Alexandro J. Gradilla, Ph.D.

education

Ph.D., Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley

M.A., Anthropology (Cultural/Medical), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

B.A., Chicana/o and Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley

BIOgraphy

Dr. Gradilla received his doctorate in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation focused on the social, political and epistemological impact of dehumanization on the Mexican origin population in the United States. His areas of expertise include medical anthropology, bioethics, political theory (Marxist, Foucaultian), decolonial theory, institutional racism, racialization, cultural competency, gender, men’s studies, migration processes and families. Born and raised in San Diego (City Heights), California, Dr. Gradilla is a first-generation college graduate. His parents are from Jalisco, Mexico. He received two B.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley one in Chicana/o Studies and the other in Anthropology. He then went on to receive a M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan. Before joining the faculty at CSU Fullerton, Dr. Gradilla was a teaching a fellow at the University of California, Irvine.

In addition to his research agenda, Dr. Gradilla is interested in issues connected to higher education policy especially focused on Latina/o student success, retention, graduation, mentorship, transfer student success, and other collaborations between student affairs and academic affairs. For over ten years he has served on the Academic Senate representing the At-large constituencies. He is currently in his third year serving on the Senate Executive Committee. In addition to his work with the Academic Senate and his commitment to shared governance, Dr. Gradilla was selected as an inaugural Human Resources, Diversity and Inclusion Fellow for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. For the last two years, Dr. Gradilla, as appointed by CSU Statewide Academic Senate, to work on approving course for the Social Justice Transfer Degree which helps community college students transfer to a CSU with ease. Dr. Gradilla served as Co-Principal Investigator on two grants that focus on improving Latina/o graduation rates and the other promoting graduate school. For the Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (PPOHA grant at CSU Fullerton is now known as Enhancing Postbaccalaureate Opportunities at Cal State Fullerton for Hispanic Students or EPOCHS) grant that encourages Latino students to pursue graduate education. The other grant he worked on, is the HACU/Walmart grant, for this grant Dr. Mink Salas and Dr. Gradilla evaluated CSU Fullerton’s practices surrounding Latino student success in order to mentor New Mexico Highlands University. As consultants and institutional mentors, we have evaluated programs and policies and made recommendations for NMHU in order to improve Latino retention and graduation.

Dr. Gradilla currently serves as the faculty advisor for Hermanos Unidos de CSUF.

publications

Alexandro José Gradilla, “Chicano/Mexican ‘culture’ as Rational Instrument in the Human Sciences.” Ethnic Studies Review June 2010, 34 (1).

Alexandro José Gradilla, “The Darker Side of Modernity”: Racialization as an Incomplete Project. Critical Studies in History June 2009,2(1): 56-76, special issue “The Project of Modernity”.

Critical Studies in History

Alexandro Gradilla, “Student Movements, Chicano/a, 1960s-2000s” in International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to Present. I. Ness (Editor) Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, accepted/forthcoming, 2009.

Alexandro José Gradilla and Rodolfo D. Torres, “Capitalist Schooling and Constructing Young Latino Masculinities” in Metropedagogy: Power, Justice, and the Urban Classroom, ed. by Joe Kincheloe and Kecia Hayes. Netherlands: Sense Publishers, 2006.

Alexandro Gradilla and Rodolfo D. Torres, “Latino Social Movements” in Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas, 2006, ed. Suzanne Oboler and Deena Gonzalez.

Alexandro José Gradilla “Childbirth” in Encyclopedia Latina, edited by Ilan Stavans Grolier Academic Reference: Danbury, CT, 2005.

“Latino Masculinities” Alexandro José Gradilla and Rodolfo D. Torres in Men and Masculinities: A Social, Cultural, Historical Encyclopedia , edited by Michael Kimmel and Amy Aronson. ABC-CLIO: NY, 2004.

Works in progress

The paradox of the epidemiologic paradox: cultural protective factors as “good for your health”

Why Culture? The problematic and strategic uses of Chicano/Mexicano Culture(Book prospectus)

In early development

The real threat of Chicana/Latina mothers—the macro and micro politics of motherhood: Mothering as counter hegemonic biopolitics

Chicanos/Mexicanos and sickle cell trait

Latino couples and infertility

Latino male attitudes towards circumcision and non-circumcision