychosociocultural approach to academic persistence in which the “whole student” is considered within the context of the university environment. Central to her work is the …
Biography Paola S. Hernández specializes in contemporary Latin American theatre, performance, and Latinx Studies. She has published numerous articles on Southern Cone theatre, performance and memory politics, sites of memory, human rights, and documentary theatre. She is the author El teatro de Argentina y Chile: Globalización, resistencia y desencanto (Corregidor, 2009), co-editor (with Brenda Werth and Florian …
Biography Katie Kirchgasler’s research explores underexamined histories of coloniality and racialization in STEM, health, and environmental education and how these histories impact teachers and students today. Her current project interweaves insights from Chican@/Latin@ Studies and Science & Technology Studies to examine the indebtedness of U.S. science education to broader biopolitical projects of school segregation, Americanization …
Biography Current and Future Projects: • Examining Quinceañeras/Quinceañeridades in contemporary popular culture • Situating Spanish Language television and TelevisaUnivision within larger conversations about media mergers • Latinx/e Digital Audiences as critical agents within media production ecosystems • Ongoing research on corporate social responsibility reports and the role that DEI plays within these • Democratic Violence …
Biography Dr. Francesca A. López is the Jim and Georgia Thompson Distinguished Professor in Education of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis in the School of Education. She began her career in education as a bilingual (Spanish/English) elementary teacher, and later as a high school counselor, in El Paso, Texas. Her research has been …
Biography BA in Political Science from the University of Buenos Aires, MS and PhD in Sociology from University of Oregon. As a researcher, teacher and activist, Dr. Loustaunau has led multiple research projects focusing on job quality, public policy, and collective organizing. Her work has been published in Labor Studies Journal, Industrial and Labor Relations …