Department Highlights 

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Brenda Wilson to the Department of Ethnic Studies. Dr. Wilson joined the Department of Ethnic Studies in July 2024 and holds a joint appointment as an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Global Health Program. She received her PhD in Medical Humanities from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 2019, followed by a two-year postdoctoral training at the Global Health Program at UC San Diego. Dr. Wilson’s research and teaching focus primarily on health disparities and the underlying social determinants, with an emphasis on structural violence, the role of power and politics, embodiment, and critical histories. Dr. Wilson will teach undergraduate core courses that offer critical social studies of medicine, health, and inequalities. You can read Dr. Wilson's bio here.

We're excited to share that Dr. Mary Klann's book is here - Wardship and the Welfare State: Native Americans and the Formation of First-Class Citizenship in Mid-Twentieth-Century America. According to Dr. Klann, a Lecturer at UC San Diego's Ethnic Studies Department, this book "...brings Native people into conversations about welfare and welfare into conversations about Indian policy". Check out the book here.

Join us in offering a huge congratulations to Daniel Rios who was awarded the 2024 UC President's Dissertation Year Fellowship! This fellowship is awarded to promising students in the final stages of their doctoral work who demonstrate strong potential for university teaching and research. According to Daniel, "I am so elated for this opportunity and I owe this achievement to Professors Marez and Streeby for their mentorship and support!"

Please join us in celebrating Citlally Solorzano, who was recently named a 2024-25 California State University Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP) Fellow! The CDIP has a long history of supporting and mentoring amazing doctoral students, who then go on to impact generations of students. The CDIP fellowship will give Citlally the opportunity to work with a CSU mentor, Dr. Mario Obando from Cal State Fullerton, to participate in and develop pedagogical projects, collaborate on archival oral history projects, prepare academic presentations, and other service focused initiatives both within and across CSU Fullerton and UC San Diego. We’re so proud and thrilled for you, Citlally!!

Congratulations to Dr. Long Bui, a PhD alum, who just published his third book and was promoted to Full Professor of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Irvine. 

You can read more about his book, Viral World: Global Relations during the COVID-19 Pandemic, which can be ordered from any online vendor, on the Routledge website.

Congratulations to Phúc Tô who was awarded a 2024-25 Friends of the International Center Fellowship. The Friends of the International Center organization generously established a graduate fellowship endowment fund to support graduate students whose work had an international component and/or global relevance. According to Phúc, "all of this accomplishment would not have been possible without the support from my cohort, faculty, and staff throughout my first two years in the program. I especially want to thank Dr. Yến Lê Espiritu for her unwavering guidance and care."

Kudos to Ruhail Syed who received the graduate student fellowship from the Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts. The Center offers fellowships to members of the UC San Diego community in support of research or production for cinema-related projects.

A big congratulations to Assistant Professor Holly Okonkwo for receiving an NSF CAREER Award! The National Science Foundation CAREER award is the most prestigious award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States Federal Government to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through research and education. This may be the largest grant that the Department of Ethnic Studies has ever received, and Dr. Okonkwo is thankful to the department for their support.

Read more about Dr. Okonkwo's award for Exploring STEM Identity Formation of Black Undergraduate Students through Transdisciplinary Computational Research Experiences here.

We proudly congratulate Katherine Steelman (Ph.D. '23) on her new role as a tenure-track faculty member in the Ethnic Studies Department at MiraCosta College in Oceanside. Katherine will play a pivotal role in teaching and curriculum development by implementing culturally-responsive pedagogical approaches that will enrich the academic experience at MiraCosta College. With her deep commitment to social justice and scholarship, Katherine is poised to inspire and educate a new generation of students. We wish Katherine continued success in her endeavors!

Congratulations to Christie Yamasaki, Sara Almalla, and Racquel West who were selected from among an impressive slate of applicants to participate in the University of California-Compton College Ethnic Studies Instructor Summer Institute pilot program (ESSITI).

