Find your path in Latina/Latino Studies
Community Resources
- Angharad Valdivia, an emerita professor of the Department of Latina/Latino Studies and the Institute of Communications Research and a leading scholar of critical-cultural, feminist, and Latina/o/x/e media studies, was awarded the National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar Award. Read full story Emerita professor Angharad Valdivia awarded National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar Award
- Professor R. Elizabeth Velásquez Estrada co-edited the forthcoming edited collection "Fugitive Anthropology: Embodying Activist Research," has a new article out in Critical Criminology, and has had several translations of her work published in Spanish. Read full story Professor Elizabeth Velásquez Estrada publishes new edited collection and five other publications
- This fall, the Department of Latina/Latino Studies welcomes assistant professor Gabriela G. Corona Valencia. Professor Corona Valencia was previously a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Associate from 2023-2025. Her research interests include histories of eugenics, public health, medicine, reproductive justice politics, and education. Read a Q&A with her to learn more about her work. Read full story Professor Gabriela G. Corona Valencia joins the Department of Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Illinois
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Why Study Latina/Latino Studies?
Professor Mirelsie Velázquez shares the value of the major, favorite spots in Champaign-Urbana, and why the Latina/Latino studies department is the best kept secret on campus in an interview with the College of LAS.
Upcoming events
Alumni spotlight: Samantha M. Contreras, ’19 – Associate, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP
Samantha M. Contreras is an Illinois native, having grown up in Kankakee, Illinois, about an hour north of Urbana-Champaign. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts & Sciences in the department of Latina/Latino Studies with high distinction and Communications. For her Senior Honor’s Thesis, she explored the effects of an ICE Detention Center in her hometown in a paper titled, “So Many Arms of the State”: Presence of an ICE Detention Center in a Midwestern Town and Latina/o Sense of Well-being. After completing her bachelor’s degree, she went on to earn her Juris Doctorate at...
Faculty spotlight: Natalie Lira
Natalie Lira is an interdisciplinary scholar who examines the politics of reproduction and histories of medicine in the United States. Her research interests include the politics of reproduction, histories of medicine, and the ways that struggles for racial and reproductive justice intersect.