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Gradilla, Alexandro J.

Associate Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies

Chicana and Chicano Studies

Office: 657-278-4210

Department: 657-278-4815

Email: agradilla@fullerton.edu

Biography:

Dr. Alexandro José Gradilla is associate professor and chair of the Chicana/o Studies Department. He received his doctorate in ethnic studies from the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation focused on the social, political and epistemological impact of dehumanization on the Mexican origin population in the United States. His areas of expertise include medical anthropology, bioethics, political theory (Marxist, Foucaultian), decolonial theory, institutional racism, racialization, cultural competency, gender, men’s studies, migration processes and families. Born and raised in San Diego (City Heights), California, Gradilla is a first-generation college graduate. His parents are from Jalisco, Mexico. He received two B.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley one in Chicana/o studies and the other in anthropology. He then went on to receive an M.A. in anthropology from the University of Michigan. Before joining the faculty at Cal State Fullerton, he was a teaching fellow at the University of California, Irvine. In addition to his research agenda, Gradilla is interested in issues connected to higher education policy especially focused on Latina/o student success, retention, graduation, mentorship, transfer student success, and other collaborations between student affairs and academic affairs. He served as co-principal investigator on two grants that focus on improving Latina/o graduation rates and the other promoting graduate school. For the Promoting Postbaccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (now known as Enhancing Postbaccalaureate Opportunities at Cal State Fullerton for Hispanic Students or EPOCHS) grant that encourages Latino students to pursue graduate education, he routinely works with the director of graduate studies and associate vice president of graduate programs and research. The other grant he worked on is the HACU/Walmart grant.


Areas of Knowledge:

  • Non-western thought
  • Bioethics
  • Cultural competency
  • Male circumcision (medical)
  • Mexican immigration
  • Latino identity in the US
  • White privilege
  • First generation college students
  • Mentorship
  • Men's Studies
  • Maleness and masculinity
  • Marxist/Anarchist theory

Subject(s):

  • Affirmative Action
  • American Studies
  • Anthropology
  • California -- Politics
  • Chicano Studies
  • Culture -- Diversity
  • Culture -- Popular
  • Education -- Higher Ed
  • Education -- Latino
  • Education -- Multicultural
  • Family Studies
  • Gender Studies
  • Los Angeles
  • Politics -- California
  • Racial Issues
  • Sociology

Language(s):

  • Spanish

Region(s):

  • Central America
  • North America

 

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