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Letter from the Chair, Dr. A. Gabriel Melndez
Dear American Studies Faculty,
Students and Community,

American Studies at the University
oI New Mexico, as we know it
today, has been years in the
making Ior a couple oI decades.
We are at a high watermark oI
accomplishment, one that is
exceedingly evident at present and
comes at the end oI years oI taxing work and planning.

My own service as Chair oI the department now extends to ten years,
nearly twice the average Ior service at this level oI administration in the
College oI Arts and Sciences. These have been decisive years that have
placed me in a key role to assist with the recruitment, hiring and
promotion oI the outstanding Iaculty that now serve the department. Our
abundant hiring oI Iaculty in AY 2012 2013 led to the placement oI
two new assistant proIessors, Antonio Tiongson and Shante Smalls in
American Studies. These hires, coupled with the joint hire with
Religious Studies oI Kathleen Holscher, provide the department with
new areas oI endeavors in teaching and research. For the Iirst time in
many years it gave us the option to not have to engage in a national
search Ior new Iaculty this past year.

Even as the job market continues to be tight and Iiercely competitive,
American Studies graduates continue to push ahead with exciting and
excellent research and so this year, the newsletter is again Iilled with
news oI signiIicant accomplishments.

In this issue:

`Letter from the Chair
`Faculty News
`New Faculty Welcome
`Faculty Publications
`Department News
`2012-2013 Awards
`Graduate Program News
`Graduate Student News
`Alumni News



Edited by Dina Barajas
Miles Cleaver


AMERICAN STUDIES
MSC03 2110
425 HUMANITIES
ALBUQUERQUE, NM
87131-0001
PHONE: (505) 277-3929
FAX: 505-277-1208

Department Administrator:
Sandy Rodrigue
amstudyunm.edu

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Dr. Amy Brandzel
In the Iall oI 2012 I was able to teach two graduate seminars, one Ior
Women Studies in Feminist Theories, and the other Ior our Department
(The Violence of the Normative). While both classes were enriching, the
Violence of the Normative seminar came together in ways that one cannot
predict, but always hopes Ior. It was an amazing group oI students Irom
throughout UNM, though mostly dominated by AMST graduate students. It
was a brilliant class and a wonderIul opportunity to explore ideas that are
central to many oI our projects, including my manuscript Against
Citi:enship. Queer Intersections and the Jiolence of the Normative. This
spring I took medical leave in order to address chronic pain issues. Im
hoping that this respite will provide the healing I need to come back to
UNM in the Iall, when I will be teaching two graduate seminars: Feminist/Queer/Postcolonial Theories,
which will explore the intersections and tensions among these Iields oI study, especially within recent
scholarship; and I will be lucky to work with our new cohort oI graduate students while co-teaching the
Proseminar, American Culture Studies (ACS), with ProIessor David Correia. But this report would not be
complete without expressing my sincere gratitude and pleasure oI having ProIessor Antonio Tiongson as a
new Iaculty member this year (who received the Faculty oI Color Mentor Award already in his Iirst year
here), and the excitement oI welcoming Shante Paradigm Smalls to our Department this upcoming Iall.

Dr. David Correia
I am an Assistant ProIessor in the Department oI American Studies at the
University oI New Mexico. I write and teach about environmental politics,
law and property, and political economy. I have a regional Iocus on New
Mexico and the wider U.S. Southwest.

My recent book, Properties of Jiolence. Law and Land Grant Struggle in
Northern New Mexico (University oI Georgia Press, 2013) traces the
colonial histories and contemporary struggles over property. Spain and
Mexico colonized what is today New Mexico by distributing large common
property land grants to sheepherders and agriculturalists. AIter the U.S.-
Mexican War most land grants were lost to settlers in a turbulent period oI
land speculation and dubious property adjudication. The book Iocuses on the case oI the Mexican-period
Tierra Amarilla land grant. Of all the land grant conflicts in New Mexicos history, Tierra Amarilla is the
most sensational, with its nineteenth century speculators ranking among the states political and economic
elite and a remarkable pattern oI resistance to land loss by heirs in the twentieth century. I re-examine Tierra
Amarilla and colonial and post-colonial land grant struggles in New Mexico in general through a critical lens
that draws on archival and ethnographic methods in order to understand the cultural politics and political
economy oI property in northern New Mexico.

My work has appeared in Antipode, Geoforum, The Journal of Historical Geographv, Radical Historv
Review and others. I also write Ior CounterPunch, the Weeklv Alibi, and La Jicarita. Recent work has
Iocused on the politics oI climate change, bourgeois primitivism, the political economy oI Iorest certiIication,
radical social movements in New Mexico, race and state violence, and the cultural politics oI expert
knowledge in New Mexico Iorest management.
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Dr. 1ennifer Denetdale
This past school year was a very busy one Ior me! In addition to teaching two
graduate seminars and two undergraduate courses, I co-organized the UNM
Women Studies Iilm screening oI Hearing Radmilla, which was Iollowed by a
panel discussion by Radmilla Cody, Angela Webb, and Sarah Deer. It was a
pleasure to bring these accomplished women to UNM to learn more about
violence towards Native women. Radmilla is a Dine/AIrican-American
perIormance artist and Angela (AIrican-American) is the director oI Hearing
Radmilla. Law ProIessor Sarah Deer presented a lecture on the signiIicance oI the
Violence Against Women Act, which President Obama signed into law in 2012.
In addition to co-organizing this wonderIul event to celebrate Women Studies, I
also provided Ieedback to the Maxwell Museum as they hosted an event that
honored Navajo weavers. If I wasnt busy enough assisting with these two
wonderIul events, I also worked with Dr. David Correia and Dr. Alyosha Goldstein to make the John
Redhouse symposium a reality. Held in April 2013, the symposium brought together Native and Navajo
environmental activists with other activists who are also interested in social justice to celebrate and honor
John Redhouse. Redhouse is a long-time Dine activist who sought to end racism and discrimination against
Navajos and Native peoples in the early 1970s. Today he carries on his activism through his research and
writing.

In addition to hosting these landmark events, which bring attention to American Studies as a place to do
Native/Indigenous Studies, I have three essays that have been accepted Ior publication in anthologies and I
am in the process of revising them. Its going to be a busy summer! My essay, Return to the Uprising at
BeautiIul Mountain, 1913: The Navajo Nation, Marriage, Sexuality, and the Politics of Tradition, has been
submitted to Critical Native/Indigenous Gender, Queer, and Feminist Studies, an anthology on indigenous
Ieminisms, edited by Joanne Barker. My essay, Im not Running on My Gender: The 2010 Navajo Nation
Presidential Election, Gender, and the Politic of Tradition will be published in the anthology Formations of
United States Colonialism, (Duke University Press), edited by Alyosha Goldstein. My essay, The Value oI
Oral History on the Path to Din Sovereignty, will be published in a volume devoted to Din/Navajo
philosophy, edited by Lloyd Lee. Another essay, Naal Tsoos Sani: The Navajo Treaty oI 1868, Nation-
building, and SelI-Determination, will be published in an anthology on American Indian Treaties, which is
intended to accompany the exhibit on American Indian Treaties at the National Museum oI the American
Indian, Washington, D.C. In addition to making revisions to accepted essays, I am currently conducting
research Ior a book chapter. I am compiling sources to write a book chapter on the photographs oI Milton
Snow. Snow worked Ior the Navajo Service during the livestock reduction era and into the 1950s. He took
Iascinating portraits oI Navajo liIe.

My participation in co-organizing UNM campus events and writing on critical Indigenous topics was
complemented by several presentations and keynotes I delivered during the 2012-2013 school year. In Iall oI
2012, I was invited to share my work on Navajo education and decolonization at Dickinson College in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania. I also delivered the keynote address at the Association Ior Women Psychologists
conIerence in Salt Lake City, Utah in March 2013. In June, I delivered a keynote beIore the Navajo Nation
Bar Association in FlagstaII, Arizona. I am presently serving as a consultant Ior the National Museum oI the
American Indian and Ior New Mexico State Cultural AIIairs.
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Dr. Alyosha Goldstein
I have been a member oI the American Studies department at the University oI
New Mexico since 2004, receiving tenure in 2011. I am actively engaged in
the departments concentration areas of Transnationalism, Globalization, and
Colonialism; Critical Race and Class Studies; and Comparative Cultural
Studies. This past year I was invited to give the Iollowing talks:

What is Now the United States: Settler Colonialism, Sovereignty, and
Human Rights, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud
Center Ior American Studies and Research (CASAR), American
University oI Beirut, Lebanon, April 2013.

Economies of Jurisdiction in the Colonial Present, Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race,
Columbia University, New York, February 2013.

The Horizon of Incrimination: Poverty, Liberalism, and Colonial Difference, Center Ior Place,
Culture and Politics, The Graduate Center, City University oI New York, February 2013.

