Congratulations to the 2025–26 Ethnic Studies Graduates and Award Recipients

Congratulations to the 2025–26 Ethnic Studies Graduates and Award Recipients

by Keith Miyake Announcements Student News

On June 4, 2026, the Ethnic Studies Department held its annual awards and graduation ceremony. In addition to honoring our graduating undergraduate and graduate students, we had the pleasure of celebrating the 2025–26 award recipients.

Congratulations to all our award winners and graduates

Pictures of the event are located at the bottom of the post

 

Wilmer and Velma Johnson Ethnic Studies Undergraduate Award (Competitive scholarship granted to a rising Sophomore, Junior, or Senior Ethnic Studies Major)

  • Lizeth Sanchez
  • Mariana Sanchez

Barbara Brown Jimenez Memorial Chicano Studies Student Scholarship (Chicano Studies major with an interest in the Catholic community)

  • Karina Roman Diaz

Dosan Ahn Chang-Ho Award (Junior Ethnic Studies major with the highest overall GPA)

  • Anna Bocanegra
  • Emely Castillo
  • Alejandra Diaz

Maurice Jackson Award (Graduating Ethnic Studies major with the highest overall GPA)

  • Lizeth Sanchez

Nominee for the CHASS Tomás Rivera Award (Nominee for the CHASS award for outstanding academic and/or creative achievement and demonstrated commitment to community service)

  • Celestte Lara Serrano

Sumi Harada Award (Graduating Ethnic Studies joint major with the highest overall GPA)

  • Adonai Martinez

Ernesto Galarza Award (Junior Ethnic Studies major in recognition of service to the community)

  • Niko Le

Katherine Saubel Award (Graduating senior who best promotes the preservation of cultural awareness)

  • Donna Magana

Barnett Grier Award (Graduating senior who best promotes ethnic awareness)

  • Cynthia Dawson

Sister Rosa Marta Zarate Award (Graduating senior major in recognition of service to the community)

  • Mariana Sanchez

Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award

  • Morayma Flores-Higinio

Edna Bonacich Ethnic Studies Graduate Award (Competitive fellowship for new or continuing Ethnic Studies graduate students who have demonstrated a commitment to the promotion of equity in the workplace)

  • Iris Villalpando

Graduating MA Students

  • Kimberly Alvarez Flores

Graduating PhD Students

  • Jenni Martinez
  • Nathaly Ortiz

Colloquium: “Ethnic Studies as Praxis: Organizing, Policy, and Collective Power at the Sacramento Frontline” by Giselle Cunanan

by Keith Miyake Events

Join the UCR Department of Ethnic Studies for our colloquium speaker series

Monday, June 1, 2026
1:00-2:00 p.m.
CHASS INTN 3023

Centering storytelling, memory, and critical praxis as both research methods and political commitments, Dr. Giselle Cunanan’s work examines the ongoing tensions between academic freedom, multicultural inclusion, and state efforts to contain Ethnic Studies. Drawing from organizing and policy advocacy in Sacramento, this talk explores how debates over civil rights, censorship, and public education shape the future of Ethnic Studies in both K–12 and higher education. Her research foregrounds the coalitions of students, educators, and community organizers working to defend Ethnic Studies as a tool of social transformation rooted in critical analyses of power, collective struggle, and community self-determination.

Giselle Cunanan is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies at California State University, Sacramento. Her research examines the political struggles surrounding Ethnic Studies, documenting the racial labor of organizers and tracing how Ethnic Studies has taken shape within schools, universities, and public debates over race, democracy, and education. Her broader scholarly interests explore the afterlives of U.S. empire and militarization as they shape the political, social, and educational experiences of Filipinx communities across the Pacific and within California.

Colloquium: “Cultivating a Whimsical Praxis in Teaching and Learning” by Lucha Arévalo

by Keith Miyake Events

Join the UCR Department of Ethnic Studies for our colloquium speaker series

Monday, May 11, 2026
1:00-2:00 p.m.
CHASS INTN 3023

The latest trend invites us to add more whimsy to our lives, but what does whimsy look like in our classrooms and the institutions where we work? For the past seven years, Lucha has used their ethnic studies community college classroom to engage students in the powerful act and art of storytelling. Through this process, students tap into and channel their inner child in creative, playful ways, bringing a whimsical praxis to life in the classroom and beyond. While talking to animals, dressing up, and naming plants are all efforts to add more whimsy into our everyday lives, Lucha invites us to reflect on what this can look like in our professional practice. Bring your inner child to this intellectual playdate and let the magic of your curiosity lead the way.

