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By NNMC
Deena J. González received her PhD in history from UC, Berkeley, the first Chicana to complete the program. She was born and raised in New Mexico (14th generation) and used her cultural background as the stepping stone for her dissertation research, for a first book (Refusing the Favor, published by Oxford University Press), and for other works, including encyclopedias with the same press.
Over fifty journal articles, book chapters, and working papers, as well as the series, “Chicana Matters,” with University of Texas Press were published to establish the fields of Chicana/o History.
She is a co-founder of the Native/Chicana academic organization, MALCS (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social), a mentor to several scholars of the U.S. West, and a passionate teacher-scholar.
Currently, she is Professor of Chicana/o, Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles. Among her favorite LMU classes are those at the introductory level, to Ethnic Studies, Chicana/o History, and Chicana/o Studies. She taught, at another institution, the first Latina Feminist Traditions class in the country.
Named one of the fifty most important living women historians in the U.S. by the Sophia Smith Radcliffe/Harvard project, she will also be honored at a special session of the Organization of American Historians (OAH) in Philadelphia in 2019 for her work in mentoring historians.