The Horizon of Incrimination: Poverty, Liberalism, and Colonial Difference, Department of
Sociology and Anthropology Lecture Series, University oI Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico,
November 2012.

Colonialism, Debt, Disposability, American Studies Association Annual Meeting, San Juan, Puerto
Rico, November 2012.

Poverty, Neoliberal Governance, and the Crisis This Time, Cultural Studies Colloquium Series,
University oI CaliIornia, Davis. October 2012.

The Duration of Inequality: Limits, Liability, and Juridical Proximity, Territories of Povertv. A New
Agenda of Povertv Scholarship conIerence, University oI CaliIornia, Berkeley. Organizers: Ananya
Roy and Emma Shaw Crane, September 2012.

This year I taught AMST 285 American Life and Thought; AMST 510 Colonialism and Decolonization;
and AMST 600 Research Methods. I directed or co-directed the committees oI three PhD students who
successIully deIended their dissertations in 2012 2013 (Carson Metzger, Amy Sue Goodin, and JenniIer
Richter). I also chair the committee Ior one MA student and co-chair the dissertation committees oI Iour PhD
students who are continuing in our program.

Dr. A. Gabriel Melndez
Starting in August you will Iind me in my new oIIice, Room 432, Humanities. By
then I will have completed the second oI a two-year term as Interim Chair oI
American Studies and will have more time to give to students. Please Ieel Iree to stop
and visit. As I reach the end oI my tenth year as chair and the eighteenth year as a
Iaculty member in American Studies, I continue to be engaged in major categories oI
Iaculty work beyond administration. In addition to my research and scholarship, I
also co-author a childrens book entitled, The Legend of Ponciano Gutierre: and the
Mountain Thieves, which was published in May by UNM Press. My essay Growing
Up: Book Culture in the Land of Scarcity and Want, offers reflections on what it
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8
was like to grow up in rural New Mexico with limited access to books. This piece has been accepted Ior
publication in With a Book in Their Hands. Chicano/a Readers and Readerships Across the Centuries, edited
by Manuel M. Martin-Rodriguez oI the University oI CaliIornia at Merced [Im sure some of you will catch
the play here on the famous Paredes book title With His Pistol in His Hand]. I delivered the paper, Cybra-
Braceros, Coyotexs and La Raza on the Moon: Prophetic Allegories of Manifest Destiny in Riveras Sleep
Dealer and Sanchez-Pitas Lunar Braceros, at the annual meeting oI the American Studies Association
(ASA) in San Juan, Puerto Rico in November.

Last summer I was Iortunate to spend several weeks in Europe, splitting my time between Spain and Ireland.
In May, I delivered a version oI my ASA paper at the 8
th
International ConIerence on Chicano Literature in
Toledo, Spain. Following the Toledo conIerence, I was invited to give a scholarly talk at the Cultural
Institute for the province of Len titled, Rutas en cuerpo y alma: la religiosidad popular al norte y al sur de
la frontera entre Mxico y Estados Unidos, [Rutas en cuerpo y alma: Popular Religiosity North and South of
the U.S.-Mexico Border| Instituto Leones de Cultura, Leon, Spain (May 29, 2012). In the Iinal days oI my
trip, I managed to complete Iinal editing Ior Hidden Chicano Cinema. Film Dramas in the Borderlands, my
Iorthcoming book, which will be published by Rutgers University Press and will be available in the summer
oI 2013 (see Featured Faculty Publications). AIter a Iew days enjoying the people and sights in Ireland, I
returned to New Mexico in time to do a book signing and presentation oI Santa Fe Nativa, (University oI
New Mexico Press, 2010) for Middlebury Colleges New Mexico Summer Program at St. Johns College in
Santa Fe. During the fall semester, as part of my involvement in UNMs Southwest Hispanic Research
Institute (SHRI), I was invited to be the faculty commentator for Professor Auturo Madrids book, In the
Land of Emptv Crosses. The Storv of a Hispano Protestant Familv in Catholic New Mexico (Trinity
University Press, 2012) in Zimmerman Library. In November, I did a book signing and talk Ior my book The
Writings of Eusebio Chacon, (University oI New Mexico Press, 2012). As a part oI the SHRI book-lecture
series this presentation at the UNM Bookstore Ieatured critical contextualization oI this work by SHRI
Associate and Spanish and Portuguese Iaculty member, Anna Nogar, whose insights and comments I very
much appreciate.

In the spring, I helped bring together the international symposium, Latino Popular Religious Traditions:
New Mexico in a Transnational Context, which took place in Albuquerque and Santa Fe on March 1-2,
2013. This was the Iirst symposium oI this kind at UNM, and the organizing committee included UNM
colleagues and museum proIessionals (see entry on p. 13).

In the fall, I offered the newly designed seminar AMST 510 Race, Culture & Cinema and in the spring,
developed and co-taught (with Michael Trujillo) AMST 560 Critical Discourses: Local/Global Case Studies
in the U.S. Mexico Borderlands. Two PhD students under my direction completed their degrees this year.
Kara McCormack is headed to StanIord University as a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Iall oI 2013 (see related
story) and Mara Mungua Wellman is continuing in her work as a Clinical Counselor at UNMs Childrens
Psychiatric Center. David Holtkamp completed his MA thesis (see list oI graduates) under my direction and
continues to work at Pecos National Monument Ior the U.S. Park Service. I was also happy to be a
committee member Ior Iour other MA students who graduated in May.

I continue to serve as an advisory board member Ior the Mellon Fellowship Committee, which just received
word oI the renewal oI the UNM Iellowship program. I also serve as an editorial board member Ior the
A:tlan. Journal of Chicano Studies at the University oI CaliIornia, Los Angeles; and continue my work as
general editor oI the Paso Por Aqui Series on New Mexican Hispanic Letters, as an advisory editor Ior the
University of Northern Colorados Confluencia journal, and am a member oI the University Press Committee
on campus. In the fall of 2014 I will again offer my seminar AMST 510 Race, Culture & Cinema and will
return to teaching AMST 363/563 Chicano-Latino Film, one of my favorite classes.
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Dr. Rebecca Schreiber
This Iall I gave a number oI talks that draw Irom research on my book
manuscript Migrant Lives and the Promise of Documentation. The Iirst
presentation I gave was at the Latino Midwest Symposium, which was
sponsored by the Obermann Center Ior Advanced Studies at the University oI
Iowa. This symposium, which was organized by Claire Fox, Santiago Vaquera-
Vasquez, and Omar Valerio-Jimenez was held Irom October 11-13, 2012, and
brought together scholars, writers, and artists. My paper, Reconfiguring
Documentation: Immigration, Activism and Practices of Visibility, will be
published in The Latino Midwest Reader, a collection edited by the organizers oI
the symposium. This summer I will be taking part in the Obermann Center
research seminar, Teaching the Latino Midwest, which will convene twelve
scholars whose work is included in the edited volume.

In early November I presented Visible Frictions: Documentary and Self Representation in the U.S. -Mexico
Borderlands, which is the third chapter of my book, at the Newberry Library in Chicago as part of their
Seminar on Borderlands Studies. The seminar, which is led by Geraldo Cadava, Northwestern University;
Benjamin Johnson, University oI Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and Jason Ruiz, University oI Notre Dame, oIIers
an opportunity Ior scholars to circulate works in progress related to the Iields oI Borderlands and Latino
studies. Seminar participants include graduate students and Iaculty from Indiana Universitys Latino Studies
Program, Northwestern Universitys Program in Latina and Latino Studies, The University of Wisconsin-
Milwaukees History Department, The Institute Ior Latino Studies at the University oI Notre Dame, the
Center Ior Latino Research at DePaul University, and the Katz
Center Ior Mexican Studies at the University oI Chicago.

In November, Irene Vasquez and I also organized a symposium
Everyday Practices of Popular Power: Art, Media and
Immigration, which was sponsored by the American Studies
Department, Chicana/o Studies Program, SHRI, the Division oI
Student AIIairs, the Division Ior Equity & Inclusion, El Centro de
la Raza, and the American Studies Graduate Students Association
(ASGSA). American Studies graduate students RaIael Martinez
and George Luna-Pea were part oI the organizing committee Ior
the symposium, which brought together scholars, educators, community members, artivists and activists to
discuss recent works by artists and media makers that address immigration issues. My talk, The Politics oI
Visibility: DREAM Activists, Digital Media and Migrant Mobilization, was part of a panel titled Networks
and Collectivities, which included RaIael Martinez, Viridiana Martinez and Allen Wernick. Other American
Studies graduate students who presented papers at the symposium included Raquel Madrigal, Gina Diaz, and
George Luna-Pea. George also designed the website Ior the Symposium that includes the schedule oI
events: http://www.artmediaimmigration.com/.

