The Feminist and Gender Studies Department at Colorado College is thrilled to announce that Joana Chavez will be joining our department as an Assistant Professor of Feminist and Gender Studies starting this Fall. Joana Chavez (she/her/ella) is an interdisciplinary and community-engaged feminist scholar finishing up her PhD in the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her academic interests include Chicana/Latina history, Women of Color feminism, carceral studies, archives, and testimonios. Her research analyzes gendered carceral spaces and uses testimonios to uplift the voices and experiences of incarcerated young women of color. Joana is also a community archivist for the Million Dollar Hoods Project, a multidisciplinary and community-engaged initiative that aims to document the human and fiscal costs of mass incarceration in the greater Los Angeles region. 

We could not be more delighted to welcome Joana Chavez to our small but fierce department, and to broaden our curricular offerings in the important fields of abolition feminism, prison and incarceration studies, Chicana feminism, and Chicana/o/x Studies!