José Luis Serrano Nájera
C.Phil. History, UCLA, March 2011
M.A. U.S. History, UCLA, December 2010
M.A. Interdisciplinary Studies, CSUDH, May 2008
B.A. History & Chicana/o Studies, UCLA, June 2005
Fax: 310-206-7833
E-mail:
serranoj@ucla.edu
Field
Chicana/o History, Indigeneity, Cultural Studies, Oral History, 20th Century U.S. History, Modern Mexican History
Research Interests
My research provides needed research attention to Indigenous Peoples’ movements in the U.S. and México because pro-Indigenous efforts inspire in ways which synthesize the historical and modern in unique expressions for extension of human rights into civil rights. My dissertation explores how Chicana/o proclamations of cultural Indigeneity are intrinsically tied to Chicana/o participation in Indigenous transnational struggles for the respect of human rights. I hypothesize that Chicana/o activists have drawn their social, cultural, and political stances from the close and complex history of trans-border interaction among Indigenous groups, Mexicans, and Mexican Americans in both the U.S. and México. I focus on Chicana/o activists and cultural groups that promoted Indigenist ideology and have done so across borders. My goal is to question how Chicana/o Indigenist ideology informed by cultural practices and long oral traditions disrupts hegemonic constraints of Indigeniety constructed by Mexican and U.S. assimilationist projects. My study will illustrate late modern social changes by providing understandings of how human rights, like respect for operative cultural heritage, for peoples of Indigenous descent can be extended or restrained by states' actions. Ultimately, my study is an examination of cultural consciousness and its applications for social survival in a complex world.
Publications
Serrano Nájera, José Luis. A Prelude to Liberation: Raising Our IQ. A Book Review of Indigenous Quotient/Stalking Words: American Indian Heritage as Future by Juan Gómez-Quiñones.” Somos en Escrito: The Latino literary online Magazine, Jan. 30, 2012, http://www.somosenescrito.blogspot.com/2012/01/prelude-to-liberation-raising-our-iq.html
Serrano Nájera, José Luis. Introduction to Indigenous Quotient/Stalking Words: American Indian Heritage as Future, by Juan Gómez-Quiñones, 8-9. San Antonio: Aztlan Libre Press, 2012.
Grants and Awards
Institute of American Cultures Research Grant in Ethnic Studies 2011-2012
University of California, Los Angeles
Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Program Summer 2010 & 2011
University of California, Los Angeles
Graduate Research Mentorship Program 2009-2010
University of California, Los Angeles
National Science Foundation UC DIGSSS Summer 2009
University of California, Los Angeles
Eugene Cota-Robles Fellowship 2008-2009
University of California, Los Angeles
Graduate Equity Fellowship 2006-2008
California State University, Dominguez Hills
Advisors
Juan Gómez-Quiñones, UCLA History Department (Chair)
David Delgado Shorter, UCLA Department of World Arts and Culture
Kevin Terraciano, UCLA History Department
Conference Presentations
PANELS ORGANIZED:
Serrano Nájera, José Luis, Session Organizer, “The Chicana/o Movement and its Pedagogical Legacies: An examination of Critical Pedagogy, Political Activism, and Teaching Chicana/o History.” Panel accepted by the American Historical Association for its annual meeting in New Orleans, LA, January 2013.
PAPER PRESENTATIONS:
Serrano Nájera, José Luis, “Making Human Rights Civil Rights: Chicana/o Indigeneity and Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Movements, 1965-2012.” Paper accepted for presentation at the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association Fifth Annual Meeting in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, June 2013.
Serrano Nájera, José Luis, “Chicana/o Movement Theater as Critical Cultural Pedagogy: Implications for the Class Room.” Paper accepted for Round Table Discussion at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting in San Francisco, CA, April 2013.
Serrano Nájera, José Luis, “Human Rights in Aztlan: Indigenous Heritage and Chicana/o Indigenism in the Twentieth-Century.” Paper presented at the American Historical Association annual meeting in New Orleans, LA, January 2013.
Vásquez, Irene, Elizabeth González Cárdenas, José Luis Serrano Nájera, et. al., “Mentoring as a Labor of Mutual Love and Support: Boosting Student and Faculty Academic Success through Transformational Mentoring at California State University, Dominguez Hills.” Paper presented at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, October 2011.
Serrano Nájera, José Luis, “Serpent Thought: El Teatro Campesino’s Cultural Empowerment Strategies for Chicana/o Movement Theater,” Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies, El Camino Community College, Torrance, CA, November 2009.
Serrano Nájera, José Luis, “Rangers, Bandidos and Pistols in Their Hands: The Criminalization of Mexican Peoples, 1836-1910,” National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies, San Jose, CA, April 2007.
Serrano Nájera, José Luis, “Indigenismo in the Chicana/o Movement,” National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies, Jalisco, México, June 2006.
INVITED LECTURES:
Aztlan in Heart and Mind: Indigenous Philosophical and Social Influence on Chicana/o Ideology in the Twentieth Century,” History of Chicano Peoples Course (Hist. M151B), University of California, Los Angeles, February 2010.
“U.S. Law, Racism, and Oppression: Criminalization Through Discourse After the Social Movements of the 1960s and 1970s,” Cultural Pluralism Course (SBS-318), California State University, Dominguez Hills, Carson, CA, April 2006.
“Pre-Colonial History in the Western Hemisphere and its Implications on Latina/o Identity,” Cultural Pluralism Course (SBS-318), California State University, Dominguez Hills Carson, CA, January 2006.
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