In the spring I submitted Visible Frictions: Documentary and Self Representation in the U.S. -Mexico
Borderlands Ior inclusion in an edited book collection, US/Mexico Border Spaces. Arts, Built Environments,
and Landscapes, edited by Katherine Morrissey and John-Michael Warner, (University oI Arizona Press,
forthcoming).
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Dr. Michael Trujillo
I am an associate proIessor at the University oI New Mexico where I hold
a joint appointment in the Department oI American Studies and the
Chicano/Hispano/Mexicano Studies Program. I earned a doctorate (2005)
and masters degree (1998) in Anthropology at the University of Texas,
Austin. My teaching and research areas include ethnography, critical
regionalism/globalization, Chicana/o Studies, and the US-Mexico
borderlands.

This past year, I published New Mexico in Oxford Bibliographies in
Latino Studies, edited by Ilan Stavans (New York: OxIord University
Press). I presented a paper entitled, Dialectical Americas: Compelling
Symmetries in Trans-American Studies at the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting in Los
Angeles, CA. I co-taught Borderlands Critical Regionalism, a seminar which I co-designed with ProIessor
A. Gabriel Melendez. I directed the committees oI one PhD student (Whitney Purvis Rakich) and one MA
student (Kirsten Lustgarten) who deIended their respective dissertation and thesis manuscripts with
distinction. Finally, I was awarded tenure in American Studies and was promoted to the rank oI Associate
ProIessor in May, 2013.

Dr. Irene Vasquez
I was hired as Director oI the Chicano/Hispano/Mexicano Studies (CHMS)
Program at the University oI New Mexico in the Iall oI 2011. I hold a joint-
appointment with CHMS and American Studies, my tenure home department. In
May, I was inIormed that my co-authored manuscript, The Chicana and
Chicano Movement Ideology and Culture, 1966-1977 was approved for
publication by UNM Press. I am also the co-author oI Mentoring as a Labor of
Mutual Love and Support: Enhancing Student and Faculty Academic Success,
that appeared in the 2011 Mentoring ConIerence Proceedings produced by the
Mentoring Institute on campus. I recently authored grant proposals Ior the UNM
Teaching Allocations Committee, and Ior the Albuquerque Community Foundation, which was selected as a
sole source grant Ior UNM, and in September, I was an invited speaker Ior the Latina/o Brown Bag Series at
UNMs El Centro de la Raza.

At present, I am redesigning the curriculum Ior CHMS, which oIIered a new course, CHMS 332 Chicana
Studies this year. I work in a number of advising and mentoring roles for CHMS undergraduates and
continue to co-chair two MA thesis committees at CaliIornia State University, Dominguez Hills. In
American Studies I have begun to work with the departments graduate students and have been asked to
serve as a member oI two PhD dissertation committees.

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Dr. Antonio Tiongson
As I reIlect on the past year as a Iirst year Iaculty in American Studies, I cannot help but be Iilled with
gratitude and appreciation Ior the strong working relationships I Iorged with both Iaculty and students. First
and Ioremost, I want to thank my colleagues Ior easing my transition to a new job and to a new place. They
have been accommodating with their time, patiently addressing all my queries and making time out oI their
busy schedules to meet with me. I want to especially thank Sandy Ior helping me Iigure out and navigate the
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;
departmental and university bureaucracy. Her insights have been invaluable and
Im certain I will continue to lean on her in the upcoming years.
It has been a very busy and productive year and I would like to share with you a
Iew oI the highlights.

In the Iall, I redesigned and reconIigured the syllabus Ior the Introduction to
American Popular Culture course both online and oIIline versions in a way
that is more suited to an introductory level course. Selecting a textbook Ior the
course was a challenge given that this is not part oI my pedagogical practice, but,
I came across a text that is appropriate Ior an introductory course on pop culture.
In the spring, I designed a graduate level course entitled Claiming Culture:
Cultural Theory, Authenticity Debates and the Mapping of Cultural Boundaries
that is very much in conversation with my own work Iocused on the kinds oI
claims made in the name of culture what serves as the basis Ior these claims, what is being accomplished
through the deployment oI culture, and the political and theoretical stakes. I also completed my manuscript,
Filipinos Represent. DJs, Racial Authoritv, and the Hip-Hop Nation, slated Ior publication in the Iall 2013
by University oI Minnesota Press.

My most rewarding moment, however, was being nominated by a group oI American Studies graduate
students and Iaculty Ior The Project Ior New Mexico Graduates oI Color (PNMGC) Faculty oI Color Award
in the area oI Mentorship. As a nominee and recipient oI the award, I cannot think oI a better way to cap oII
my Iirst year at UNM. It is truly an honor to have been considered, let alone selected given my investment in
and commitment to graduate students. I have been Iortunate to have had a number oI great mentors who
devoted considerable time and energy to my intellectual development and guided me towards how to become
a proIessional. I have tried to pass on what I learned Irom them to graduate students in the program and in
many ways the award is a validation oI them. I have also been Iortunate to work with an outstanding and
dynamic group oI graduate students who have inspired me in my own teaching and scholarship. In short, it
has been a tremendous Iirst year and I look Iorward to working with both colleagues and students in the
upcoming years.

Dr. Kathleen Holscher
Kathleen Holscher joined the American Studies department in Iall 2012. She also holds the Endowed Chair
oI Roman Catholic Studies in the Religious Studies program at UNM. Her research interests include
American Catholicism, religion in the American West, and church-state history. Her Iirst book, Religious
Lessons. Catholic Sisters and the Captured Schools Crisis in New Mexico, was published by OxIord
University Press in 2012. Religious Lessons Iocuses on Catholic sisters who taught in New Mexico's public
schools and the legal battle over their employment. Holscher is currently working on two projects. The Iirst
deals with changes to rural New Mexican Catholic liIe during the twentieth century. The second explores the
Catholic sympathy with evangelical Protestantism that appeared around legal and cultural issues in the
United States during the 1960s and 70s.

Dr. Shante Paradigm Smalls
I received my PhD in Performance Studies at New York Universitys Tisch School of the Arts in September
2011. My book project, Hip Hop Heresies. New York Citys Queer Interraciality, 1975-2005, uses critical
race theory, hip hop studies, and queer theory to consider how New York City hip hop music, visual art, and
film offers queer articulations oI race, gender, and sexuality.

In Iall 2013, I'll join the American Studies Department as a tenure-track Assistant ProIessor. I'm a Iormer
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Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Assistant ProIessor in the English Department at
Davidson College (NC), and I have also taught courses in PerIormance Studies and Womens and Gender
Studies at New York University and Pace University. Additionally, I've taught classes in queer theory and
studies and critical race theory and AIrican American literature. My interests are in perIormance studies, hip
hop studies, American popular culture, critical race theory, Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, AIro-
Asian culture, queer culture and Ieminism, graphic novels, Shaw Brothers martial arts Iilms and speculative
Iiction and sci-Ii.

I'm working on a subsequent book project titled, Androids, Cvborgs, Others. Black Futurism, Black Fantasv,
which investigates black post-humanism Irom the 19th century to the present.

I received my BA in English and Theatre at Smith College, and my MA in Individualized Studies at New
York University.













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Properties of Violence: Law and Land Grant Struggle in
Northern New Mexico
David Correia
University of Georgia Press, March 2013

David Correias book is part of a series at UGA press called, The
Geographies oI Justice and Social TransIormation. Properties of Jiolence
examines colonial property struggles in northern New Mexico and situates
those struggles in regards to how law and property are constituted through
violence and social struggle. According to reviewer UC Berkeley
Geographer Jake Kosek, it is a smart, original, and vibrant retelling oI the
history oI land struggle in northern New Mexico. David Correia, through
rigorous archival and ethnographic research, raises compelling questions
about the complicated relationships between colonialism, violence, and
property that have broad and deep implications Ior land struggles around the
world. Moreover, it is a reIreshingly well-written book, nimbly walking the diIIicult terrain between
meticulous scholarship and well-craIted prose that makes it ideal Ior both the seasoned academic and anyone
interested in a riveting story oI violence, political struggles, and the very meaning oI property.
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A. Gabriel Melndez
UNM Press, 1une 2013, and Rutgers University Press, August 2013

In this book, a part oI the Paso Por Aqui Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary
Heritage, the story of Ponciano Gutierrez run in with Vicente Silva is told as a
bedtime story Ior children. Ponciano Gutierrez woke up on his Iarm in the Mora
Valley oI northern New Mexico and prepared to make a trip to Santa Fe to get
money and supplies Ior his spring planting. Santa Fe was a long journey
seven days by horse to get there and seven days to return. But Ponciano knew
oI a shortcut through the Pecos Wilderness high in the Sangre de Cristo
Mountains. As he made his way into the mountains, he realized he wasnt
alone. Vicente Silva and his gang oI bandits had been terrorizing the people oI
New Mexico Ior months and Ponciano had stumbled into their mountain
hideout. The gang immediately surrounded the Iarmer and held him captive
while they decided what to do with him.

