Office Hours
Faculty
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Dr. Verba is Director and Professor of Latin American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. Her current project is a biograpy of Chilean musician and artist, Violete Parra (1917 - 1967). Her research interests include the history of the cultural Cold War and the role of music in social movements. She has received grants from the National Endowment from the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Fullbright, and the Los Angeles Departmen of Cultural Affairs, and was the recipien of the E. Bradford Burns Award for service to the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies. She was previously a member of the History Department at California State University, Dominguez Hills (2004 - 2015). She is also an accomplished musician and was a founding member of the Los Angeles-based new song groups Sabiá and Desborde. Dr. Verba enjoys spending time with friends and family, walking in nature, music, and more music. Email: everba@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Dr. Ochoa is a Professor of Latin American Studies and History at California State University, Los Angeles. From 2013-2014 he was the President's Distinguished Professor at CSULA, and from 2006 to 2008, the Michi and Walter Weglyn Endowed Chair of Multicultural Studies at Cal Poly Pomona. He has edited over a dozen books and journals including Feeding Mexico: The Political Uses of Food Since 1910 (2000); Latina(o) Los Angeles: Migrations, Communities and Political Activism (co-editor, 2005); History and Critical Pedagogies: Transforming Consciousness, Classrooms, and Communities, a special issue of Radical History Review (co-editor, 2008); and "Reframing Immigration in the Americas," a special issue of Dialogo: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Latina(o) Studies (co-editor, 2015). He has published several articles on Mexican politics and history, food studies, Latina(o) studies, and critical community-based education. Dr. Ochoa works to link his classes and research to social justice movements to draw on the rich experiences of students and Los Angeles communities. He is a past board member of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Historians Against the War, Latin American Perspectives, and Radical History Review. He is a founder of the Latina/o History Bee and is currently working with local school districts to implement an intersectional ethnic studies curriculum for K-12 classes. Email: ochoa3@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Gabriela Fried Amilivia (Ph.D. Sociology, UCLA, 2004; M.A. Clinical Sociology, Université de Paris VII-Jussieu, 1993; Licenciada en Psicología, Universidad de la República, Montevideo) was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay, and was exiled with her family in Madrid, Spain, before being able to return to her country of origin during the political transition to democracy. She is Full Professor at the Latin American Studies Program and the Department of Sociology at California State University Los Angeles. She specializes in the fields of human rights/social memory, trauma, port-traumatic growth and healing, and intergenerational transmissions and is a specialist of the Southern Cone post-authoritarian transitions and the long-term effects of impunity and social movements for justice and accountability. She is the co-editor of Luchas Contra la Impunidad: Uruguay 1985-2011 (Montevideo: Trilce, 2011) with Francesca Lessa. Her articles include “Civil Society and the Resurgent Struggle against Impunity in Uruguay” (IJTJ vol. 7, 306-327, 2013) co-authored with Jo-Marie Burt and Francesca Lessa, and Sealing”; and “Un-sealing” Uruguay’s Transitional Politics of Oblivion: Waves of Memory and the Winding Road to Memory and Justice (1985-2015),” in Latin American Perspectives (2016). Her book is entitled State Terrorism and the Politics of Memory in Latin America: Transmissions across the Generations of Post-Dictatorship Uruguay (1984-2004) (New York: Cambria, May 2016). She is at present working on the rise of authoritarianism in Latin America, and on a volume on healing and post-trauma learning. Email: gfrieda@exchange.calstatela.edu.
(Ph.D., University of California, Riverside)
Alejandro Villalpando is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pan-African Studies and the Latin American Studies Program at Cal State LA. He earned his Ph.D. in Critical Ethnic Studies from UC Riverside, and an M.A. from Latin American Studies at Cal State LA. His work lies at the intersection of Black, Central American, and Ethnic Studies. His co-authored chapter entitled "The Racialization of Central Americans in the United States, can be found in the edited volume Precarity and Belonging (Rutgers University Press, 2021). He was also a co-founder, co-organizer, and co-facilitator for a year-long political education project entitled the Abolition Open School. Villalpando is also indelibly shaped and inspired to be part of and contribute to the crafting of a world rooted in justice, equity and dignity for all by his young child and partner who remain the bedrocks of his existence. Email: avilla27@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Davis)
Dr. Gutiérrez de Jesús is P’urhépecha, born and raised in the state of Michoacán, Mexico. She is an Assistant Professor at Cal State LA in the Department of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies and the Latin American Studies Program. Her research interests include, but are not limited to indigenous self-government, comunalidad, linguistic revitalization, indigenous radio and media communications, and cultural autonomy. Dr. Gutiérrez is currently working on a book manuscript grounded on oral histories that interweave personal stories, collective memory, and communal ethics in P’urhépecha communities. She is a founding member of Radio Uekorheni, a community-based radio station located in Huecorio, Michoacán, Mexico, which focuses on the documentation and revitalization of P’urhépecha language and indigenous knowledge systems. Dr. Gutiérrez enjoys spending time with her family, watching horror movies, and embroidering. Email: sgutie130@calstatela.edu.
Associated Faculty
(Ph.D., Harvard University)
Department of Political Science
Latin American politics; social movements; political parties; participation; policy-making; local government.
Email: jabbott3@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., Claremont Graduate University)
Department of Political Science
Latin American politics; political and economic development in Latin America; U.S. foreign policy in Latin America; Model United Nations Program.
Email: eaceved3@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin)
Department of Art
Pre-Colombian art and history (Maya and Aztec); colonial art of Mexico; Indian-Christian transculturation; tequitqui art.
