Academic Director

Kalmanovitz Hall 233

Ilaria Giglioli is a scholar of migration, borders and racialization. A human geographer by training, she studies the creation, legitimization and contestation of borders, with a comparative focus in the Mediterranean and US southern border. In particular, she studies the social, political and economic processes that generate support for border fortification, as well as social movements that contest it. She also studies the relationship between border fortification, territorial inequality, and...

Education:
  • University of California Berkeley, PhD in Geography, 2018
  • University of Toronto, MA in Geography, 2010
  • University of Oxford, BA in Geography, 2006

Full-Time Faculty

Kalmanovitz Hall G61

Kevin M. Chun, PhD, is professor of psychology and co-founding faculty member of USF’s Asian American Studies and Critical Diversity Studies programs. Professor Chun uses community-based research methods to study acculturation effects on Asian American immigrant health and psychosocial adjustment. His research program aims to improve acculturation theory and measures, and develop health interventions that reduce immigrant families’ acculturation stress.

Prof. Chun was co-principal...

Education:
  • PhD, Clinical Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles
  • BS, Psychology, Santa Clara University
  • Psychology Internship at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System
Expertise:
  • Acculturation
  • Bicultural efficacy in health management
  • Immigrant health disparities
  • Asian American psychology
  • Multicultural psychology
  • Ethnic minority mental health
  • Family psychology
Kalmanovitz Hall 236

Kathleen Coll is a cultural anthropologist whose research and teaching focuses on immigration politics and policies, cultural citizenship, and grassroots community organizing in the U.S., with special emphasis on the San Francisco Bay Area. Her books include Remaking Citizenship: Latina Immigrants and New American Politics (Stanford University Press, 2010) an ethnography of Mujeres Unidas y Activas and immigrant women’s activism in San Francisco, a co-authored book Disputing Citizenship (Policy...

Education:
  • Stanford, PhD in Anthropology, 2000
  • Stanford, MA in Anthropology, 1990
  • Stanford, BA in Anthropology 1989
XARTS 009

Sergio De La Torre's project work has focused on issues regarding immigration, tourism, surveillance technologies, and transnational identities. These works have been exhibited in a variety of venues both national and international. He has received grants from the NEA, The Rockefeller Foundation, Creative Capital, the Potrero Nuevo Fund, and the Creative Work Fund, among others.

De La Torre's latest project is MAQUILAPOLIS (City of Factories), an hour-long video documentary made in...

Kalmatovitz Hall 249

Dr. Melisa Garcia is a poet and interdisciplinary scholar. Her research interests include: linguistic justice, the use of alternative discourses, and decolonial spaces that create the inclusion of BIPOC community discourses. She also researches the damaging rhetoric that shapes the Central American diaspora in the U.S. through the use of autoethnography, constellation identities, and decolonial imaginaries. Through her research, teaching, and community work, Dr. Garcia aims to bring stories...

Education:
  • UNM, PhD in English - Rhetoric & Writing, 2022
  • UNM, MFA in Creative Writing - Poetry, 2016
  • UC Riverside, BA in Creative Writing & Spanish Literature and Language, 2012
Expertise:
  • Poetry
  • Inclusion of Alternative Discourses in the composition classroom
  • Rhetoric of Central American diasporic communities
  • Inclusive Linguistic Justice
  • Autoethnographic research methods
Kalmanovitz Hall 486

Christina Garcia Lopez holds a PhD in American Studies with a portfolio in Mexican American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. She completed her BA in English Literature at the University of North Texas and an MA in American Literature and Culture at the University of Leeds. Previous to joining USF, she held a lectureship at the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Her teaching and research interests include: Latinx and Chicanx literature; Ethnic...

Education:
  • BA, English Literature, University of North Texas
  • MA, American Literature and Culture, University of Leeds
  • PhD, American Studies, University of Texas at Austin
Masonic 206

Roberto Gutiérrez Varea began his career in theater in his native Argentina. His research and creative work focuses on live performance as means of resistance and peacebuilding in the context of social conflict and state violence. Varea's stage work in the United States includes directing premieres of works by Migdalia Cruz, Ariel Dorfman, Cherríe Moraga, and José Rivera, among others. He is the founding artistic director of Soapstone Theatre Company, a collective of male ex-offenders and women...