Gentle and upliIting, The Legend of Ponciano Gutierre: and the Mountain
Thieves oIIers the type oI Iolk story that continues to shape our understanding oI the richly complex cultures
oI northern New Mexico. It is available at bookstores or directly Irom the University oI New Mexico Press.
To order, please call 800-249-7737 or visit www.unmpress.com.

HIDDEN CHICANO CINEMA. Film Dramas in the Borderlands examines how
New Mexico, situated within the boundaries oI the United States, became a stand-
in Ior the exotic non-western world that tourists, artists, scientists, and others
sought to possess at the dawn oI early Iilmmaking, a disposition stretching Irom
the silent era to today as Iilmmakers screen their Iantasies oI what they wished the
Southwest Borderlands to be.

This text highlights film moments in this regions history including the filmic
turn ushered in by Chicano/filmmakers who created new ways to represent their
community and region. Melendez narrates the drama, intrigue, and politics oI
these moments and accounts Ior the speciIic cinematic practices and the
sociocultural detail that explains how the camera itselI brought Iilmmakers and
their subjects to unexpected encounters on and oII the screen. Such Iilms as
Adventures in Kit Carson Land, The Rattlesnake, and Red Skv at Morning, among others, provide examples
oI movies that have both educated and misinformed us about a place that remains a distant locale in the
mind oI most Iilm audiences. To order, please call 848-445-7775 or visit http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu

4*5"6&/*3& )*+,
Synopsis of the American Studies Lecture Series Spring 2013

During the spring semester oI 2013, American Studies at UNM again hosted Iour visiting scholars Ior the
Departments ongoing lecture series. Our guest speakers this spring included UNM American Studies alumnus Dr.
Karen Roybal, who is currently a Visiting Research Scholar in The Center Ior Regional Studies and Visiting
Assistant ProIessor in the Department oI English at UNM; Dr. Lorena Oropeza, Associate ProIessor oI Social
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Sciences and Humanities at UC-Davis; Dr. Dylan Rodriguez, ProIessor and Chair oI the Department oI Ethnic
Studies at UC Riverside; and Dr. Manu Vimalassery, Assistant ProIessor oI History at Texas Tech University.
American Studies Iaculty members, David Correia, Tony Tiongson, and Alyosha Goldstein, invited these Iour
scholars to UNM, respectively. The lectures this semester were co-sponsored by the ASGSA, and various other
Departments, programs, and institutes at UNM, including English, Chicano/Hispano/Mexicano Studies, Women
Studies, and The Center Ior Regional Studies, among others.

On January 25
th
, Dr. Karen Roybal gave the Iirst talk oI the spring series, entitled
Archives of Dispossession: Uncovering Mexicana Memory through Testimonio at
UNMs Student Union Building (SUB). In her talk, Dr. Roybal challenged nineteenth- and
twentieth-century narratives that privilege the male voice and experience in land grant
history as it relates to the making oI the U.S. Southwest. Using select case studies
developed from court testimonies from the U.S. Surveyor Generals Office (1854-1890),
and Jovita Gonzlez Masters thesis, Life Along the Border (1930), and novel, Caballero.
A Historical Novel (1996), Roybal argued that Mexican American womens literal and
literary testimonios reveal an alternative archive that challenges traditional historical
accounts that elide the importance oI gender in this contested history.


Dr. Lorena Oropeza gave the next talk on February 1
st
, at UNMs SUB entitled,
Anti-Colonial and Undercover: The Hidden History oI Reies Lopez Tijerina's Early
Years of Land Grant Activism. In her talk, Dr. Oropeza presented material from her
Iorthcoming book in which she examined the history oI the Alian:a Federal de
Mercedes and its controversial leader, who during the 1960s brought national media
attention to the matter oI land-grant injustice. Her talk considered the years just prior
and just aIter the Alianza's Iounding in 1963. During those years, Reies Tijerina
developed an anti-colonial critique oI the United States, while at the same time
building an organization that rested upon the hyper-exploitation and even abuse oI
the women in his Iamily.

On February 27
th
, Dr. Dylan Rodriguez delivered his talk, "Inhabiting the Impasse: Racial
Genocide and the Logic of Evisceration, at the SUB. In his lecture, Dr. Rodriguez
critically interrogated the ways in which the historical logics oI racial genocide permeate
our most Iamiliar systems oI state violence, cultural production, institutionalized
knowledge, liberation struggle, and social identity. He considered some oI the approaches
by which ordinary people (including scholars) inhabit racial genocide in other words, how
they make sense oI it, narrate it, suIIer it, and revolt against it. ProIessor Rodrguezs talk
touched on his most recent and current thinking, which examines how the genocidal and
proto-genocidal logics oI social liquidation, cultural extermination, physiological
evisceration, and racist terror become normalized Ieatures oI everyday liIe in diIIerent
historical periods, up to and including the post-civil rights and post-racial moments.

The Iinal talk oI the spring series, entitled The Prose of Counter-Sovereignty, was given
by Dr. Manu Vimalassery on March 27
th
at the SUB. Dr.Vimalasserys talk examined the
Ileeting archival appearances oI interactions between Paiute communities and Chinese
migrants in the Great Basin and the Sierra Nevada Mountains during the 1860s and 1870s.
He argued that the selI-designated official archives which document interactions between
the two communities seem to appear in the Iorms oI rumor and conjecture, Iorms that are
usually associated with dissident knowledges and interpreted as communicating the
critical perspectives of colonized communities. Dr. Vimalasserys lecture questioned why it
is that the oIIicial archives oI settler colonialism, labor importation, and industrial expansion
take the Iorms oI rumor and conjecture when addressing interactions between Paiutes and
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"5
Chinese migrants, and he argued that this can help tell us about the hegemonic projects such documents, and ways
oI reading, record and attempt to substantiate.

There was good attendance at each of these scholars talks for the spring 2013 lecture series, both by a wide-range
oI cross-disciplinary graduate students and Iaculty representing a variety oI diIIerent Iields here at UNM and by
visitors Irom the larger Albuquerque community. The Department oI American Studies looks Iorward to its next
guest lecture series during the 2013-2014 academic year, as well. As always, all members oI the UNM community
are encouraged to attend. Many thanks to the excellent scholars who took part in our Departments lecture series
this year, and thanks to everyone who was able to attend these superb talks!

Latino Popular Religious Traditions Symposium New Mexico in a
Transnational Context

American Studies, in partnership with Religious Studies, the
Interdisciplinary Film & Digital Media Program, Spanish &
Portuguese, the Center Ior Regional Studies, the Latin American and
Iberian Institute, and the Museum oI Spanish Colonial Art, hosted the
Iirst transnational UNM conIerence titled Latino Popular Religious
Traditions: New Mexico in a Transnational Context in March of this
year. The two-day conIerence included the presentation oI papers by
international scholars, keynote roundtables and the display oI three
major photo-exhibits on the topic. The meeting brought together teams
oI international scholars and photographers who have been researching
and documenting popular religious celebrations in diIIerent parts oI the
Ibero-American world. The teams, one based at Arizona State
University, one at the University oI Juarez Ior the State oI Durango,
Mexico, and one at the University oI Valladolid, Spain, provided
multi-disciplinary arts documentation oI public religious celebrations
in Latino communities with the aim oI seeking to understand how the
community-based religious ceremonies embody local, regional, and
transnational aIIinities.

The symposium provided the occasion to present the Iollowing photo-exhibitions as a trio Ior the Iirst time in
Albuquerque:

The Flowering Cross documents expressions oI baroque ritual in the village oI San Pedro de Andahuaylillas
some twenty-Iive miles Irom Cuzco, Peru. It consists oI photographs by Robert Lisak and texts by Dr. Jaime
Lara Irom their co-authored book by the same title. Penilunio de Primavera (The First Full Moon of Spring)
includes photos by the acclaimed photographers Carlos Gonzalez Ximenez, Luis LaIorga, Pedro J. Muoz
Rojo, Chema Concellon, Jose Alonso Martin, Fernando Frandejas de Castro, Teresa Castilviejo, Eduardo
Margareto, Jose Angel Gallego, Jesus Urbal Martin, Felix Marban Junquera and Juan Carlos Uruea Paredes.
The photo-exhibit documents the rich cultural, artistic and touristic legacy oI processions in rural and urban
areas oI north central Spain. Rutas en Cuerpo v Alma (Routes in Bodv and Soul), a series oI photographs by
Miguel Gandert, illuminates a number oI rituals rooted in the colonial legacy oI what today is northern
Mexico and New Mexico. The photos provide documentation oI several years oI research undertaken with
his University oI New Mexico Iaculty colleagues A. Gabriel Melendez, Enrique Lamadrid, and Anna Nogar.

