My research ethics training, teaching experience for the Gender Studies Program, and service as the Vice-President of the Latinx Graduate Association of Notre Dame taught me a great deal about privilege and intersectionality, especially how to better oppose unjust power structures through my own teaching and research. Foremost, I gained greater awareness of my own privilege and positionality as a scholar within the field of Latin American Studies and strategies to advocate for underrepresented groups through my research and teaching. I am inclusive in my teaching methodologies and sensitive to the needs of a diverse student body while asserting the same ethical principles in my research and advocacy.
My research corpus focuses on issues of violence: systemic violence, state-sponsored violence, narrative and political violence in post-conflict societies, and the pursuit of social justice. As such, I am cognizant of how I impart information regarding these subjects. Prior to my doctoral fieldwork, I prepared a methodology and rationale that addressed the ethical implications of my work about former political prisoners, victims of torture, and human rights abuses of the Pinochet dictatorship. I received training on IRB and human subjects, as well as ethical research protocols. This training was invaluable because it underscored that I must always be aware of my positionality and the power structures working around me, a point that has continued to inform my research and teaching. Alongside my dissertation project, I participated in a research team that was funded by a distinguished Luksburg Foundation Collaboration Grant. Headed by Dr. María Rosa Olivera-Williams of Notre Dame and Dr. Cristián Opazo of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, our team produced an inter-university seminar entitled “University and Catholicism: Memory Studies as a Project of Cultural Politics.” This project generated an enriching graduate seminar, a conference in Chile, and the publication of an anthology. My forthcoming chapter entitled, “La justicia social en la educación penitenciaria: una estrategia católica” [“Social Justice in Prison Education: A Catholic Approach”] will appear in the anthology Humanidades al límite: posiciones desde/contra la universidad global [Humanities to the Limit: Positions from/against the Global University], eds. María Rosa Olivera-Williams and Cristián Opazo, and published by Editorial Cuarto Propio in 2021. My chapter’s comparative analysis, which looks at the contexts of the U.S. and Chile, indicates that greater access to education reduces rates of recidivism while an emphasis on the liberal arts, specifically, disseminates values that are important to maintaining healthy democracies and enabling formerly incarcerated persons to escape a cycle of poverty and criminality that disproportionately affects people of color. In terms of my particular research contribution, my chapter itself illustrates my belief in the transformative power of liberal arts scholarship and education, particularly with respect to underserved communities.
Teaching for the Gender Studies Program has also been an important part of my professional development. In 2014-2015, I taught the course Introduction to Gender Studies under the mentorship of Dr. Abigail Palko. The intersectional and interdisciplinary course taught me about theory and how to apply that content to my teaching practices. After teaching Virginia Woolf's A Room of One’s Own, in which she speaks of the fictional Judith Shakespeare to illustrate the limited opportunities for women writers of the time, I took Woolf's message to heart. I have integrated more women writers and Afrolatinx authors into my syllabi as my personal way of helping diversify the canon in my own discipline. This includes adding a unit on U.S. Latinx writers and incorporating a larger section about race and postcolonialism in Latin America into my recent course, Introduction to Hispanic Literatures and Cultures. In future courses, I want to integrate more literature by indigenous authors and a unit on disability studies.
Beyond scholarly advocacy, I have also received training on how to take concrete steps to support individual students. I have attended workshops for helping students in distress to better address the needs of students with mental health concerns and have familiarized myself with resources available on campus. I have served as a liaison for students in crisis and I have helped them access the resources they needed during challenging times. I have also worked closely with the Sara Bea Center for Students with Disabilities to better support my students with physical or learning disabilities. I attended numerous meetings and consultations with specialists in the center to make my coursework inclusive and adaptable. One example is changes I made to help support students with dyslexia. This includes gaining access to special fonts and using colored inks and paper, which are helpful for some dyslexic students when reading or writing. In solidarity with the Gender Studies Program, I also participated in focus groups and petitions to make sure that there are bathrooms in all buildings on campus that are wheelchair accessible. Prior to this initiative, there were bathrooms in some older buildings that had doors that could not be opened easily from a wheelchair. Due to the success of this campaign, several bathrooms were updated, including those in one of the buildings in which I teach. I have also advocated for the needs of pregnant and parenting students through the Gender Studies Program, the Gender Relations Center, the Graduate Student Union, and the University Committee on Women Faculty and Students to help gain access to more resources and information for students with children at Notre Dame. This includes an initiative to get changing tables installed in bathrooms in all public buildings on campus.
In addition to research and teaching initiatives, I served my fellow graduate students as Vice-President of the Latinx Graduate Association of Notre Dame. One of my successful contributions was incorporating a service component into the organization’s Constitution, in addition to the existing academic and social provisions. We partnered closely with La Casa de Amistad, a local nonprofit organization that provides educational, language, and community building resources to the Latinx community in South Bend. We conducted fundraising initiatives and partnered cultural events to generate greater relationships between Notre Dame students and the South Bend community.
My research is influenced by the principle of social justice and the desire to advocate for disenfranchised and oppressed groups impacted by systemic violence. In the same way that my professors did, I also want to mentor my students and show them the positive impact their own research and community engagement can have on the world. Teaching and advocacy are equally important to me in demonstrating my commitment to social justice. My teaching practices, professional development, and the initiatives in which I have participated are motivated by a desire for the university to be a welcoming place where students of all identities and statuses can succeed.
If you want to help students with Dyslexia access more learning resources, check out https://www.opendyslexic.org/ to access free, open-source fonts which may be helpful to your students too.