Latinx Intelligentsia

Ep 55 La Profesora shares the often unseen process behind publishing academic work as a Latina scholar in higher education. Reflecting on her latest publication, La Profesora shares the journey of writing, mentoring, setbacks, and personal challenges that shaped the manuscript over the course of three years and 148 hours of dedicated work. From balancing teaching, advising, and community action to...

Ep. 54 La Profesora turns the spotlight on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where a sweeping new budget proposal threatens to eliminate the Department of Educational Administration (EDAD)—the only department in the state dedicated to preparing educational leaders. Joined by Dra. Crystal Garcia, we unpack the personal and professional toll of fighting for a department's survival, the problematic...

Ep. 53 La Profesora discusses the urgent challenges facing Latinx/e and marginalized communities today. She shines a light on pressing issues such as the ongoing crisis in Palestine, the targeting of Black leaders and communities in major cities, and the troubling dismantling of DEI initiatives and social programs in higher education. With honesty and vulnerability, La Profesora acknowledges our r...

Ep. 52 As La Profesora, Dra. Michelle Espino Lira, slowly returns to the podcasting space, we thought it would be helpful to talk about the daunting world of doctoral program admissions. In this Sidenote, La Profesora offers invaluable insights and practical tips for making informed decisions about your doctoral journey to and through Higher Education & Student Affairs doctoral programs. This epis...

Ep 51 This episode is dedicated to Mrs. Ramona Espino, who was and remains a brilliant light in La Profesora's heart.  La Profesora talks about what it means to live in, through, and around grief. Through this profound loss, there lies opportunity for deep reflection about "being as doing". So often, life on these academic streets is a flurry of activity--always on to the next project, the next gr...

It's a Back in the Day Replay, ya'll! La Profesora is giving flowers to Dra. Melissa Abeyta, the creator and host of the Scholar Homies Podcast: The Story is to be Told, Not Sold, Conversations with the Soul. We talk about her transition to the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, the legacy she is building alongside her colegxs y Scholar Homies , Dr. Anacany Torres, Dr. Oscar Duran, and newly-m...

Wow, ya'll! We're kicking off Season 7 by celebrating 50 episodes that showcase the amazing work that our gente are doing in higher education! We have a special guest host, future Dra. Nancy Camarillo who offers fantastic reflection questions for La Profesora . Our conversations takes us back to the early days of the podcast, lessons learned, and even some things that you didn't know about our hos...

La Profesora is coming back, ya'll! Thank you for your patience and support! As we prepare for a new season of the podcast, we want to give a shout out to an amazing scholar who is holding it down in the podcasting world: Dra. Gina Garcia ! We were fortunate to have Dra. Garcia on the show in Episode 10: Beyond the HSI Designation con Dr. Andrés Castro Samayoa. We are excited about her new podcast...

Ep 49 This episode is a tribute to all the student affairs practitioners out there who went beyond the "other duties as assigned" at the start of COVID-19. Student Affairs practitioners had to pivot and find a way out of no way to offer support and resources to students, especially those most in need. None of you have been compensated enough for your efforts! La Profesora talks with the newly mint...

Ep 48 It is with so much sorrow in my heart that I post this episode. I do not want to lose hope. The Black community in Buffalo deserves everything we have. The Taiwanese parishioners in Santa Ana deserve everything we have. The children and teachers who were murdered in Uvalde deserve everything we have. Every victim of gun violence deserves everything we have. Not one more. My partner and husba...

Ep47 What started as a way to gather to write at the start of the pandemic evolved into a shared sacred space among Central American and Isthmian writers who sought a space to tell their stories from the Isthmus. La Profesora talks with Eileen Galvez, Samantha Erskine, Bri Rodriguez, and Jessica Hoppe about how the CentAm Writers began and ways that they have evolved to co-create and co-share a wo...

BONUS EPISODE! Ya'll didn't think that after talking about my love, John Lira's campaign for the past few seasons that I wouldn't showcase a critical moment in our journey, right?! In this BONUS episode, I captured moments before, during, and after election day in the Texas primaries. John Lira, candidate for Texas 23rd Congressional District, is now the nominee for TX-23! It's on to November, ya'...

