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J. Rubén Diaz Vasquez
Ph.D. Student in Modern Thought and Literature, admitted Autumn 2019
Graduate, Dean for Community Engagement and Diversity
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Utilizing decolonial theory and critical race studies, Rubén’s work focuses on addressing the colonialities within Chicanx literature and cultural production, specifically making sense of the discipline’s simultaneous overt anti-US imperialism stance and Mexican anti-black, colonial paradigms. Considering the influence of Chicanx literature, how does this tension between empire and coloniality also shape the contemporary cultural processes driving the production of Latinidad? How do we amplify and uplift the anti-black and anti-indigeneity critiques waged upon Chicanx Studies and simultaneously use these to guide future scholarship concerning the issues and themes of importance for Chicanx thinkers and people?
Rubén is also interested in the ramifications and lived realities of Chicanx theories (with regards to race, gender, class, mobility, politics) on Chicanx and non-Chicanx people’s everyday lives. Using ethnography and fieldwork methods, he is interested in inserting people’s voices into the interrogation of Chicanx cultural production.
Rubén was born in Oaxaca, Oaxaca, Mexico and migrated to the U.S. at the age of six. His family and loved ones have made a home in San Diego, CA. Rubén holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, with a minor in English from Emory University. At °®åú´«Ã½, he helps run the Critical Orientations to Race and Ethnicity (CORE) Workshop group and the group, Concerning Violence: A Decolonial Collaborative Research Group.
Awards & Fellowships:
Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Fellowship
Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, 2017-2019
Associate, Institute for the Recruitment of Teachers, 2018-2019