Kalmanovitz Hall 316

Associate Professor, received her Masters in Comparative Literature at San Francisco State University and her PhD from the Department of Spanish & Portuguese at Stanford University. Her areas of focus include Mexican, Border and Chicana/o Literary and Cultural Studies, with an interest in Feminist and Performance Studies.

Education:
  • MA, Comparative Literature, San Francisco State University
  • PhD, Department of Spanish and Portugese, Stanford University
Kalmanovitz Hall 356

Marco Jacquemet teaches courses in communication and culture, intercultural communication, geographies of communication, and justice and social change. His scholarship focuses on the communicative mutations produced by the circulation of migrants and media idioms in the Mediterranean area. His more recent book project is called Transidioma: Language and Power in the 21st Century. He is also present in Italian media activist networks, where he investigates the link between media and power.

Education:
  • PhD, Cultural/Linguistic Anthropology, UC Berkeley
  • MA, Linguistics/Semiotics, EHESS, Paris
  • BA, Communication Studies, U. of Bologna
Kalmanovitz Hall 386

Professor Pedro Lange Churión is both an academic and a visual artist. He has written and directed various films, including Crocodile (USA, 2000). Based on a short story by Felisberto Hernández. This film received a Remmy Bronze award for best dramatic adaptation at the Houston International Film Festival (2001). He also wrote and directed Visitas (Colombia, 2005), a full-feature narrative film that explores violence in Colombia. This film has garnered recognition as "Official Selection" in...

Kalmanovitz Hall 105

Lois Ann Lorentzen is Professor of Social Ethics in the Theology and Religious Studies Department at the University of San Francisco (USF) and Academic Director, Master in Migration Studies Professor Lorentzen received her PhD in Social Ethics at the University of Southern California. Prior to coming to USF she taught at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

Professor Lorentzen is the author of Etica Ambiental (Environmental Ethics) and Raising the Bar, editor of Hidden Lives and Human...

Education:
  • PhD, Social Ethics, University of Southern California
Kalmanovitz Hall 320

Julio Moreno is a professor of history and affiliated engineering faculty at the University of San Francisco. Born in the Salvadoran countryside, Professor Moreno fled his country's civil war at the age of fourteen and navigated the US educational system as an undocumented immigrant. He is the recipient of distinguished awards that include research fellowships on the globalization of U.S. business, technology, and diplomacy at the Library of Congress and the Institute for Historical Studies at...

Kalmanovitz Hall 257

Evelyn I. Rodriguez is a second-generation Pinay, who was born in Honolulu, raised in San Diego, and is now an Associate Professor for the University of San Francisco's Department of Sociology. She also is a faculty member in Critical Diversity Studies, Asian American Studies, and the Maria Elena Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from UC San Diego as a Sociology major/Ethnic Studies minor; and received her MA and PhD from UC Berkeley's...

Education:
  • PhD, Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
  • MA, Sociology, University of California, Berkeley
  • BA, Sociology, University of California, San Diego
101 Howard St., Suite 500, Office 608

Dr. Marco Tavanti is a sustainability and leadership international scholar whose experience stretches over 30 years and whose work has taken him to more than 18 countries in Europe, East Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Dr. Tavanti’s teaching in sustainable development, leadership ethics, intercultural diversity, and NGO management is grounded in Jesuit values and his scholarship is an embodiment of the University’s mission to be of service to humankind.

Dr. Tavanti is a systems...

Education:
  • PhD, Sociology, Loyola University, Chicago, IL, 2001 (with distinction)
  • MA, Sociology, Loyola University, Chicago, IL, 1999
  • MA, Cross-Cultural Theology, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, IL...
Expertise:
  • Sustainable development
  • Social economy
  • Indigenous rights
  • Refugee services

Part-Time Faculty

Kalmanovitz Hall 316

Amy Argenal completed her doctorate in International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco, where she also received her Master’s in the same area of study. She received her second Masters in Human Rights from Mahidol University in Thailand, where she continued to partner with human rights activists in South East Asia, through her doctorate research focusing on human rights activism in Myanmar. Amy served as the Director of Service Learning at Urban High School in San...