Ep 46 La Profesora talks with newly-minted Dr. Roberto Orozco (felicidades on your dissertation defense!) about the connection between Jotería Studies and Chicana Feminism. Early Chicana Feminists crafted a theory that disrupted heteronormativity and uplifted race/ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, a foundational element that is not always addressed or honored when drawing from Chicana Feminism. Th...

Episode 45 Ya'll! We have a new Poet-in-Residence and in Resistencia, future Dr. Gabriel Pulido! Gabriel shares his journey with spoken word and slam poetry, noting that his creative writing and academic writing processes sometimes blend together. As a conjurer of joy, our new Poet-in-Resistencia offers writing workshops that help queer and transgender folx heal, recognizing that there some wounds...

Ep44 It's always inspiring to learn from a scholar who centers comunidad in her work. La Profesora talks with Dra. Dolores Delgado Bernal about her incredible contributions to promoting assets-based frameworks in the study of Latinx/a/o educational pathways. She reminds us that no idea is ever fully finished, that we are always evolving in our thinking, and that we can disrupt toxic norms in acade...

Episode 43 Bridging sensing and thinking is not often valued in academia. So-called "objectivity" is what is honored. Yet, our gente know something about sensing and thinking that can create a vision of higher education that can bring wholeness and hope.  In this episode, La Profesora talks with Professor Emerita Dra. Laura Rendon about sentipensante pedagogy, the legacy she has crafted in centeri...

Ep. 42 In higher education, we tend to hear that we should be strategic in teaching, service, publications, and grants--pretty much EVERYTHING! What if I told you that one of our veteranas in the field focused more on doing the work she cared about than about strategizing every step in her storied career?  La Profesora had the opportunity to talk with University Professor Emerita Dra. Estela Bensi...

Ep 41 To have the courage to say that one is system-impacted is just the tip of the iceberg in this thought-provoking conversation with Dra. Melissa Abeyta. Dra. Abeyta is working with her Scholar Homies to encourage institutions of higher education to pay attention to a student population that is already present on their campuses: formerly incarcerated and system-impacted students. In her convers...

Ep 40 Future Dr. Joe Louis Hernandez has lived several lifetimes. By the age of 19, Joe Louis was an addict and facing incarceration. His life was changed after attending a drug treatment center that was connected to Mt. San Antonio College, a community college in Southern California. As he moved through formal education to now as a doctoral student and full-time practitioner with the Rising Schol...

Ep 39 Critical Quantitative methodology is justice-oriented and focuses on context. If you plan to be a critical quant or quant crit, you need to acknowledge that national datasets do not accurately reflect the lived experiences of those who have been historically marginalized and are founded upon frameworks that are not critical. La Profesora talks with Dr. Juan C. Garibay about his approach to s...

Ep38 It's not often that La Profesora has such an enriching and joyful conversation about quantitative methods, pero, Dra. Elizabeth Rivera Rodas offers a fantastic perspective on using quantitative methods to critique structural inequities in higher education.  We talk about the journey through a joint PhD, the importance of allowing the research question to guide the methodology, and being okay...

Ep. 37 Hola, mi gente! Welcome to Season 5! In our first episode of the season, we welcome our new Poet-in-Residence and in Resistencia, future Dra. Cecilia Caballero, who talks about her journey as a single mother surviving through COVID-19, intergenerational poverty, and the challenges of academe to (re)claim herself through creative writing. Cecilia shares her poem "Dear Fear". La Profesora als...

Ep. 36 It's our final episode of the season and it is FIRE! We bid farewell to Sarah Gonzales, who is completing her tenure as our inaugural Poet-in-Residence and in Resistencia.  Sarah drops knowledge on the critical questions we should all be asking ourselves as we transition to being out in the world with and without masks and social distancing. This summer, we hope that you can search for the...

*Episode 35* Our conversation with full-time higher education professionals who are enrolled in doctoral programs continues! La Profesora talks with future Dr. Oscar Lanza-Galindo and his daughter Chel about how he navigated his first year in doctoral student amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, he had tremendous support from his partner, Jamie , and from Chel , who knew exactly when to help h...

Episode 34 The term "Part-time doctoral student" is a misnomer. Our gente who navigate full-time work, while also engaging in coursework and life outside of campus are full-time, full-time. There's really no part-time to it! La Profesora talks with future Dr. Bri Serrano about their journey to entering the program at Colorado State University, while also working full-time at Cal Poly-Pomona. Bri n...