Jesús Nazario (jehj/jei) is a Nahua scholar from Houston, Texas with ancestral roots in a small Nahua town in Guerrero, Mexico. As a second-year PhD student in Ethnic Studies, Jesús’ research interests are situated at the intersection of food and political Indigenous sovereignty, specifically in relation to Nahua maize practices in Mexico. Jehj is a Chancellor’s Fellow, Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellow, and an inaugural member of the Path to Professoriate Program at UC Berkeley.
Currently, jehj is co-leading two student organizations: The American Indian Graduate Student Association (AIGSA)(link is external) and The Food Institute Graduate Council (FIGC)(link is external). Jehj is also a Graduate Student Fellow for the Berkeley Food Institute; is helping lead the newly established Indigenous Community Teaching Garden;(link is external) and is serving as a mentor through the Getting into Graduate School (GiGS)(link is external) and the Native American Student Development Center (NASD)(link is external) mentoring programs.
Jesús received a Master’s of Arts in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, where jehj focused on maize adoptions strategies employed by Nahua farmers. Jehj is passionate about photography, laughing, research dissemination, and forming grounded relationships for a more equitable society.
Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Diaspora studies, Indigenous Sound Studies, New Media, Maize Biomigrations, Indigenous Language Revitalization (Nahuatl)