Dr. Lucha Arévalo is an Associate Professor of Chicanx and Latinx Studies at Río Hondo College. Since graduating from UCR’s Ethnic Studies Department, Lucha has been recognized as an award-winning faculty member, most notably for their community-engaged scholarship and advocacy of open education.

Their recent publications include the open-access textbook, New Directions in Chicanx and Latinx Studies (2023) and its companion workbook (2024); “Nuestros Cuentos Cuentan: Storytelling as a Healing Modality in a Community College Classroom” (2023); and “Pedagogies
Beyond the Classroom: Reflections on Community-Engaged Scholarship” (2025).
Colloquium: “Culinary Mestizaje: Racial Mixing and Foodways Across the United States,” by Rudy P. Guevarra, Jr.

Colloquium: “Culinary Mestizaje: Racial Mixing and Foodways Across the United States,” by Rudy P. Guevarra, Jr.

by Keith Miyake Events

Join the UCR Department of Ethnic Studies for our colloquium speaker series

Monday, May 4, 2026
1:00-2:00 p.m.
CHASS INTN 3023

Join us for a talk story session with Rudy Guevarra, Jr., Ph.D., Professor of Asian Pacific American Studies at Arizona State University as he discusses his new co-edited book, Culinary Mestizaje: Racial Mixing and Foodways Across the United States, with Anthony Macias, Ph.D., Professor of Ethnic Studies.

Dr. Rudy P. Guevarra, Jr. is Professor of Asian Pacific American Studies in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. He is a former Ford Foundation Senior Fellow and UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Guevarra is the author and co-editor of eight books, including Becoming Mexipino: Multiethnic Identities and Communities in San Diego; and Aloha Compadre: Latinxs in Hawaiʻi. He is currently working on a biography, In Service of the King: Joaquin Armas, A Mexican Vaquero in Hawaiʻi (Beacon Press). In addition to his academic work, Rudy is also an avid cook and gardener, and is working on his first cookbook, The Mexipino Cafe.
Book Talk: Stevie Ruiz — Stewards of the Land: Race and Reclaiming Environmental Labor in the American West

Book Talk: Stevie Ruiz — Stewards of the Land: Race and Reclaiming Environmental Labor in the American West

by Keith Miyake Events

Monday, May 14, 2026
3:00 p.m.
CHASS INTS 1113

Free and open to the public
Light refreshments will be served

Please join us for a book talk by Stevie Ruiz on his new book, Stewards of the Land: Race and Reclaiming Environmental Labor in the American West, followed by a discussion between the author and Catherine Gudis (History, UCR).

The history of the environmental movement—from environmentalism of the nineteenth century to the environmental justice struggles of the late twentieth century—has often been portrayed as a series of efforts led by white environmentalists. In Stewards of the Land, Stevie Ruiz reassesses the movement and reveals that it has always been a multiracial endeavor. From Southern California berry fields to Japanese American concentration camps, from Chinese cooks in national parks to Chicano Civilian Conservation Corps workers, Ruiz traces how the racialized labor and environmental knowledge of Asian migrants and Chicana/o communities built the material foundations of modern environmentalism.

Stewards of the Land argues that environmental justice was never just a reaction to pollution in the 1970s but has a much longer history tied to land theft, labor exploitation, and the everyday struggles of frontline communities to live and work with dignity. Drawing from comparative ethnic studies and archival research and with a commitment to decolonial praxis, Ruiz recovers the stories of those who labored—often invisibly—to build, maintain, and reimagine environmental spaces in the American West.