A special Ieature came on the second day when the sessions moved to the Museum oI Spanish Colonial Art
(MSCA) on Museum Hill in Santa Fe. The Santa Fe sessions drew a diverse audience oI academics, curators,
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"6
graduate and undergraduate students, museum patrons and community residents. Robin Farwell Gavin, ChieI
Curator and a member of the organizing committee noted, MSCA was delighted to be able to take part in
the symposium. Not only did we hear some excellent and inIormative presentations, but also the gathering
was intimate enough to be able to converse with the speakers and carry the themes Irom the presentations
Iorward. The videos, copies oI which were leIt Ior our use, were an unexpected addition to our small exhibit
on Semana Santa, and broadened the context Ior the artwork. On the whole, it was a wonderIul collaboration,
and I hope that we continue to work together in the future.

1udit Kdr: American Studies Fulbright Scholar in Residence

In the Iall American Studies hosted Dr. Judit Kadar oI the American Studies program at Eszterhazy College
in Eger, Hungary during a Iive-month residency on the UNM campus as a Fulbright Fellow. ProIessor
Kadars research investigates the notion of symbolic ethnicity and constructed identities in literature and
other Iorms oI expressive culture. While here, she was able to meet with a number oI colleagues in American
Studies, visited a number oI graduate seminars and oIIered the AMST 310 course, Going Indian/Native?
Cultural ManiIestations oI In-Betweenness, a true giIt to the students who took advantage oI this rare
opportunity to understand American Studies topics through the transnational lens Dr. Kadar brings to her
teaching.

Our campus was also the beneficiary of the timely release of Professor Kdrs recently published book,
Going Indian. Cultural Appropriation in Recent North American Literature, (University oI Valencia, 2012)
which she shared with the campus community at a presentation and book-signing event at the UNM
bookstore in December. She was also invited to present a lecture on the image oI Hungary abroad Ior the
members oI the New Mexico Fulbright Chapter and the Albuquerque Hungarian Club at Zimmerman Library
(pictured below).

In the course oI her residency, ProIessor Kadar set a new
direction Ior her second book. While related to the
earlier research, the new project is drawn, as she
remarks, from the wonderful resources held by UNM
libraries. The new book will make use of contemporary
texts in Southwest literature and visual images (as Iound
in contemporary collections and in pictorial archives).
Through her study oI these materials she will seek to
reveal the nature oI social negotiation and mixed blood
identity in our region. She explains, My new topic
involves mixed blood narratives and selI-portraits,
identity negotiation and hybridity in contemporary
Southwest fiction and fine arts.

Media coverage oI ProIessor Kdrs activities while on campus appeared in the Albuquerque Journal (20
Nov), UNM Todav (15 Oct), the UNM Lobo website and the EKF website.

Queer Studies in American Studies at UNM

2012-2013 has been a busy year Ior those in the department engaged in queer studies. As the Iield oI queer
studies continues to grow both nationally and internationally, our department has managed to Ioster an
impressive cohort oI Iaculty and graduate students whose work explores the connections between racialized
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"7
gender, sexuality, citizenship, colonialism, and Empire. This year, the department produced and participated
in several events that are especially exciting:

1. The postcolonial queer studies reading group. Born out oI a course taught by Dr. Brandzel in
spring 2010 by the same title, the Postcolonial Queer Studies Reading Group has continued to
meet and discuss cutting-edge research. The group consists oI graduate students and proIessors Irom
American Studies, English, Communication and Journalism, Women Studies, and History. Since its
inception, the group has read literature spanning Queer Native Studies, Queer Diaspora Studies,
Queer Migration, Queer oI Color Critique and Critical Ethnic Studies. The group is dedicated to
providing the time and space Ior a diverse collective oI scholars to come together to engage with
research that Iocuses on the intersections and mutually constituting logics oI settler colonialism,
heteronormativity, racism, nationalisms, globalization, and non-normative sexual and gender
identities, collectivities, histories, politics, and representations. The group is open to anyone
interested in learning more about postcolonial queer studies. II you are interested in participating in
the group you can contact Amy Brandzel at brandzelunm.edu or Rachel
Levitt at relevittunm.edu Ior more inIormation.

2. Homonationalism and Pinkwashing. Sponsored by the Center Ior
Lesbian and Gay Studies, the Homonationalism and Pinkwashing
Conference saw University of New Mexicos American Studies
Department well represented. This small, yet highly competitive
international conIerence sought to bring together scholars and activists
working against the inclusion oI gay and lesbian subjects in systems and
structures oI oppression and occupation. The Iaculty and graduate students
Irom UNM made outstanding contributions to the ongoing conversations
about how queer studies can understand power and work towards
decolonization. Work presented included:

Sam Markwell, Pink and Greenwashing: the Settler Colonial Bio-Politics oI Scrubbing Israel and
the United States
Benjamin Abbott, Radical Queer Struggle, Appropriation and the Imperial Academy: Building a
Responsible Movement against Homonationalism
Rachel Levitt, Homonationalism in the Context of Colonialism: the Lawrence King Trial and the
Settler State
Karma Chvez and Amy Brandzel, Assimilation and Anti-Intersectionality: A Consideration oI the
Processes and Premises of Homonationalism
Liza Minno Bloom, An Affront to Our Shared Humanity: Homonationalism in the Tribal Law and
Order Act of 2010
Jessica Harkins, Same-Sex Marriage in the Cherokee Nation: Homonationalism through a Lens oI
Settler Colonialism

Participation in this conIerence provided an opportunity to build international
connections with scholars and programs that are similarly interested in
research oriented toward social justice. In the coming years, the Iriendships
made will continue to Ioster important conversations that engage the question
oI what it means to do American Studies in a transnational context.

3. Queer Studies ACS Lectures. In both the spring and Iall UNM hosted
lectures by top queer studies scholars, Sandra Soto and Chandan Reddy whose
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books appear on the departments American Cultural Studies (ACS) reading list. Dr. Soto discussed
her book, Reading Chican Like a Queer. The De-Masterv of Desire, (University oI Texas Press,
2010) and drew attention to what a queer critique oI the Arizona ethnic studies ban could oIIer.

Similarly, Dr. Reddy expanded on his discussion oI the importance oI sexuality
and racial violence in the making and unmaking oI modern U.S. society Iound in
his recent book, Freedom with Jiolence. Race, Sexualitv and the U.S. State, (Duke
University Press, 2011).

This is a very exciting time in our department to have so many students and Iaculty
involved in challenging themselves and each other to engage in work that
meaningIully inquires as to how best to understand and combat injustice.




The American Studies Department Senior
Thesis Symposium
On Monday April 22, 2013, the American Studies Senior
Thesis Symposium was held in the Isleta Room at UNMs
Student Union Building. The students presenting papers at the
symposium included: Darcy Brazen, Position, Representation
and State-Sponsored Evisceration: Cop Blocking in
Albuquerque; Kelsy Dotson, Post-9/11 Responses oI the
Racialized Sikh; Rachael Maestas, Trigger Warning: Using
Rape Jokes to Dismantle Rape Culture; Benjamin Martinez, Santa Fe: Identity, Activism and
Gentrification; Arik Ozden, Drug-Related Moral Panics; Isaac Peifer, The Following Contains Wild and
Crazy Behavior: Redneck Identity in Reality Television; and, Jade Rudy, Finding Mexican-American
Identity through Educational Justice. The Department of American Studies would like to commend these
seniors Ior participating in this years symposium, and wishes to heartily congratulate all our new AMST
graduates. Well done!


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David Correia Awarded the 2012 Arts & Sciences Award for
Teaching Excellence
Each department in the college oI Arts & Sciences nominated one member oI their
department Ior consideration. Faculty nominees were evaluated on the basis oI the
breadth and quality oI their instructional contributions. PreIerence was given to those
who have demonstrated instructional excellence at both the undergraduate and
graduate levels, through both classroom instruction and supervision oI student
research, who have integrated their research and scholarship into their teaching, and
who developed particularly thoughtIul teaching portIolios. The committee noted in its
award that ProIessor Correia stood out Irom the rest oI the nominees based on the quality oI his teaching
portIolio, which will soon be posted as an example Ior new A&S Iaculty. His portIolio included a reIlection
on how he teaches, why he gives particular assignments, and ample positive Ieedback.

Clare Daniel & Gbenga Olorunsiwa Win the 2012-2013 Susan Deese-Roberts
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards
This is what Chaouki Abdallah, Provost and Executive Vice President Ior Academic AIIairs has to say in two
letters sent to the American Studies department, announcing Gbenga Frederick Olorunsiwa and Clare Daniel
as winners oI 2012-2013 Susan Deese-Roberts Outstanding Teaching Assistant of the Year Awards: I am
delighted to inIorm you that you have been selected to receive one oI Iive 2012-2013 Susan Deese-Roberts
Outstanding Teaching Assistant oI the Year Awards. This award carries with it high honor and serves as
recognition oI your valuable contributions as a classroom instructor and leader at the University oI New
Mexico. You are commended Ior your accomplishment. Students and colleagues provided strong evidence
that you have made a signiIicant positive impact on student learning. Your commitment to the enhancement
oI teaching and learning has led to direct student beneIit. The pool oI applicants was very strong this year;
you were clearly an outstanding applicant within that pool.

