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Angharad Valdivia

Profile picture for Angharad Valdivia

Contact Information

Institute of Communications Research
119 Gregory Hall
M/C 463
Professor, Latina & Latino Studies

Biography

Within communications research, Valdivia combines the areas of gender studies with ethnic studies and Latin American studies. She brings these together in the examination of contemporary mainstream popular culture in an approach that explores the tension between agency and structure within a transnational setting. She has conducted field research in Nicaragua, Peru and Chile. Current research projects include hybridity theory as it applies to Latina/o Studies, ambiguity as a strategy of ethnic representation and differentiation within Latinidad, and transnationalism as it applies to the discipline of Latina/o Studies. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of California at San Diego, Cambridge University-Lucy Cavendish College (UK), York University in Toronto and St. Louis University in Madrid. She is working on two book-length manuscripts entitled, “The Gender of Latinidad” (Blackwell) and “Latina/os and the Media” (Polity), as well as on several other projects. Additionally she is the managing editor of the “Encyclopedia of Media Studies” (Blackwell), an eight-volume project designed to map out the field. Valdivia has lectured broadly on her areas of research and is a dedicated mentor to graduate students and junior faculty of color. Valdivia is an affiliate faculty member in the Women and Gender in a Global Perspective Program and the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Research Interests

Valdivia is the author of “A Latina in the Land of Hollywood” (Arizona, 2000) and the editor of “Latina/o Communication Studies Today” (Peter Lang, 2008), “The Media Studies Companion” (Blackwell, 2003, 2006), “Feminism, Multiculturalism, and the Media: Global Diversities” (Sage, 1995) and the communication and culture section of the “Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women” (2000). She is also co-editor of “Geographies of Latinidad” (Duke, forthcoming). She has published essays in the Communication Review, Global Media Journal, Journal of Communication, the Journal of International Communication, Girlhood Studies, Popular Communication, the Journal of Children and the Media, the Review of Education/Pedagogy/Cultural Studies, the International Journal of Inclusive Education, Women and Language, Chasqui, and in many edited anthologies. Her areas of interest include gender and ethnicity in popular culture and international communications, especially U.S. Latina/o and Latin American, media studies, international communications and feminist studies.