Maria is an associate professor in the Department of Women’s Studies and American Culture, as well as the Director of Latina/o Studies at the University of Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University’s Program in Modern Thought, and an M.A. in English from the University of Texas. Her first book, Native Speakers: Ella Deloria, Zora Neale Hurston, Jovita González, and the Poetics of Culture, (University of Texas Press, 2008) received the Gloria Anzaldúa book prize for 2009 from the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA). Currently, she is working on two major research initiatives. The first, Chicana por mi Raza, is a national digital humanities project that seeks to create an online interactive archive of oral histories and material culture documenting Chicana Feminist praxis from 1965-1985. The second, El Museo del Norte, is a partnership with Southwest Detroit arts and culture organizations with the aim of creating a “museum without walls” that documents Latino history in the Midwest. She is the lead curator for two exhibitions: Las Rebeldes: Stories of Strength and Struggle in southeast Michigan (2013) and Chicana Fotos: Nancy De Los Santos (2017).
In the Constructing Community podcast, Maria speaks with Dr. Jaime Chahin and Yvonne Navarrete to discuss access to diversity and student contributions to communities on campus that further connect, advocate, and strengthen dynamics of campus movements at the University of Michigan.