The Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies is one of the first of its kind in the nation and we recently celebrated our 50th anniversary! We are an interdisciplinary and transnational program of teaching, research, and public service that provides students with the opportunity to explore the history, politics, culture, and ethics of Chicana/o/x-Latinx communities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Our mission is to develop interculturally aware 21st century leaders who engage in social-justice oriented community service and scholarship. We achieve our mission through our curriculum, research, and knowledge production, which explores race, gender identities, class, immigration, and ethnicity, and emphasizes the U.S.-Mexico borderlands (history, sociopolitical contexts, comparative and symbolic borders), expressive arts (art, cinema, music, theater), and community practices for social change (health, education, community organizing).

We are situated in one of the world’s most dynamic metropolitan areas characterized by the international border and the rich perpetual flow of people, culture, and goods in both directions. Our faculty members—many of them pioneers in our field—use our location as a laboratory for research, teaching, and service.

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