Cynthia Vazquez, Ph.D.

I am a UC Los Angeles Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the American Indian Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.  I am a Chicanx Feminist scholar and my scholarly work is situated at the nexus of critical theories of Indigeneity, settler-colonialism, Indigenous epistemologies and methodologies, Indigenous sovereignty, gender, schooling, border studies, and Latinidad. I received my doctorate in 2022 in Ethnic Studies with a graduate specialization in Critical Gender Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Born in LA, brought up in Las Vegas, I called San Diego my home for ten years, and now moved back to my birth home Los Angeles. I am deeply involved in relationship making with artists and local tribal community based on land pedagogies, liberatory practices, and resistance.

 

First of my family to graduate with a doctoral degree I am heavily influenced by Anzaldua’s work and the liminal space. My work comes from that unknown space and motivates me to build relationships within and outside my community.