Congratulations once again to Clare and Gbenga on winning
these awards; their dedication to their students as teaching
assistants and all their academic achievements.



Clare Daniel, Gbenga Olorunsiwa and Department Chair A.
Gabriel Melende: at Susan Deese-Roberts Outstanding
Teaching Assistant Awards Ceremonv
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Rachel Levitt Wins the 2013 OGS Graduate Student Mentor Award
In April 2013, Rachel Levitt, a PhD candidate in American Studies, was recognized with a much-deserved
university-wide award Irom the OIIice oI Graduate Studies Ior her hard work and dedication to providing
exceptional mentorship to her Iellow graduate students. Rachel was nominated by the American Studies and
Women Studies departments, individual Iaculty members, and her graduate student peers Ior this award.
Those nominating Rachel agreed that her work as a mentor, both Iormally through her work with the
Teaching Assistant Resource Center, as a Justice on the Graduate and ProIessional Student Association
Court, Chair oI the Graduate and Professional Student Associations Equity and Inclusion committee, and as
the co-chair oI the American Studies Graduate Student Association, as well as her inIormal mentoring were a
testament to peer mentorship. On behalI oI the American Studies and Women Studies Iaculty and on behalI
oI the numerous graduate students that have beneIited first hand from Rachels collegiality and drive for
accountable practices, we would like to extend heart-Ielt congratulations Ior this recognition!

Andrew Marcum receives the 2013 Russell 1. and Dorothy S. Bilinski
Educational Foundation Fellowship
Andrew Marcum is a PhD candidate in American. This highly competitive
Iellowship provides dissertation Iunding Ior doctoral students who demonstrate
high academic achievement, good moral character, and Iinancial need.
Andrews dissertation examines the inIluence oI the disability rights
movement on the presentation oI disability at several popular sites Ior the
consumption oI public history in the U.S., including exhibitions related to the
history oI disability at the Smithsonian and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Memorial in Washington, D.C. The study analyzes state-sponsored renderings
oI disability in U.S. history along-side historical narratives oI disability oIIered
by disability rights activists and disabled artists and scholars. Andrew designs
and teaches American Studies courses in UNMs Research Service-Learning
Program. Congratulations on this prestigious award!

Dina Barajas receives the 2013 Ida Romero Memorial Scholarship
Dina Barajas is a PhD student in American Studies. This scholarship is
oIIered to students who demonstrate academic and proIessional
achievement, a commitment toward their community, perseverance in
overcoming obstacles, and Iinancial need. Her research encompasses the
departments Critical Southwest Studies and Critical Indigenous Studies
concentrations and explores the ways in which mestiza women oI the
Southwest negotiate their identities through personal, political, and
cultural expressions. Congratulations on this well-deserved award!


Dina Barafas and facultv advisor Dr. Irene Jasque: at the RGSA Ida Romero Scholarship Awards Ceremonv

Tony Tiongson Wins the 2013 PNMGC Faculty of Color Mentor Award
In his Iirst year as a Iaculty member in American Studies at UNM, ProIessor Tiongson was distinguished
with being awarded the PNMGC Faculty oI Color Award Ior his selIless acts oI mentoring. He was
nominated by a number oI American Studies graduate students and Iaculty, and the Department is delighted
that he was recognized as the outstanding Faculty oI Color nominee. ProIessor Tiongson is well deserving oI
this award. Congratulations!
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Sandy Rodrigue Wins the 2012 Gerald W. May Staff
Recognition Award
Among the most deserving awards granted this year was that received by
our exceptional and outstanding Department Administrator, Sandy
Rodrigue. In December, 2012, Sandy was one oI Iive recipients oI the
Gerald W. May StaII Recognition Award given by the OIIice oI the
President. This is the most prestigious award a staII member can receive
Irom the University. Sandy has been with the Department since January,
2005. She was both surprised and humbled to learn that she received a record seven nominations Irom
American Studies Iaculty and graduate students as well as aIIiliated Iaculty Irom Women Studies, a separate
program with whom Sandy works very closely. Nominees were screened by the StaII Council Rewards and
Recognition Committee based on the Iollowing criteria:

Exceptional service to the UNM community
Positive, eIIective representation oI UNM
Demonstration oI initiative and innovative perIormance oI job duties
Involvement, dedication and exemplary commitment as a UNM staII member
Additional contributions such as those in the areas oI customer relations, community service,
proIessional development, teamwork, reliability, loyalty, selI-motivation, communicative skills, etcF

A list oI seven Iinalists was sent to UNM President Robert Frank, and he made the decision on the Iive
recipients. Recipients were given a monetary award and plaque. From all oI us in the Department oI
American Studies, who are well-aware oI the incredible and tireless eIIort Sandy puts into her work here, and
Ior all oI the help, insight and advice she provides to graduate students, Iaculty, and visitors alike, we would
like to oIIer our utmost thanks and congratulations on her most-worthy recognition!

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Letter from Director of Graduate Studies, Rebecca Schreiber
This year the American Studies Department held numerous Teaching and
ProIessionalization Workshops Ior graduate students. In October, JenniIer
Denetdale and Alyosha Goldstein ran a workshop in which they discussed the
process oI getting research published in the Iorm oI journal articles and books.
In November, Irene Vasquez and Amy Brandzel supervised a workshop in
which they provided Ieedback Ior students on conIerence papers that they were
presenting in the Iall. In December, I conducted a workshop in which I
instructed students in how to write paper and panel proposals Ior conIerences. In
March, Tony Tiongson and Amy Brandzel ran a pedagogy workshop that aimed
to critically interrogate power dynamics in the classroom. In April, Tony
Tiongson and Alyosha Goldstein led a workshop that Iocused on writing cover
letters Ior job and postdoc applications.


Alvosha Goldstein co-leading the Job and Postdoc Applications
Workshop on April 12, 2013

The Open House Ior prospective graduate students, which was held on March 22, 2013, was a success. My thanks
go to George Luna-Pea, Miles Cleaver and members oI ASGSA Ior helping with the event, as well as OGS Ior
the $2000 grant that enabled us to bring prospective graduate students to campus. I would like to acknowledge the
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graduate students who hosted prospective graduate students, including Andrew Marcum and Dina Barajas. My
appreciation also goes to Charlene Porsild, Elly Van Mil, and Suzanne Schadl who participated on a panel about
Iunding and research opportunities at UNM.

I would like to congratulate all oI our graduate students who completed the MA or PhD program during the 2012-
2013 academic year: Amy Sue Goodin; Kirsten Lustgarten; JenniIer Richter; Aurore Diehl; Carson Metzger;
Laura EliII; David Holtkamp; Lara Hayner; Kara McCormack; Whitney Purvis Rakich; Maria Munguia Wellman;
Raquel Madrigal and William McClary.

Some oI our current graduate students won awards, grants and Iellowships this year as well. Congratulations to
Gbenga Olorunsiwa and Claire Daniel who both received the Susan Deese-Roberts Outstanding Teaching
Assistant oI the Year Award! This award is granted by the OIIice oI Support Ior EIIective Teaching (OSET) each
year. Clare Daniel is a recipient oI the Graduate Dean's Dissertation Scholarship, as well. Congrats also go to
Rachel Levitt who won one oI the OGS @%+1"+0$ Student Mentor Awards! In addition, George Luna-Pea
received a Tinker Grant Irom the Latin American Iberian Institute (LAII) to conduct research in Tijuana, Mexico
this summer.

2012-2013 Graduating Students



:),1)3 )* +"-B)7)E"F

Amy Sue Goodin (Spring)
Sovereign Conflicts and Divided Loyalties: Native American
Survivance in the Era oI Nuclear Modernity A Story oI the
Western Shoshone and their Response to the Yucca Mountain
High-level Radioactive Waste Repository

Kara McCormack (Spring)
Graduating with distinction
Imagining the Town too Tough to Die: Tourism, Preservation,
and History in Tombstone, Arizona

Carson Metzger (Spring)
Microbes, Individuals, and Medical Charity: The Remaking of
Tuberculosis and Liberal Individualism

Mara Mungua Wellman (Fall)
The Borderpsychosocial Development Project: Is There a
SpeciIic Psychosocial Consciousness that Frames Development
for Border Women?

