Latina/Latino Studies

09/02/2026

Professor Mirelsie Velázquez has been selected for the 2026-2027 OpEd Project Public Voices Fellowship!

The fellowship is a year-long program led by the OpEd Project that helps faculty amplify their expertise in ways that contribute to public conversations about pressing issues.

Learn more about the fellowship at the link in the comments.

09/01/2026

Mark your calendars for the book launch event for "Quinceañeras: Latinidades and Girlhood in Popular Culture" by Diana Leon-Boys, Jillian Báez, and Angharad N. Valdivia!

📅September 10
🕧4:30-6
📍Spurlock Museum

More details at the link in the comments.

08/20/2026

⭐Graduate Minor Spotlight ⭐
Gerson Morales is a PhD candidate in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and a graduate minor in Latina/Latino studies. He has also been a teaching assistant for LLS 100: Introduction to Latina/Latino Studies. His research focuses on Central American and Latinx cultural studies.

Check the comments for a link to a Q&A with Morales to learn more about his research.

University of Illinois School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics

08/11/2026

How can we support teachers in creating safe spaces for students where they can be their authentic selves?

Saraí Blanco Martinez, a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Latina/Latino Studies, explored this question in a co-authored article that identified 4 practices integral to creating a trauma-informed and healing-centered classroom: safety and agency, rituals and routines, emotions and embodiment, and love and belonging.

These practices create a classroom where students feel like they have the agency to choose their level of participation, feel supported when they express vulnerability, feel a sense of belonging, and are invited to connect with their bodies and emotions.

Learn more about her research at the link in the comments.

07/29/2026

Latina/Latino studies professor Aja Y. Martinez and gender and women's studies professor and Latina/Latino studies affiliate Damian Vergara Bracamontes are two of eleven faculty members across campus to receive the Cohen Innovation Award from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Innovation. Congratulations!

Learn more about their projects at the link in the comments. ⬇️

06/15/2026

Congratulations to the LLS faculty, affiliates, lecturers, and TAs who received the Facilitating Learning Excellence Award (FLEX) from their students in the Fall 2025 semester!

06/10/2026

A new edited collection explores the increasing visibility of quinceañeras in popular culture. Co-edited by emerita professor Angharad N. Valdivia and alumnae Jillian M. Báez (PhD, ’09, communications) and Diana Leon-Boys (PhD, ’20, communications and media studies, Latina/Latino studies minor), the collection also features contributions from alumna Ariana Cano and current PhD student and LLS graduate minor Stephanie Perez.

Learn more ⬇️
https://lls.illinois.edu/news/2026-05-27/new-book-co-edited-emerita-professor-angharad-n-valdivia-and-two-alums-explores-quinceaneras-pop

University of Illinois Press

A new collection of essays co-edited by Angharad N. Valdivia, emerita professor of Latina/Latino studies and the Institute of Communications Research, with alumnae Jillian M. Báez (PhD, ’09, communications) and Diana Leon-Boys (PhD, ’20, communications and media studies, Latina/Latino studies m...

06/03/2026

Professor Natalie Lira writes in The Conversation US about the impact of forced sterilization programs on Latinas in California. ⬇️

About 20,000 Californians were once sterilized under state eugenics laws. New research shows Latinos were disproportionately targeted. Is there any opportunity today to address these wrongs?

06/02/2026

Congratulations! Professor Janett Barragán Miranda was awarded a Campus Research Board grant to study the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that ran from 1982 to 1984.

It was a comprehensive survey conducted on the health of Latina/os and shaped assumptions about Latina/o health.

Learn more ⬇️

Latina/Latino studies professor Janett Barragán Miranda was awarded funding from the Campus Research Board’s Multiracial Democracy program for her project “From the Streets to the Laboratories: How the Hispanic Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1982-1984) Impacted the Latina/o/x Communit...

05/27/2026

Congrats to LLS graduate minor Dr. Xavier Ramirez!

One of the most meaningful traditions of doctoral education: the hooding ceremony. Congratulations to our newest doctoral graduate, Xavier Ramirez, as he begins the next chapter of his impact in social work and beyond!