In 2018-19, the Latinx Research Center is home to four writing-focused
research groups
The following groups met in 2018-19 and 2019-20 at the Latinx Research Center:
Pa’ lante: Chicanx Latinx Honors Theses Working Group.
Under the direction of Dr. Pablo González, faculty of the Program of Chicana/o Studies, Department of Ethnic Studies.
This honors thesis writing group began meeting at the previous iteration of the LRC, the Center for Latino Policy and Research, in the Fall 2017 with five honors thesis students, under the supervision of Dr. Pablo Gonzalez, Chicana/o Studies Program, Department of Ethnic Studies. Eventually the group narrowed to three students working on three distinct projects. Patricia Hernandez, a Chicano Studies major and a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship for 2017 recipient, worked on and finished her honors thesis on Latina student mothers at UC Berkeley and several community colleges in Los Angeles, California. The ethnographic project looked at the barriers faced by Latina student mothers, the way they built support networks, or what Patricia referred to as comadrazgo, and the forms of resilience articulated by their everyday struggles as Latinas, mothers, and full time students. Emily Plummer, an honors student in the IAS department and a recipient of the UC Berkeley 2018 Library Research Prize, worked on her archival research project that looked at the impact Guatemalan refugee camps in Mexico had in the Guatemalan peace process during the 1980s and 1990s. The honors thesis gained high honors for her research on the grassroots mobilization that occurred within refugee camps in Mexico by Guatemalan Indigenous refugees. Finally, Adriana Soto, an honor student in Ethnic Studies, completed her thesis tracing the construction of Mexicans as criminals throughout 20th century immigration policy in the United States. Her thesis made an in-depth analysis of the Johnson-Reed Act of 1924, the Bracero program, the Hart Keller Act of 1965, IRCA in 1986 and the IIRAIRA of 1996.
The English and Spanish & Portuguese Literary Studies Dissertating Working Group.
Under the direction of past Chair of the English Department, Professor Génaro Padilla, and Robert Reyes, the group meet regularly and presented their work at the LRC. Reyes and the other members of this dissertation writing group, Frank Cruz, Matthew Gonzalez, and Carlos Macias Prieto, all filed their dissertations in 2020.
The Performance and Art in the Latinx Americas Working Group.
Co-sponsored as well by the Townsend Center for the Humanities, this working group met actively during 2018-19 and 2019-20 to discuss dissertation and book chapters, and organized invited lectures. Research focused on Indigenous epistemologies and dance; Latin American dance; festivals and revolution; and decolonial performance and visual art aesthetics among Latinx feminist and queer artists.The group was led by Juan Manuel Aldape, Marcelo Montalvo Garzo, and faculty members Angela Marino, and Laura E. Pérez. Juan Manuel and Marcelo filed their dissertations in 2020.
The History and Social Sciences Working Group
Comprised of UCB, regional, and visiting faculty, and dissertating fellows, this group was directed by Professor Emeritus, David Montejano, and in 2019-20, organized by Dr. Pablo González. Members writing books, book chapters, and dissertations met every first and third Friday of the month, 1 to 3 p.m., in the second-floor conference room.