Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano

Resisting Erasure

History EN ↓ 6 episodes

Resisting Erasure: Critical Race Counterstories of Higher Education bring us stories that expose, analyze, and challenge majoritarian stories rooted in whiteness, racial myths, and power. Each episode discusses a different historical period through a counterstory lens in an effort to resist the erasure of Communities of Color, women, queer and trans folks, people with disabilities, and other oppressed groups. The podcast is hosted by doctoral students in the Ed. D. in Community College Leadership at San Diego State University as part of the ARP 801 course.

Author

Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano

Episodes

Episode 1: Origins, Methods, and Futures of Critical Race Counterstories 28.01.2026 50:55

Host Dr. Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano launches Resisting Erasure with a foundational conversation on Critical Race Counterstories : what they are, where they come from, how they function as method and methodology, and where they’re headed. Guests Dr. Daniel G. Solórzano (UCLA) and Dr. Aja Y. Martinez (UIUC) trace counterstory’s intellectual genealogy from law and ethnic studies to education, share fam...

Episode 2: Manifesting Destiny: UC Berkeley and the Beginnings of Higher Education in California 28.01.2026 31:31

In this episode we expose the ways settler colonialism, manifest destiny, and eugenics shaped the displacement and genocide of Indigenous people and influenced the development of California’s first public university. We felt it was important to contemplate these foundational events in California history, in order to properly understand the historical and political contexts from which higher educat...

Episode 3: Eugenics and the Master Planners for Education in California during the Progressive Era, 1885 – 1920. 28.01.2026 35:10

In this episode, we speak to how racist politicians hijacked emergent science and then used that information to back social programs aimed at using a person’s genetics against them through eugenics. Specifically, we will discuss how eugenics was not only accepted, but how this movement shaped laws and education policy in California. Hosts: Ryan Henderson, Christian Johnson , and Hector Solorzano

Episode 4: Courage and Tenacity: Mexican and Mexican American Communities Refusing Erasure 28.01.2026 31:14

In this episode, we will discuss key contradictions in California community college’s history, during the periods of 1920 through 1955. Starting with a focus on the countercyclical relationship between The Great Depression in the 1930’s and the boost on enrollment this period generated for junior colleges across the United States, we will argue that the main stock story of this period is told thro...

Episode 5: San Diego’s Untold Acts of Student Protest in the 1960’s 28.01.2026 32:50

In this episode, we discuss how student-led resistance in the 1960s, particularly within the often overlooked context of community colleges, challenged and redefined the landscape of higher education in California. We provide context by examining the policies that claimed to democratize education but actually reinforced exclusion. By examining the activism of students at San Diego City College in...

Episode 6: Where’s the Fairness? A Counterstory on Affirmative Action 28.01.2026 27:45

This episode features podcasters Nellie Herrera-Martinez, Diana Vera-Alba , and Ildi Carrillo as they unpack the long, complicated history of affirmative action through story, data, and lived experience. Beginning with the Civil Rights Act, Executive Order 11246 , and the early foundations of educational equity, we explore how affirmative action sought to repair generations of exclusion rather tha...