José Luis Serrano Nájera
Assistant Professor
- Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles: History
- M.A. University of California, Los Angeles: History
- M.A. California State University, Dominguez Hills: Interdisciplinary Studies
- B.A. University of California, Los Angeles: History and Chicana/o Studies
- A.A. Long Beach City College: Liberal Arts
- Faculty of Color Mentoring Award, 2022, Project for New Mexico Graduates of Color (PNMGC), University of New Mexico
José Luis Serrano Nájera is a proud son of immigrant parents from Guerrero and Zacatecas by way of Mexicali, Baja California, México. He grew up on the westside of Long Beach, CA and is part of the first generation of his family to earn a college education in the U.S. He was a community college transfer student who ended up focusing on Chicana/o/x/e History at the University of California, Los Angeles where he eventually earned his Ph.D. Dr. Serrano Nájera’s research foci are national and transnational Civil and Human Rights activism and social movements utilizing archival and oral history research methods.
In the past, Dr. Serrano Nájera’s publications have focused on advocacies, social movements, and armed insurrections countering colonial and imperial powers in U.S. and México during the modern era. He is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled “Confronting Colonial Legacies: Chicana/o Transnational Activism and Indigeneity since 1968.” Dr. Serrano Nájera is also currently working on research projects that focus on Chicana/o/x/e educational advocacy, transnational police repression and surveillance of Mexican Peoples’ social movements, transnational labor activism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the impact of oral history on students who partake in Chicana/o/x/e Studies curriculum and pedagogy.
In his teaching, Dr. Serrano Nájera emphasizes cultural, political, social, and transnational topical foci, while at the same time working to achieve student learning objectives of understanding diversity, intersectionality, and the development of Chicana/o/x/e communities across the U.S. He focuses on cultural and human rights expressions in the U.S. and Latin America from an interdisciplinary background in History, Chicana/o/x/e Studies, Latin American Studies, Native American Studies, and Cultural Studies. Overall, students in Dr. Serrano Nájera’s courses focus on Chicana/o/x/e and Latina/o/x/e peoples while challenging the hegemonic westernized definitions of politics, culture, identity, governance, and human rights.
History of Chicana and Chicano Peoples; CCS 343, CCS 593; HIST 300 Chicana and Chicano Movement: El Movimiento Chicano; CCS 362, CCS 562 Mexican Life and Culture, CCS 435/535 and LTAM 435/535 Advanced Seminar in Chicana/o Studies; CCS 490, CCS 590
Edited Volumes
Regeneracion: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal 1, no. 1 (2024). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/rxsj/
Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal 2, no. 1 (2016). http://escholarship.org/uc/regeneracion_tlacuilolli
Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal 1, no. 1 (2014). http://escholarship.org/uc/search?entity=regeneracion_tlacuilolli;volume=1;issue=1
Publications: Articles
“Interethnic Mayan and Afro-descendent Relations through War, Trade, and Slavery during the Mayan Caste Wars, 1848-1901.” UCLA Historical Journal 28, no. 1 (2017): 1-22. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0538c4tt
“Chicana/o Movement Pedagogical Legacies: Indigenous Consciousness, Critical Pedagogy, and Constructing Paths to Decolonization.” Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal 1, no. 1 (2014): 27-67. http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7pn7m7jn
Publications: Journal and Book Introductions
“Introduction,” Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal 2, no. 1 (2016).http://escholarship.org/uc/item/9sb5k00t
“Introducing Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal.” Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal 1, no. 1 (2014): 1-7. www.escholarship.org/uc/item/2p4885qc
Introduction to Indigenous Quotient/Stalking Words: American Indian Heritage as Future, by Juan Gómez-Quiñones, 8-9. San Antonio: AztlanLibre Press, 2012.
Publications: Book Reviews
Review of Mestizos Come Home!: Making and Claiming Mexican American Identity. By Roberto Con Davis-Undiano (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017), in the New Mexico Historical Review 93, no. 4 (2018): https://ejournals.unm.edu/index.php/nmhr/issue/view/714
Review of Leaders of the Mexican American Generation: Biographical Essays. By Anthony Quiroz. (Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2015), in the New Mexico Historical Review 91, no. 4 (2016): 485-486. https://ejournals.unm.edu/index.php/nmhr/issue/view/697
A Prelude to Liberation: Raising Our IQ. A Book Review of Indigenous Quotient/Stalking Words: American Indian Heritage as Future by Juan Gómez-Quiñones.” SomosenEscrito: The Latino literary online Magazine, Jan. 30, 2012, http://www.somosenescrito.blogspot.com/2012/01/prelude-to-liberation-raising-our-iq.html
Submitted and Accepted Publications: Encyclopedia Entries
“Transnationalism” in The Chicana and Chicano Movement: From Aztlan to Zapatistas, A Reference Encyclopedia for Movements of American Mosaic Series (Greenwood/Praeger, publication in Spring 2021)
Founding Chief Co-Editor, Regeneración: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal, 2020- Present https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/rxsj/
Founding Chief Co-Editor, Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal, 2012-2016 https://escholarship.org/uc/regeneracion_tlacuilolli
Elected Council Member, Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association, 2023-2026
Faculty Liaison, Student Outreach and Curriculum Development at UNM Valencia, NM Humanities Now! Transfer Initiative: Extending Humanities Pathways, 2022-Present
Faculty of Color Mentoring Award, 2022, Project for New Mexico Graduates of Color (PNMGC), University of New Mexico
