How does your research inform and transform your discipline?
My goal with my research is to broaden our understanding of borderland communities and experiences. I hope that it shapes Chicanx/Latinx studies by encouraging scholars to not only think about the borderlands as a site of passage but as a place of living, of possibility and conviviality.

What drew you towards your field and work?
Home for me is the US/Mexico borderlands - I have lived in the Sonoran corridor for over fifteen years and was raised along the San Diego/Tijuana border divide. I have been deeply shaped by this transfronteriza/transborder experience which in turn has determined the kind of work that I do. I value public pedagogy, embedded praxis, traditional arts and am interested in producing knowledge with and about communities who are creatively resisting and building new possibilities in the borderlands.

What do you like most about teaching art/humanities/humanistic social sciences?
I love that storytelling is a pedagogical tool that we have in these fields to learn from and generate new knowledge.

What is a challenge that you encountered in your teaching academic career and how have you addressed it?
Early in my teaching career, I realized that not all my students had the same perspectives as I did–some that really challenged my core beliefs. I had to learn how to be a good facilitator and to present new knowledge that was accessible and thoughtful. In so doing, I hope I have ushered all my students towards a new understanding of themselves and the world around them.

What is your proudest academic moment?
My proudest moment was when my daughter was asked to sign one of my books when we were at my book release event. She was with me throughout that journey, and I loved that she was acknowledged.

What advice do you have for graduate students in your field?
My advice is to find a network of colegas to walk with you in your journey so that you can dream together, share ideas with one another and, most importantly, to support one another.

What projects are you working on at this moment?
The two research projects, Mapping Everyday Mexicana/Chicana Political Organizing in the Texas and Arizona Borderlands and AfroChicanx Digital Humanities Project: Memories, Narratives and Oppositional Consciousness of Black Diasporas, that were funded via the Crossing Latinidades Humanities Research Initiative Working Groups grant have taken up most of my time. I’m thrilled to be working with amazing scholars across the Southwest.