Email: maguila2@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., Arizona State University)
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Mexican and Colombian literature with focus on theater and performance art; Latin American films and popular culture; political and sexual dissidence in contemporary Mexico.
Email: galzate@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of New Mexico)
Department of Anthropology
Latin America with an emphasis on Central America and Mexico; international migration and transnationalism; social movements; ethnicity and nationalism; the state; remittances and economic development; social theory; ethnography.
Email: bbakerc@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley)
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
20th-century Latin American culture, literature, visual arts.
Email: pbaler@exchange.calstatela.edu
(M.F.A., University of Southern California, Los Angeles)
Department of Television, Film and Media Studies
Latin American cinema; screenwriting.
Email: eberume@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., Harvard University)
Department of Sociology
U.S. Latin American relations; Latin America in the U.S. press.
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Department of Anthropology
Archeological method and theory; Maya ideology; Maya cave archeology; ceramic analysis.
Email: jbrady@calstatela.edu
(Ed.D., Pepperdine University)
Division of Curriculum and Instruction, Charter College of Education
Social and educational success of the Central American community; African legacy of Central America; issues of inter-group relations between ethnic minority groups; museum outreach programs for the Latino community.
(D.M.A., University of Texas at Austin)
Department of Music
Afro Latin music; Latin American folk and popular music; piano and corneta china performance.
Email: pdecast@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Irvine)
Department of Economics and Statistics
Latin American economies.
(Ph.D. University of California, Irvine)
Department of Sociology
Unauthorized migration, citizenship & belonging; detention & deportation; Central America.
Email: mdingem@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of Massachusetts)
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
18th-, 19th-, 20th-century narrative.
Email: mcosta@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., Stony Brook University)
Department of Sociology and Latin American Studies
Political sociology, social movements, Latin America.
(Ph.D., Cornell University)
Departments of Chicano(a) and Latino(a) Studies, Liberal Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Chicano(a) and Latino(a) studies; women’s movements and feminisms; cultural and critical theory.
Email: despino@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Department of History
Intersection of culture and politics in post-revolutionary Mexico; child population and policies in Mexico; state formation and popular culture in modern Latin America.
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Department of Geology
Recent volcanic activity and volcanic hazards in El Salvador and Nicaragua.
Email: jgarris@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D. University of California, Irvine)
Department of Anthropology
Latinos in the U.S.; community health; gender; immigration and globalization.
Email: eherna17@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin)
Department of Geology
Hydrology and environmental issues; U.S.-Mexico border.
Email: bhibbs@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University)
Department of History
Group identities in Colonial Latin America; Brazil.
(Ph.D., University of Michigan)
Department of Liberal Studies
Gender, sexuality and migration; immigration policy; neoliberalism, labor, and the welfare state in the U.S. and Latin America.
(Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Twin Cities)
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Colonial Latin America, mainly Mexico; contemporary Latin American theater and poetry.
(A.B.D, New York University)
Latin American Studies Program
Race and Culture in the Transnational Americas; Borderlands History; Critical Latinx Indigeneity; US Southwest; Modern Mexico; Critical Ethnic Studies; Native American and Indigenous Studies.
Email: omarque4@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Department of Television, Film and Media Studies
Latin American film; documentary theory and history; queer theory and gender studies; media literacy.
Email: jramire4@calstatela.edu
(M.A., California State University, Los Angeles)
Latin American Studies Program
Political development in Latin America; US war on drugs policy in Bolivia; Indigenous social movements; Neoliberalism; US foreign policy in Latin America; Latin American politics; Latin American philosophy.
Email: grodr101@calsatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Department of Sociology
International Immigration; Race/Ethnicity/Social Startification; Deviance/Crime/Law and Society.
Email: wrosale2@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Department of Chicano(a) and Latino(a) Studies
Chicano(a)/Latino(a) intellectual history; Chicano(a) student politics.
Email: msoldat@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh)
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Latin American literature.
Email: asolomi@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of Southern California)
Department of English
Documentation and revitalization of the indigenous language of Mexico.
Email: asonnen@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara)
Department of Anthropology
Democratic and bureaucratic governance, conservation, and development of coastal and marine environments, mediated transnational and regional public forums, law, wild capture and aquaculture fisheries, British Columbia, west coast U.S., southern Chile.
Email: ksulliv4@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Department of Chicano Studies
Education; Chicano/Chicana studies.
Email: vtalave@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara)
Department of Sociology
Social inequality and change; globalization studies; human rights.
Email: mtalcot@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Division of Educational Foundations and Interdivisional Studies, Charter College of Education
Decolonizing pedagogies; critical educational theory; sociology of education.
Email: ctejeda3@calstatela.edu
(Ph.D., University of California, San Diego)
Department of History
Modern Latin America; Chilean history; labor studies.
Emeritus Faculty
(Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles)
Latin American Studies program
Caribbean; Central America; Peru; labor studies; U.S.-Latin America relations; comparative history of race relations.
Email: lastudies2@gmail.com
(Ph.D., Claremont Graduate School)
International economic relations; Cuba; Central America; film.
Email: DonaldWBray@aol.com
(Ph.D., Stanford University)
Department of History
Latin America, Brazil, Cuba.
(Ph.D., University of Chicago)
South America; transportation; tropical agriculture.
Email: jkirchn@calstatela.edu
In Memoriam
(Ph.D., Stanford University)
U.S.-Latin American relations; Cuba; Chile; Central America.