Whitney Purvis Rakich (Fall)
Graduated with distinction
Savage Fakes: Misdirection, Fraudulence, and Autobiography in
the 1920s

1ennifer Richter (Summer)
New Mexicos Nuclear Enchantment: Science, Environment,
Politics, and Radioactive Waste

5.71#3 )* >317

Aurore Diehl (Spring)
Graduating with distinction
Write of the Valkyries: An Analysis oI Selected LiIe Narratives
of Women in the Heavy Metal Music Subculture

Laura Eliff (Spring)
The Power of Voice: The Indian Arts Research Centers Identity
Shift

Lara Hayner (Spring)

David Holtkamp (Summer)
When is a Convento Kiva?: A Postcolonial-Critical Indigenous
Critique of the Convento Kiva at Pecos National Historical Park

Kirsten Lustgarten (Spring)
Graduating with distinction
Carnales: Transnational AIIiliation in Chicano Vietnam War
Protest

Raquel Madrigal (Fall)

William McClary (Fall)

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American Studies Graduate Student Association (ASGSA)
The American Studies Graduate Student Association (ASGSA) had a Iull year. Thanks to the hard work oI Nick
Estes, Rachel Levitt, Dina Barajas, RaIael Martinez, Natalia Esperanza Torres, and Venancio Francis Aragon
ASGSA was able to oIIer several modest grants to help support students presenting at conIerences and conducting
research. Recipients oI Iunding included: Jordan Johnson who presented his work at the White Privilege
ConIerence, Donatella Davanzo who presented her work at the Crossroads with History ConIerence, George
Luna-Pea who attended the Rocky Mountain Council meeting, Clare Daniel who presented her work at the
National Womens Studies Association conference, Nick Estes who presented his work at the American Indian
Studies Association, and Cynthia Martin to help with her dissertation research.

In addition to Iinancially supporting graduate students, ASGSA was involved in co-sponsoring several talks by
visiting scholars including Violence, Intimacy, and The Racial State: Mapping Queer of Color Critique by
Chandan Reddy. Dr. Reddys visit presented a unique opportunity for students doing critical ethnic studies both
within American Studies and Irom across the university to connect and build a community oI scholars.

Within the department, ASGSA worked with Iaculty to increase proIessional support Ior graduate student teaching
assistants, with an emphasis on those who teach online. Additionally, ASGSA helped co-sponsor the departments
First Friday Forums professionalization workshops. Thanks to the labor of several faculty members, these
workshops helped start conversations about how to apply Ior Iunding, dealing with the complexities oI power in
the classroom, job applications, CV construction, and postdoc applications. Thanks to the thoughtIul Ieedback at
both the Iall and spring research symposiums provided by Iaculty, students were better prepared to present their
work at conIerences.









Gina Dia: presenting at the American Studies fall 2012 Presentation
Workshop.

This year we also helped coordinate Iirst year graduate student
community building events. As the departments graduate student association, ASGSA hopes to continue working
with and for American Studies graduate students to increase the quality of students teaching portfolios,
proIessionalization training, and Iunding as well as increase transparency at all levels oI the University. We are
especially looking Iorward to seeing everyone at next years First Friday Forums!

To get involved with ASGSA and network with other American Studies graduate students contact Nick Estes at
wicasatankagmail.com or Rachel Levitt at relevittunm.edu.

>6"=$"&* @&$=*3& )*+,
Kara McCormack received her doctorate degree in American Studies in the spring oI 2013. She has been
awarded a prestigious postdoctoral Iellowship at StanIord University in their Thinking Matters program, which
will begin in August, 2013. Thinking Matters, Stanfords freshmen humanities requirement program, is designed
to help Iirst-year students develop the skills needed to interrogate the world in which we live in innovative ways.
Through an emphasis on critical analysis, active reading, disciplined writing, and eIIective communication,
Thinking Matters teaches students to make connections across many Iields oI study that will inIorm their
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intellectual work and liIe aIter StanIord. Postdoctoral Iellows are recruited Irom a highly competitive national
search and are chosen because oI their Iamiliarity with the problems and topics oI the courses as well as
experience and expertise in working with Ireshmen. Kara has taught a number oI courses throughout her graduate
career at UNM, including Introduction to Popular Culture, Introduction to Southwest Studies, and Urban
Legends.

Most recently, she has been teaching Science Fiction in American
Culture, a course she developed while working on her dissertation
about Tombstone, Arizona, and the implications oI the Mythic West
both domestically and abroad. At StanIord, she will have the
opportunity to apply her knowledge oI popular culture and science
Iiction scholarship. She will be directing seminars Ior two courses
Technological Visions oI Utopia and Media and Message both oI
which emphasize the centrality oI popular culture in our
understandings oI broader society.

@#H /$%141$&' FI'%5$ J).09%*48$+ H0? F$I04') :')K%1'L $%1 @#H 0'/464'%&+ ,$0$ :/B.0($/G

Clare Daniel presented her paper, Eradicating the Girl-Mom: The Rise oI a Multicultural Discourse oI Teen
Pregnancy, at the National Women's Studies Association's annual meeting in Oakland in November, 2012. Her
essay, "Teen Sex, an Equal-Opportunity Menace: Multicultural Politics in 16 and Pregnant," is Iorthcoming in an
edited collection entitled, MTJ and Teenage Pregnancv. Critical Essavs on 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom in
July oI 2013, (Scarecrow Press). Her review oI Laura Briggs' new book Somebodvs Children. The Politics of
Transracial and Transnational Adoption was published by H-Ethnic, H-Net in March oI 2013. She held the
Digitization Fellowship at the Center Ior Southwest Research during the 2012-2013 academic year. She also
received the Susan Deese-Roberts Outstanding Teaching Assistant oI the Year award Ior the 2012-2013 academic
year, and the 2013-2014 Graduate Dean's Dissertation Scholarship.

Teresa Cutler-Boyles
In spring 2013, I created a new class Ior the Peace Studies program entitled, Social TransIormation Through
Film. In this class we examine, through documentaries, Ieature Iilms, and numerous readings, concepts related to
peace and violence, resistance, colonialism and decolonialism, human rights, population and poverty, and more.
Uniquely, this class welcomes members oI the public to screenings and Ior discussions Iollowing the Iilms. This
creates a community-student interaction that allows Ior the exchange oI ideas on a number oI levels, and
disseminates inIormation to a larger platIorm than simply to students in a classroom. This class will run each Iall
and spring semester, and is cross-listed with Cinematic Arts, American Studies, and Anthropology.

I have also created and taught three semesters oI a successIul Cult Film class - and it will be running again during
the summer oI 2013. In this class we explore the social and cultural contexts and implications oI Cult Film Irom
the 1930s through today. As we look at the history and the social movements contemporaneous to these Iilms, we
explore such issues as the human rights movement, Ieminism, civil rights, and more. This class is oIten cross-
listed with American Studies. Additionally, I continue to teach other Iilm classes through Cinematic Arts. In April,
2013, I conducted a workshop Ior young writers at the annual Writers ConIerence put on by UNM Continuing
Education. Moreover, I also speak to English classes in middle schools in Albuquerque.

In September, 2012, I presented a paper in OxIord, England, entitled Muslim Monsters/American Heroes:
Sleeper Cell and Homeland as the new Face oI Fear, which has been published as a contributing chapter in
Monstrous Deviations in Literature and the Arts, edited by Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Biekowska and Karen Graham
(Interdisciplinary Press, 2013). I have also produced several additional texts that have been or will be published
within the 2012-2013 year, they include: the novel One Eved Jack, (Crooked Cat, 2012); Local
PerIormance/Global Connection: American Tribal Style and its Imagined Community, a contributing chapter in
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Bellv Dance Around the World. New Communities, Performance and Identitv, edited by Caitlin E. McDonald and
Barbara Sellers-Young, ( McFarland, 2013); and the Iorthcoming publication, Jumping Rope in Prison: the
Representation oI AIghan Children in Film, a contributing chapter in Children of Afghanistan. the Path to Peace,
edited by JenniIer Heath and AshraI Zahedi . Additionally, I continue to teach writing workshops in Italy (ongoing
since 2008); another is in the works Ior October oI this year over Iall break. InIormation can be Iound here:
www.inkwell-inc.biz

Finally, I passed my Comprehensive Exam in September oI 2011, and am currently at work on writing my
dissertation in the American Studies department.

Rafael Martinez
This Iirst year I had the pleasure oI making some great progress in my educational goals and gained new
opportunities through mentors I made at UNM. During the Iall semester I worked closely with Dr. Christine
Sierra, a proIessor in the Political Science department at UNM. Thanks to her guidance my project was
strengthened with the implementation oI Political Science methods. I was invited by Dr. Sierra to be part oI a
panel titled Americas Voice: Latino Voters and the Politics oI Immigration, which was web-streamed live
nationwide just beIore the 2012 Presidential elections. This panel discussed the key immigration platIorms oI both
parties and candidates and their impact on immigrant communities. Another key member oI the panel was Dr.
Gabriel, also a proIessor in the Political Science department at UNM. I had the pleasure oI working with and
learning Irom Dr. Sanchez as a recipient oI the 2012-2013 Latina/o ProIessional Development Fellowship, which
is granted through UNMs Graduate Resource Center. Dr. Sanchez has provided inIluential mentorship toward my
academic goals. During the Iall semester I also presented the paper, Counter Culture Youth: Claiming the
Dream in the Art, Media and Immigration symposium hosted by the American Studies department at UNM.
This piece was composed while working with Dr. Sierra and my advisor Dr. Irene Vasquez.