The training institute is a curriculum development and Canvas Certification program that will be held primarily online and includes a one-week, in-person workshop in the summer 2024. This program aims to increase the number of University of California ethnic studies master's level graduate students who are highly qualified for faculty opportunities at the California Community Colleges. Participants will design a full Canvas ethnic studies course during the program.

Congratulations to Dr. Linh Thủy Nguyễn, one of our PhD alum, who just published her first book and received tenure in the Department of American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

Professor Nguyễn specializes in Asian American and Southeast Asian American cultural studies, immigration and refugee studies and US militarism and race. Her first book, Displacing Kinship: The Intimacies of Intergenerational Trauma in Vietnamese American Cultural Production, (Temple UP, 2024) examines how Vietnamese American cultural productions register lived experiences of racism in their depictions of family life and marginalization.

Congratulations to Amira Noeuv who was awarded an American Association of University Women (AAUW) Dissertation Fellowship to support her research on second-generation Cambodian American transgenerational trauma healing. The AAUW American Fellowships support women scholars who are pursuing full-time study to complete dissertations. Candidates are evaluated based on scholarly excellence; quality and originality of project design; and active commitment to helping women and girls through service in their communities, professions, or fields of research. Great job, Amira!

Mónica Rodriquez de Cabaza, our very own Undergraduate Coordinator, is the recipient of not one, but two of the inaugural Undergraduate Academic Advising Awards. The annual Dean of Undergraduate Education’s Undergraduate Academic Advising Awards at UC San Diego celebrate and increase visibility for the diverse academic advising dedication and talent across our community members.

Advising Student Advocate Award Winner: Mónica Rodriquez de Cabaza
This award recognizes an exceptional advisor who has consistently demonstrated a relentless commitment to enhancing the student experience. This prestigious accolade is bestowed upon an individual who has gone above and beyond in advocating for students' needs, well-being, and overall success. Through their unwavering dedication, creativity, and compassion, they have made a lasting impact on the lives of students, enriching their academic journey and personal development.

Advising Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Champion Award Winner: Mónica Rodriquez de Cabaza
This award celebrates an advisor or advising team that has demonstrated exemplary commitment and leadership in promoting justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the advising community and among the students they serve. This prestigious award recognizes their tireless efforts to create an inclusive advising environment, where all students feel valued, supported, and empowered to thrive. 

That Painted Horse Press, a borderless nonprofit press is pleased to announce the release of Andrew Jolivétte’s debut poetry-cookbook collection, Gumbo Circuitry: Poetic Routes, Gastronomic Legacies. Author Jolivétte explores triumphs, trauma, and thrivance in verse while celebrating community and “kin-gathering” through food and memory. Including a forward by Tracey Colson-Antee and afterword by Maaliyah Papillion.

You may order a copy through your online retailer including Amazon or by emailing ThatPaintedHorsePress@gmail.com 

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Dr. Juvenal Caporale (MA '12) awarded the 2023-2024 American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Faculty Fellowship

Congratulations to Dr. Juvenal Caporale (MA '12) who was awarded the 2023-2024 American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Faculty Fellowship. The primary goal of this program is to prepare Latina/o/x faculty for successful careers in academia and beyond by increasing the number of tenured and promoted Latina/o/x faculty.

Dr. Caporale is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies (Chicano/a/x-Latino/a/x Studies) at California State University, Stanislaus. He completed his Ph.D. in Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona, an MA in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and an MA in Political Science at California State University, Northridge. Dr. Caporale's research interests include healing, re-indigenization, and re-humanization, and his work centers on Chicanx, Latinx, and Indigenous men who participate in restorative justice and transformative justice practices. Dr. Caporale is a Ford, Fulbright, Bilinski, and AAHHE Fellow, and he has authored essays and chapters in Aztlán, Urban Education, Routledge, Springer, Sage, and the University of Arizona Press.

To read more about the 2023-2024 Faculty Fellows, please visit here.

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Dr. Olivia Quintanilla (PhD '20) honored by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors with 2023-24 Exemplary Program Awards

Congratulations to Dr. Olivia Quintanilla (PhD '20) from MiraCosta College for being honored by the California Community Colleges Board of Governors with 2023-24 Exemplary Program Awards for their outstanding efforts in promoting and advancing ethnic studies programs.