Education:
  • University of San Francisco, EdD in International and Multicultural Education, 2016
  • Mahidol University, MA in Human Rights, 2009
  • University of San Francisco, MA in International and Multicultural...
Expertise:
  • Migration Studies
  • Ethnic Studies
  • Human Rights Education

Luis Enrique “Kique” Bazan is a longtime advocate for justice with years of experience working with human rights and advocacy organizations. Originally from Lima, Peru, Kique earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the Pontifical Catholic University in Lima, a master’s in theology and religious studies, and a doctorate in organization and leadership from USF. He spends most of his time being a staff member for the Office of International Initiatives and University Ministry connecting with...

Education:
  • IPECAL, Doctoral degree in Knowledge and Culture in Latin America, 2020
  • University Of San Francisco, Ed.D in Organization and Leadership, 2009
  • University Of San Francisco, M.A. in Theology and...
Expertise:
  • Global Education and Leadership
  • Immigration
  • Critical Theory
  • Street children and working children in Latin America

Rubén Martínez, a native of Los Angeles and the son and grandson of immigrants from Mexico and El Salvador, is a writer, teacher and performer. He holds the Fletcher Jones Chair in Literature and Writing at Loyola Marymount University and is the author of several books, including Desert America: A Journey Across Our Most Divided Landscape and Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail. He is the host of the VARIEDADES performance series. His most recent production, "Little Central...

Expertise:
  • Literary studies
  • Chicanx Latinx studies
  • Central American studies

Diana Negrín is a geographer, writer, and curator with a focus on identity, space, and social movements in Latin America and the United States. Her scholarship engages human and cultural geography, critical race theory, cultural studies, political ecology, and urban studies.

Professor Negrín has taught various classes and advised students in USF's Migration Studies and Urban and Public Affairs programs since 2013.

Education:
  • UC Berkeley, PhD in Geography, 2014
  • UC Berkeley, BA in Latin American Studies and Literature, 2004
Expertise:
  • Critical Human Geography
  • Indigenous Studies and Decolonial theory
  • Political Ecology
  • Art and Cultural Studies

Faculty Emeritus

Kalmanovitz Hall 147

Susana Kaiser teaches at the Media Studies Department. She earned her PhD from the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, her MA from the Department of Communication at Hunter College of the City University of New York, and her BA in Advertising from the Jesuit University of El Salvador, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, her country of origin. Before coming to USF she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on...

Education:
  • BA, Advertising, The Jesuit University of El Salvador, Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • MA, The Department of Communication, Hunter College of the City University of New York
  • PhD, The Institute of Latin...

Faculty of Universidad Iberoamericana

  • Cristina Barrón
    PhD, Universidad Iberoamericana
    History of the Philippines and Japan, transpacific economic relations
  • Elena Bilbao (invited)
    PhD, Universidad Iberoamericana
    Migration, ethnicity, and indigenous peoples
  • Patricia de los Rios
    PhD, University of Maryland
    Migration and U.S.-Mexican relations
  • Alejandra Dominguez (invited)
    PhD, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
    Psycho-cultural adaptation of migrants, cross-cultural psychology
  • Miguel Rábago Dorbecker
    Doctor of Law, Salamanca, Spain
    International and Inter-American human rights law
  • Thomas Legler
    PhD, York University
    Global and regional governance in Latin America
  • Celia Mancillas (invited)
    PhD, Universidad Iberoamericana – Santa Fe
    Mexican families and Mexico-U.S. migration; gender, culture, and family on Mexico’s northern border
  • David Mena
    PhD, University of Essex, UK
    Global justice
  • Angelica Ojeda (invited)
    PhD, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
    Family, partners, and migration
  • Carla Pederzini (invited)
    PhD, El Colegio de México
    Migration and remittances
  • Graciela Polanco (invited)
    PhD, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
    Cross-cultural psychology, migration and mental health
  • Graciela Teruel (invited)
    PhD, University of California at Los Angeles
    Migration and poverty
  • Javier Urbano
    PhD, International Relations, Instituto de Investigaciones José María Luis Mora y Juan Carlos, España
    Central American migrants in Mexico, migrant rights, migration governance
  • Karla Valenzuela (C)
    PhD, Universidad Iberoamericana
    Mexican consular protection, protection of nationals abroad
  • Mireya Vilar (invited)
    PhD, Universidad Tecnológica de México
    Migration and public health
  • César Villanueva R
    PhD, Linnaeus/Växjö Universitet, Sweden
    Cultural and international relations, cultural and public diplomacy, country image
  • Laura Zamudio
    PhD, Universidad Iberoamericana, Santa Fe
    International organizations