Welcome

  

The mission of the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies is to study, analyze, and research the historical and contemporary experiences of people of Mexican origin within the Unites States, as well as of other Latino/a and indigenous populations in the Americas. The Chávez Department's location in Los Angeles , home to the largest Mexican origin community in the nation as well as to several other Latino groups, places us in a unique position to draw from this large and diverse population­social experiences, historical realities, cultural practices, linguistic attributes, and literary and artistic productions. The Department of Chicana/o Studies provides a strong interdisciplinary methodology to its curriculum, offering a diverse palette of courses from the social sciences, the humanities, and the creative arts. The interdisciplinary program exposes students to the wide range of theories, methodologies, technologies, pedagogies, and epistemologies that intersect the discipline. Categories of analysis include race, class, gender, sexuality, language, ethnicity, labor, immigration, citizenship, law, and social change. The curriculum of the César EChávez Department is learner centered writing-intensive, and academically rigorous; in the arts the curriculum balances visual literacy, research skills, and cultural production. The Department's outreach mission is based on a service-learning philosophy that pays tribute to our namesake, providing an intellectual foundation and a social consciousness that is necessary for success in an increasingly transnational, diverse, multilingual, and multicultural world.