In order to cultivate critical thinking skills, students are encouraged to question structural inequities and imagine alternative modes for creating social and racial justice. To achieve this, I incorporate performance exercises, multimedia, community speakers, and field trips to various educational spaces (museums, non-profits, community centers, etc.).  Starting from local issues and then bridging conversations to global issues, I strive to center students’ voices by promoting student lead discussions, critical and reflective writing exercises, community organizing strategies, and collective projects. By educating the whole self, I strive to guide students to deeper understandings of themselves and their communities.

"Creating Towards Utopia: An Evening of Art, Poetry, and Conversation" Students perform original work to a packed house — U of MN Latin@ Gender and Sexuality 2014

Students exhibit original artwork at Cafe SouthSide, a coffee shop and community space in South Minneapolis, for their collective final project — U of MN Latin@ Gender and Sexuality 2014

To learn about "rasquache," a Chican@ term for making due with what is at hand, students create their own art out of found objects — UCSB Contemporary Chican@ Art 2012

For the first day of class students introduce each other by creating their own self portraits — UCSB Chicana Feminist Art 2012

Students organize and perform an evening of poetry to protest against the banning of Ethnic Studies in AZ — St. Catherine University Chican@ Literature 2013

Children explore issues of identity through puppet making — Wisdom Ways Center for Spirituality, Peace Camp 2011