The spring semester was also a productive semester and one oI much personal growth. In March, 2013 I was able
to travel to San Antonio, Texas to present in a panel titled Sharing Our Stories & Understanding Our
Intersections as Men oI Color Make Us Stronger Together: Chicanos & Mexicanos Organizing with Other Men oI
Color for Access in Success in Higher Education at the National Association Ior Chicana & Chicano Studies
(NACCS). This panel was composed oI undergraduate and graduates students who discussed a community based
research project that we developed at UNM in order to address the low graduation rates Ior men oI color in New
Mexico. I also had the pleasure oI presenting my paper Transformative Borders in Cinema: Evolving Concepts of
Migrant Crossings, at the annual New Mexico Shared Knowledge ConIerence, which was hosted at UNM. This
research was developed with the assistance and instruction oI Dr. Gabriel Melendez.

ReIlecting on my Iirst year oI graduate school, I realize that all oI the sacriIices and eIIorts made were well worth
it. I had the Iortune oI receiving the Center Ior Regional Studies Fellowship and the IME Becas Scholarship
provided by the Mexican Consulate in Albuquerque Ior the 2012-2013 school year, which made the transition to a
new state/city that much easier. I also had the Iortune oI having a truly supportive and intelligent cohort, which
has made my academic and social liIe as a Iirst year graduate student a pleasant one. I know that with a supportive
department, great peers, mentors, and many great Iriends in the UNM/Albuquerque community, I will continue to
enjoy my second year oI graduate school and work towards Iuture educational goals.

Gbenga Frederick Olorunsiwa is currently a PhD student in the Department oI American Studies. Gbengas
research encompasses Race, AIrican and AIrican diasporic cinema, AIrican history and Literature. His PhD, MA
and BA research and other research endeavors have explored issues oI race and race relations in the United States
and AIrica, identity, society and cultural representation in AIrican, AIrican diasporic cinema and literature. He is
currently an ABD (All but dissertation) student and is writing his dissertation in the area oI representations oI
AIrica and AIricans in Iilms Irom various cinematic traditions, particularly in Western Iilms, exploring these
representations as they happened within particular socio-economic and political Irameworks. Mr. Olorunsiwa
earned his Master oI Arts in AIro-American Studies at the University oI Wisconsin-Madison, with a specialization
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in AIrica and AIrican Diaspora Literature and his Bachelor oI Arts degree at the ObaIemi Awolowo Univeristy in
Nigeria, where he majored in English Literature, and wrote his thesis on Wole Soyinka, who was awarded the
1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Iirst AIrican to be so honored. He is also the recipient oI the Susan Deese-
Roberts Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award Ior the 2012-2013 academic year.

Rachel Levitt is a PhD candidate in American Studies, and her research is primarily
located in postcolonial studies of gender, sexuality, and feminist theories. Rachels specific
research Iields cover postcolonial queer studies, queer Native studies, legal theories oI
identity, and poststructural critiques oI subject Iormation. This year Rachel published a
book chapter, Silence Speaks Volumes: Counter-Hegemonic Silences, DeaIness, and
Alliance Work, in an edited collection titled, Silence, Feminism, Power. Reflections at the
Edges of Sound, (Palgrave Macmillan Press, 2013). She also published two book reviews
and attended several conIerences including the Native American and Indigenous Studies
Association, the National Womens Studies Association, and the Homonationalism and
Pinkwashing conIerence. Rachel is a member oI the ASGSA, and she was also the recipient
oI the OGS Outstanding Graduate Student Mentor Award Ior the 2012-2013 academic year.

<%$/32 )*+,
;3-, =.71-BB) G+":H IJKKL is now an AIIiliate
Faculty with the Center Ior Latin American Studies
at the University oI Florida, Gainesville. He teaches
a graduate level course called Global Activism and
Social Change for the Mass Communications
Department. He was recently awarded a Iaculty
Iellowship to travel to Tel Aviv to conduct research
in the area oI comparative identity Iormation
between Israel and Palestine. Eric writes that his
background in borderlands scholarship is providing
him with the tools to understand the parallels in how
communities make sense oI their lives enmeshed as
they are in geopolitical borders.

Next year Eric will hold a Visiting Scholar/ Visiting
Assistant ProIessor position with the Center Ior
Mexican American Studies at the University oI
Houston, a position he hopes will grow into a
permanent appointment. Eric sees this as an exciting
proIessional opportunity that will also allow him to
be back in his home state.

Felecia Caton Garcia (PhD,
2008) published a compilation
oI poems in her book, Sav That
(University oI New Mexico
Press, 2013). The poems layer
sound and image to oIIer a
tangible point oI access into
the complex and oIten
contradictory ideas contained
within the work. Love, loss, memory, and the hidden
lives oI a range oI speakers and characters become
the interwoven themes oI this book, each presented
in raw and unIlinching narrative and metaphor. Sav
That is divided into two sections. The Iirst presents
the lived experience oI the speakers, while the
second strips the story to unveil a dreamlife where
memory and history haunt the lives they lead.

According to scholar and poet Laura Tohe, Felecia
Caton Garcia oIIers striking images grounded in the
everyday, in the cycles oI liIe, and into the
dreamliIe, places where We are watched by
memory. Her poems lead us into unexpected places
with voices and stories that startle and are
memorable. And, Hilda Raz, Mary Burritt
Christiansen Poetry Series editor maintains that
Felecia Caton Garcia plays the childrens game,
Say That, and invites us to do so too. Her stories
are Iamiliar and strangedreams, passionate
encounters with the surreal, and with our sisters and
brothers, our lovers, and even our childrenin a
world politicized by loss and death. To survive, we
must playand love every dangerous moment oI
choice.

Felecia Caton Garcia is also the author oI a
chapbook, Pos Orale' (University oI Oregon Press,
1998), and currently teaches writing and cultural
studies at Central New Mexico Community College
in Albuquerque.
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+.C#B. /3.6.'&# (PhD, 2012) received her PhD in
American Studies in May, 2012. She is currently
teaching in American Studies at UNM West and
hosting meetings oI Wise and WonderIul Older
Women (WWOW), an organization that advocates
Ior more educational and work opportunities Ior
older women. She is also looking Iorward to the
Iorthcoming publication oI her article, The Magic
of Cinema, which will be published in a special
issue oI the International Journal of Aging and
Later Life.

Pamelas recent
publication, The
Becoming of Age,
(McFarland, 2013)
promotes a critical
examination oI the ways
that aging and old age
are understood,
represented, and given
meaning in popular Iilm.
Arguing that the
narratives, discourses,
and philosophical
positions that underlie
Iilmic depictions oI
aging are historical and open to revision, Gravagne
constructs a Iramework Ior evaluating how a Iilm
both portrays aging or older characters and tells the
larger story oI aging itselI.

Gravagne ultimately contends that seeing popular
Iilm as a site oI cultural struggle where the cinematic
representation and the lived reality oI aging and old
age intertwine can enable the recognition and
creation oI alternate ways to age that will better
reIlect the continued becoming that is crucial to a
Iull and meaningIul liIe at any age.

Obituary:
1ohn Scott, OSB, PhD, American Studies, 1980,
(1945-2012)
by Darwin Marable

Father John Charles Scott, Order oI St. Benedict,
passed away on April 6, 2012 aIter a courageous
battle with Alzheimers.

Born on April 6, 1945 in Syracuse, New York, John
also lived in Washington state and Alberta, Canada,
but returned to Syracuse where he was graduated
from St. Lucys Academy.

He then attended St. Martins College, Lacey
Washington and was graduated in 1967 and entered
St. Martins Benedictine Abbey as a novice and was
ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1972 in the
Abbey Church. During his Iormative years he
studied theology at St. Meinrad School oI Theology,
Meinrad, Indiana. John completed a masters degree
at Indiana University and in 1980 was awarded the
doctorate Irom the University oI New Mexico. His
doctoral dissertation was a study of Willa Cathers
novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop.

In 1975, at the age oI 30 years, while a graduate
student working toward the doctorate, he was
unexpectedly named the president of St. Martins
College. John returned to St. Martins where he
remained until 1980 serving with distinction. He
then returned to New Mexico to complete his
doctoral degree in American Studies.

John was a liIe-time academic, specializing in
American history, and until his illness, loved
teaching at St. Martins and briefly at St. Johns
University, Collegeville, Minnesota. In addition to
writing book reviews Ior scholarly journals, he spent
years researching the history of St. Martins
culminating in the publishing oI This Place Called
St. Martins in 1995.

Johns survivors include several siblings and many
Iriends and Iormer students.

A Mass oI Christian Burial was celebrated in the
Abbey Church on April 12, 2012 Iollowed by burial
in the Abbey Cemetery.