Sponsored by: Department of Ethnic Studies; Department of History; Department of Society, Environment, and Health Equity; Latino and Latin American Studies Research Center & Ronald H. Chilcote Chair; Inland Empire Labor and Community Center (IELCC)

Stevie Ruiz Stevie Ruiz is an associate professor in Chicana/o Studies at California State University, Northridge. He is a writer and teacher of environmental justice studies and critical science studies. His most recent book, Stewards of the Land: Race and Reclaiming Environmental Labor in the American West will be published on April 21, 2026 by the University of North Carolina Press. His research and teaching focuses on communities who seek to dismantle oppressive structures shielded by liberalism in the US and globally.

Lecture: Vicente Carrillo — Feels Like Home: Queer Placemaking & the Politics of Belonging in the Gentrifying Barrio

by Keith Miyake Events

Monday, April 27, 2026
3:00-4:00 p.m.
CHASS INTS 1109

In this talk Dr. Carrillo draws from queer-feminist psychoanalytic frameworks and affective geographies to examine how queer Latinx communities negotiate belonging in gentrifying Boyle Heights, East L.A. By focusing on how spatial and emotional attachments to place emerge, he uses case studies like emerging queer Latino bars, and Chicane/Latine cultural productions to map the tensions between belonging and displacement.

Dr. Vicente Carrillo is a President’s & Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of English at UC Riverside.

Sponsored by: Department of Ethnic Studies, Department of English, Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies

 

Master’s Student Paul Aguirre Receives Native Power Building Fellowship

Master’s Student Paul Aguirre Receives Native Power Building Fellowship

by Keith Miyake Student News

Master’s student Paul Aguirre (Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians) recently received a Native Power Building Fellowship from the California Native Vote Project for a campaign to work with UCR’s student-parent committee to improve financial aid access for Native students.

Please meet CNVP Power Building Fellow, Paul Aguirre (he/him), a member of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. A graduate student and researcher, Paul’s work in American Indian Studies focuses on California Native American Studies and Ethnomusicology. He is passionate about community organizing, scholarly research, leadership, and youth development; and is dedicated to advancing Indigenous knowledge, cultural preservation, and empowerment within Native communities. Through the fellowship, Paul is working alongside Fellow Tierra Shelmire to advocate for a Native American Financial Aid Advisor within their Financial Aid office. Their campaign aims to ensure NAOP-eligible students are accurately identified, informed, and enrolled, while advancing a culturally competent financial aid system that respects Tribal sovereignty and reflects the lived experiences of Native students. CNVP’s Native Power Building Fellowship is an 18-month program uniting American Indian, Alaska Native, and Indigenous leaders across California for relationship-building, Indigenized leadership development, organizing, civic engagement, and the launch of community-driven campaigns that advance justice and self-determination for Native peoples. Learn more at https://bit.ly/4bnRDZX.

Colloquium: “‘Un Secreto a Voces’: The Open Secret of Guatemalan Migration and Grassroots Mobilizations” by Julio Orellana

Colloquium: “‘Un Secreto a Voces’: The Open Secret of Guatemalan Migration and Grassroots Mobilizations” by Julio Orellana

by Keith Miyake Events

Join the UCR Department of Ethnic Studies for our colloquium speaker series

Monday, March 2, 2026
1:00-2:00 p.m.
CHASS INTN 3023

This presentation demonstrates how a migrant community made up of indigenous Maya and mixed “race” mestizo/ladino people play an essential social and economic role in the greater Los Angeles region, and in Guatemala. Despite their indispensability, they are exploited for their care work without any government representation or economic democracy, treated as a flexible workforce due to their lack of legal status. Nevertheless, grassroots organizations in Guatemala and abroad have continued to organize in the face of authoritarianism, state violence, and policing across multiple borders. I argue that given the historical context and development of capitalism, Guatemalans as a social class of forcefully displaced migrants engage in politics at the local, national, and transnational level in distinct ways.

