Priscilla Leiva
Assistant Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies
Biography
Education
University of Southern California
Ph.D.
American Studies and Ethnicities
2014
University of Southern California
M.A.
American Studies and Ethnicities
2011
Yale University
B.A.
American Studies Intensive
2007
Cum Laude
Areas of Expertise
Affiliations
- American Studies Association
- Latina/o Studies Association
Articles
"Facing the Nation and the University: A Model for Institutional Transformation"
" Kalfou: A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic StudiesPriscilla Leiva
2017-12-01
This essay responds to George Sánchez’s invitation to start in a specific place in order to describe his impact as both a scholar and an institution builder. This essay will do so by putting two of his pieces in conversation: “Face the Nation,” which offers new conceptual frameworks to understand a multiracial society, and “Crossing Figueroa: The Tangled Web of Diversity and Democracy,” in which he theorizes the role of the university and the struggle for democracy both inside and outside its walls. By reading these two pieces together, scholars of racial formation may gain insight regarding three critical interventions that the field now takes for granted. First, multiracial interaction is regularly a research topic that complicates binaries of Black and white because Sánchez, his colleagues, and his predecessors began asking different questions about race. His students have been central to pushing the edges of the field, proving that good mentorship is more than generosity. Second, the fact that Sánchez, a preeminent historian, engages multiple fields in theorizing multiracial interaction demonstrates the political urgency of reading and writing beyond the discipline. Lastly, Sánchez’s efforts to diversify university faculty and create conditions of success for faculty of color is central to making the university live up to its promises of civic responsibility and democracy. Ultimately, his body of work both on and off the page demonstrates his importance in bringing different worlds, disciplines, and individuals together.
Just Win, Baby!" The Raider Nation and Second Chances for Black and Brown L.A.
Black and Brown in Los Angeles: Beyond Conflict and CoalitionPriscilla Leiva
2014-11-01
This essay explores African American and Latina/o community of the Raider Nation as both a construction of the franchise, its owner and players as well as by Raiders fans themselves who positioned their team as a symbol of a different Los Angeles, one in which the invisible and underdogs become champions.