Teaching interests: CHIC 106, CHIC 190, CHIC 302, CHIC 303, CHIC 340, CHIC 345 and CHIC 480

Research interests:
Cultural Competence:  Public Health and Medical Anthropology Perspectives; Bioethics and minority communities

Intellectual history and history of ideas: Chicana/o and Ethnic Studies; Post-Colonial Studies/Subaltern Studies; New Social Movements; Ontologies and epistemologies of the Mexican origin population; Gender and masculinities

Ethnography: urban and in school settings

Brief biography: As the child of Mexican immigrants and a first generation college graduate I welcomed the opportunity to teach in Chicana and Chicano Studies and at a Hispanic Serving Institution.  California State University, Fullerton provided the perfect combination.  I received my two BAs from the University of California, Berkeley in Chicano Studies and Anthropology (1992).  I later attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for my MA in Anthropology (1995).  I earned my Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies (emphasis in Chicana/o Studies and Medical Anthropology) from the University of California, Berkeley (2004).  In 2004, I was a Postdoctoral Faculty Fellow at the University of California, Irvine.

I am currently doing collaborative ethnographic research with scholars at the University of California, Irvine' Department of Education.  The project, which is funded by the C.S. Mott Foundation, is focusing on "Promising after School Programs" at San Ysidro Middle School near the U.S. Mexico border.