Teaching

Over my seven years of teaching experience, my teaching philosophy in Ethnic Studies and Gender and Sexuality Studies has been grounded in providing a transformative educational experience for students and revolutionizing the classroom through building a positive relationship with students. My dedication to students and to the field of Ethnic, Gender, and Queer Studies is rooted in my own experience as a first- generation queer Chicana educator working with diverse student bodies, and primarily working-class. Furthermore, the Ethnic Studies and Gender Studies courses I took in my undergraduate and graduate career were significant to me since they enabled me to make these connections and better understand the manifestations of power that affected my community’s life and mine. I am inspired to provide the same transformative education that I received to empower youth from all backgrounds to articulate their experiences and challenge them to create the world where they want to live.

I have organized my pedagogy to accomplish three main goals:
1) to guide students to study and comprehend texts to enable them to apply concepts and theories to contemporary society;
2) to emphasize collective and collaborative learning through interactive and multi-sensorial lesson plans;
3) and to allow students to see themselves and their communities as curators of knowledge and cultural wealth by valuing the perspectives each student brings.