Why Latina/o/x Studies? (feat. Lisa Ortiz & Rachel Torres)

Imagining Latinidades

In this second episode of the Imagining Latinidades podcast, two of the three co-hosts (Rene is absent) talk with two of the three Mellon fellows who are involved with the Sawyer Seminar. Topics discussed, which form chapter markers in your podcast listening app, include:

• Pronouncing “Latinx” and “LatinX”
• Rachel Torres’s (Latinx superhero) “origin story”
• Lisa Ortiz’s (Latinx superhero) “origin story”
• The importance of Latina/o/x Studies for students
• Lisa’s current research
• Rachel’s current research
• Latina/o/x Studies' connection between research and community
• What's your message for Latina/o/x students at PWIs?

And don’t forget: our first main event takes place September 19-21. Information on the website at http://imagininglatinidades.com.

★ Thanks to our sponsors ★

• The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s generous support through its Sawyer Seminar program allowed “Imagining Latinidades: Articulations of National Belonging” to launch at the University of Iowa. This podcast was born from the Sawyer Seminar and we hope it will continue on afterward.
• The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, at Iowa, was the birthplace of our Seminar theme, which gave rise to this podcast.

Show notes:

• Read about Lisa Ortiz and Rachel Torres here: https://imagininglatinidades.lib.uiowa.edu/about/mellon-fellows/
• Rachel mentioned a couple things that made a difference as an undergrad: 1) UNT’s Emerald Eagles Scholars program; 2) UNT’s McNair Scholars program
• Rachel also mentioned a couple of people important to her as an undergrad: Regina Branton | Department of Political Science and Valerie Martinez-Ebers | Department of Political Science
• Lisa’s undergrad program is here: http://business.uprm.edu/adof/index.php. Her Masters program is here: https://www.uprm.edu/english/. Mentors in Puerto Rico included Dr. Jocelyn A. Géliga-Vargas and Dr. Catherine Mazak.
• A few programs of interest and referenced by Lisa include: the Summer Predoctoral Institute (SPI) at https://grad.illinois.edu/diversity/spi-objectives; Latina/Latino Studies at Illinois; and La Casa Cultural Latina | La Casa Cultural Latina, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
• On the (historically fraught) relationship between Blackness and Latinidad(es), see the excellent work from the Black Latinas Know Collective: https://www.blacklatinasknow.org/about-blkc. Also see scholarship and other writings in the groundbreaking edited book, The Afro-Latin@ Reader.
• If we had talked about higher education a bit more, Lisa would have mentioned Dr. Roderick Ferguson’s book The Reorder of Things: The University and Its Pedagogies of Minority Difference (2012).
• For a broader perspective on the “why Latina/o/x Studies question that was discussed, consider Lisa Marie Cacho’s work regarding Ethnic Studies, “But Some of Us Are Wise: Academic Illegitimacy and the Affective Value of Ethnic Studies.” The Black Scholar 40:4: 28-36. PDF available here: https://americanstudies.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/2010_Cacho_Ethnic_Studies.pdf

You can reply to this podcast here:

• Twitter, Instagram, Facebook: @ImaginingLat
• Hosts on Twitter: Darrel is @DoctorDWS, Ariana is @aryruiz710, Rene is @rene5311
• Email: [e-mail]

Credits

• Our cover art, a photo of an installation titled “El Hielo / I.C.E,” is provided courtesy of the artist, Fidencio Fifield-Perez.
• Music by Juan Ruiz.
• Our hosting is provided by Transistor.fm, which we really love.
• Our podcasting app of choice is Overcast.fm, which also makes a handy app that streamlines the process of making the chapter markers in this podcast.