Dr. Julio Orellana Dr. Julio Orellana is Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies at Scripps College, and he was a 2023-2025 UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His primary areas of specialization are Latino Studies, Latin American Studies, and Central American Studies. His research examines the political economy of forced international migration from Guatemala and migrant politics in the southern California. His book in progress documents the rise of indigenous and non-indigenous Guatemalan migrants and the social conditions that have generated their civil society organizations.
Professor Kēhaulani Vaughn Receives 2026 Dean’s Research Impact Initiative Seed Grant

Professor Kēhaulani Vaughn Receives 2026 Dean’s Research Impact Initiative Seed Grant

by Keith Miyake Faculty News

Dean Daryle Williams and the University of California, Riverside (UCR) College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (CHASS) are proud to announce the launch of the Dean’s Research Impact Initiative. This strategic program is designed to catalyze high-impact scholarship and creative activity during the Winter and Spring 2026 terms, serving as a springboard for a robust, expanded research ecosystem in the 2026-27 academic year and beyond.

As part of this initiative, Dean Williams has awarded five Dean’s Research Impact Initiative seed grants. Drawing from unspent endowment funds, each grant of $10,000 to $15,000 provides CHASS Senate faculty with the critical early-stage accelerator grants needed to pilot innovative projects, foster interdisciplinary partnerships, and position CHASS at the forefront of research at the University of California and across the Association of American Universities.

The following faculty members have been selected for their potential to drive meaningful change through their respective disciplines:

All seed funds must be spent by September 1, 2026, on the expectation that each grantee will be well-positioned to seek additional external funding in the coming academic year. In partnership with the Graduate Division, each grantee will also be able to seek additional one-time summer funding for graduate student research support.

“These seed grants represent more than just financial support; they go beyond accelerating Chancellor Hu’s focus on our research enterprise, “ Dean Williams said. “Each grant makes concrete the enduring truth that the humanities, arts, and social sciences are pillars of the modern research university. CHASS is an engine of discovery and development at UCR.”

“By supporting these five scholars today, we are setting the stage for CHASS to lead the way in interdisciplinary excellence and research with public visibility and social impact. These efforts ensure that the momentum generated by Professors Holguín Mendoza, Katrib, Levy, Vaughn, and Wu — and our outstanding undergraduate and graduate students — will evolve into a permanent, well-supported infrastructure for excellence, now and into a bright future.”

The Dean’s Research Impact Initiative is a direct response to the campus-wide research goals established by Chancellor S. Jack Hu and Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation, and Economic Development Rodolfo Torres.

By providing these five seed grants, CHASS is actively implementing the Chancellor’s three core research pillars of Strategically Aligning Seed Funding, Diversifying the Funding Ecosystem, and Enabling High-Impact Research.

“Graduate education is fundamentally research education, and the Dean’s Research Impact Initiative is exactly the kind of strategic investment that accelerates discovery while strengthening the training environment for students,” said Lidia Kos, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies.

“By pairing faculty seed grants with targeted graduate student research support, CHASS is building a model for how campuses can expand scholarly impact while developing the next generation of researchers, thinkers, artists, and public intellectuals. The Graduate Division is proud to partner with CHASS in advancing student success through meaningful research opportunities and mentorship.”

 

You can view the original announcement here.

Colloquium: “Refusing ‘Queer Paradise’: Māhū Pedagogies of Queer Indigenous Re-Memory in Hawaiʻi” by Pōmaikaʻi Gushiken

Colloquium: “Refusing ‘Queer Paradise’: Māhū Pedagogies of Queer Indigenous Re-Memory in Hawaiʻi” by Pōmaikaʻi Gushiken

by Keith Miyake Events

Join the UCR Department of Ethnic Studies for our colloquium speaker series

Monday, January 26, 2026
1:00-2:00 p.m.
CHASS INTS 1111

Based on close readings of a queer Native Hawaiian ‘zine and LGBTQ+ travel writing about Hawaiʻi, this talk develops the concept of “māhū pedagogies” to argue that while settler homonationalist tourism narratives enact cultural prostitution by figuring Hawaiʻi as a “queer paradise” absent of Native resurgence, māhū and queer Indigenous cultural workers refuse colonial narratives by centering queer Indigenous relationalities that generate decolonial futures.

Dr. Pōmaikaʻi Gushiken, is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi and Uchinānchu educator and researcher from Nānākuli, Hawaiʻi. Currently a UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, he holds a Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies from UC San Diego.

His research focuses on decolonization, queer Indigenous futurity, and the intersections of pedagogy, refusal, and ea in Hawaiʻi.