Kevin Cruz Amaya, PhD candidate
Kevin W. Cruz Amaya is a doctoral candidate in UCLA's César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies and a CSRC 2023-2024 IUPLR-Mellon Dissertation Fellow. His dissertation, “The Artwork of Gilbert ‘Magu’ Luján: Chicana/o Whimsicality and Speculative Worldmaking in Magulandia,” is a monographic study of the artistic, political, and intellectual contributions of Gilbert “Magu” Luján exemplified in the artist's whimsical world of "Magulandia." By analyzing Luján’s writings, drawings, and sculptures, this dissertation reorients Chicana/o art history by developing a theory of whimsicality as an aesthetic strategy that reframes Chicana/o identity as relational to and inclusive of Southwestern indigenous peoples, expands Chicana/o art to include the introspective political work of sculpture, and reframes the Chicano movement as a worldmaking project. Additionally, Cruz Amaya serves as editorial assistant for Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, published by CSRC Press.
Salvador Herrera, PhD candidate
Salvador Herrera is a PhD candidate at in the UCLA the Department of English and a CSRC 2023-2024 IUPLR-Mellon Dissertation Fellow. His dissertation, “Desert Dreams: TransBorder Art at the Limits of Identity,” analyzes works of contemporary literature, performance, and media in desert borderland spaces. In drawing from Chicana feminism, psychoanalysis, and world-systems theory, Herrera argues that transborder artists rupture the normative psycho-affective archetypes of coloniality. He is particularly interested in interventions by queer and trans* artists of the Latin American diaspora who deploy the generative force of eroticism to model social relations beyond borders. Herrera has published in two academic venues. His first series of public-facing articles in 2019-2020 for Synapsis: A Health Humanities Journal centered histories of scientific and medical racism. In addition, he published a peer-reviewed article appeared in Intertexts: A Journal of Theoretical Reflection in 2021 on the subject of cybernetics, remediated narratives, undocumented youth in STEM, and the corporate militarism of the nation state. Herrera is currently serving as the inaugural chair of the Communications Committee for the Latina/o Studies Association. Links to his projects past and present can be found at http://salvadorherrera.net.
Tor Negrete, Ph.D. candidate
Tor is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media at UCLA and a CSRC 2023-2024 IUPLR-Mellon Dissertation Fellow. His research examines the politics of media and technology and their impact on Latinx communities. His dissertation, “Beyond the Headset: Borders, Frontiers, and the Politics of Immersive Technologies,” examines the historical use of immersive technologies in the technological construction and policing of the U.S.-Mexico border to its current virtual and biometric capacity. He also integrates his research interests and scholarship into media practice through the production of narrative films, documentaries, and new media.
Vanessa Quintero, MLIS student
Vanessa Esperanza Quintero, a lifelong resident of southeast Los Angeles, is a Latina Futures Lab Graduate Fellow at the CSRC Library. Her research explores the intersection between ethical practices and the law with arts and culture collections, preservation, and information systems in museums, libraries and academic institutions. Her involvement in the field of information studies and arts and culture collections began with her recognition of the need for advocacy through amplification and preservation of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ arts, ephemera, culture, and activism. She holds an AA in art history from East Los Angeles College, a BA in art history from California State University, Los Angeles, and is completing an MA in library and information science at UCLA.
