Office Location: Ketchum 351
Pronouns: she / her / hers
Education
M.A., University of Colorado Denver - Humanities, 2010
B.A., University of Colorado Denver - Anthropology, 2003
Research Interests
Indigenous Spiritual Reclamations/Decolonizations, Contemporary Manifestations of Chicanx/Mexica Spiritual Identity, Liberation Theology, Ethnography, Mesoamerican Religious Traditions, Womanist Theory, Revitalization Movements, Ritual Studies, Indigenous Maternal Divine, Transculturation/Syncretism/Hybridity as Religious Resistance
My research seeks to understand the liberatory principles inherent both in the ritualization of spiritual resistances and in the formation of Chicanx spiritual identities. In my previous ethnographic research with danza Azteca/danza Conchero groups I focused on the role of sacred centering in Chicanx indigenous reclamations of spirit expressed through the vehicle of revitalization movements as a way in which to resist the historical forces of colonization, acculturation and forced assimilation. I seek to now explore the meaning behind contemporary reclamations of the Mexica indigenous maternal divine through her historical hybridization with La Virgen de Guadalupe and the theological implications of centering the maternal spirit in Chicanx spiritual and social liberation.