Ethnic Studies Faculty

Department Chair

Core Faculty

Thomas Biolsi

Comparative Ethnic Studies, Native American Studies

Governmentality, Indian Law & Policy, Race-Making

Carolyn Chen

Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies

Comparative Ethnic Studies

Ethnicity, Immigration, Race, Religion

Catherine Ceniza Choy

Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies

Comparative Ethnic Studies

Adoption, Asian American History, Gender, Migration, Nursing, Philippine and Filipino American Studies

Shari Huhndorf

Class of 1938 Professor

Native American Studies

American studies, cultural studies, gender studies, Interdisciplinary Native American studies, literary and visual culture

Long Le-Khac

Assistant Professor

Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies

Chicanx Latinx Studies

Salar Mameni

Assistant Professor

Comparative Ethnic Studies

Peter Nelson

Assistant Professor

Anthropological archaeology, Indigenous environmental studies, and Native American Studies

Lorena Oropeza

Chicanx Latinx Studies

Chicanx History, Gender, Oral History, Race and Empires

Christian Paiz

Associate Professor

Comparative Ethnic Studies

Comparative Latino Studies, Historical Methods, Philippine and Filipino American Studies, Social Movement History, United States History

Laura E. Pérez

Professor Chicanx and Latinx Studies & Chair, Latinx Research Center

Chicanx Latinx Studies

Decolonial aesthetics, Decolonial spiritualities, Latina/o literary + visual + performance arts, Post-sixties US Women of Color Feminist and Queer Thought

John A. Powell

Professor of Ethnic Studies, African American Studies, and Law

Comparative Ethnic Studies

Civil Rights & Civil Liberties, Democracy, Housing, Poverty, Structural Racism

Juana María Rodríguez

Comparative Ethnic Studies

Comparative Ethnic Studies Critical legal theory, Latinx media and popular culture, LGBTQ activisms, Racialized gender and sexuality

Lok Siu

Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies

Chinese Diaspora, Cultural Citizenship, Cultural Politics of Food, Diaspora / Transnationalism; Asians in the Americas, Ethnography

Khatharya Um

Associate Dean, Associate Professor

Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies

Nicholas Vargas

Associate Professor

Chicanx Latinx Studies

Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez

Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies

Asian American literary and cultural studies, Cultures of US Imperialism, Gender and sexuality, Philippine and Filipino American Studies, Transnational American Studies