"MiraCosta College’s successfully meticulous approach involved establishing a work group comprising faculty and students that led to a new Ethnic Studies Department in fall of 2022 and the hiring of the college’s first full-time, ethnic studies faculty member, Dr. Olivia Quintanilla, who designed and taught several sections of Introduction to Ethnic Studies. She also proposed several new courses – Introduction to Native American and Indigenous Studies, Introduction to Chicana/o Studies, Introduction to Black Studies and Introduction to Pacific Islander and Oceania Studies – to be offered this coming fall. This past fall, six of seven existing classes were filled with waitlists."

Read the full press release here.

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Congratulations Noelle Sepina, 2024 Suraj Israni Center for Cinematic Arts Film Fellowship Awardee

While holding this fellowship, Noelle will make an experimental documentary, "Made in the Philippines," for which she serves as director and writer. This documentary will accompany the writing in her dissertation. In this documentary, Noelle responds critically to the documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed! (2010), which depicts the history of exploitation filmmaking in the Philippines in colonial terms that relegate Filipinos and the Philippines to stereotypes. Noelle's film will counter these erasures by highlighting Filipino perspectives and contributions to cinema, thereby illuminating the history of transnational filmmaking in the Philippines by centering perspectives, experiences and voices of the Philippine film industry and Filipino filmmakers.  

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Prof. Shelley Streeby recognized in 2023 Distinguished Research Award Lectures

“Speculative Feminist Ecologies: Worldmaking and the Archive in Science Fiction”
Shelley Streeby, PhD; Professor of Literature and Ethnic Studies Joint Appointment; Chancellor's Associates Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching; Hellman Fellow

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Welcome Dr. Monika Gosin, New Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies

Monika Gosin is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies with specializations in African American and Latinx relations, migration studies, and Afro-Cuban and other Afro-Latinx immigrant experiences in the United States.

Dr. Gosin was hired through the Latinx-Chicanx Cluster Hire Initiative. Everyone who was hired through this particular initiative has a history of being involved in committed, impactful academic institution building with Chicanx, Latinx, and Latin American communities. We look forward to working with her to continue building Latinx/Chicanx and Latin American Studies at UCSD!

Isabella C. Restrepo (she/they) is an interdisciplinary feminist scholar whose research mobilizes disability studies, girlhood studies, Chicana feminist methods, and abolition studies to analyze the U.S. foster care system. Restrepo earned her doctorate in Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Restrepo’s research offers a critical lens that excavates the criminalization and pathologization that is inherent in the foster care system and centers the experiences of racialized Latina foster girls with carceral tools like behavioral diagnosis and mandated services.

Read more about the President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and see Dr. Restrepo's profile here.

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Meet Ethan L. Banegas, UCSD Culture Bearer In Residence 2023-24

Ethan Lawrence Banegas, a descendant of the Kumeyaay, Luiseño/Payómkawichum, and Cupeño/ Kuupangaxwichem bands of Native Americans, grew up on the Barona Reservation in San Diego County. He received his Bachelor of Arts in History, Religious Studies and Political Science in 2009 and his Master of Arts degree in History in 2017 from the University of San Diego (USD).

Banegas is the co-owner of Kumeyaay.com and Historian for the San Diego History Center, which operates the Junípero Serra Museum. He taught history within the Grossmont Cuyamaca College District (Kumeyaay College) for five years and currently teaches at San Diego State University. He served on the Board of Directors at the Kumeyaay Community College and Barona Museum. He was first published in 2017 (Indian Gaming in the Kumeyaay Nation) and in 2020 published the Kumeyaay Oral History Project, a community-based research project, after collecting thirty-one personal interviews, video-taped oral histories, and photographs from San Diego’s First People. Through this project, Banegas collected the voice of the Kumeyaay people, giving a voice to the voiceless.

Read about the UCSD Native American Elder/Culture Bearer in Residence Program here.

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Jason Magabo Perez (PhD '16) Named San Diego Poet Laureate for 2023-2024