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Olga Nájera-Ramírez Home  Directory Olga Nájera-Ramírez
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Title: |
Professor of Anthropology |
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Email: |
olga@ucsc.edu |
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Phone: |
(831) 459-4677 Office |
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Office: |
Social Sciences 1, 406 |
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Office Hours: |
Wed 1pm-3pm |
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| Education History | |
B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz
M.A., Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin |
| Courses Taught | |
ANTH 80G - Barrio Popular Culture
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| Research Focus | |
Teaching Specialties: Folkloristics, expressive culture, ritual and festival, ethnomusicology, and dance.
Area of Research: Folklore, Greater Mexican culture and history, media, and gender.
Area of Fieldwork: US. and Mexico. |
| Long Description | |
As an anthropologist specializing in folklore, Olga Nájera-Ramírez has concentrated on documenting and critically examining expressive culture among Mexicans in both Mexico and the United States. She has conducted fieldwork in Texas, California, and Jalisco, Mexico, and has a special interest in dance and festival. With a focus on issues of identity formation, relationships of power, and expressive cultural forms, her work has contributed to the interdisciplinary, transnational studies of culture, particularly in the fields of anthropology, folklore, and various area studies (i.e., Chicano Studies, Latin American Studies, and American Studies).
Prof. Nájera-Ramírez teaches courses on folklore theory, expressive culture, dance, cultural performances, and Greater Mexico. Other interests include studies in popular culture, media, social history, gender, education, bilingual communication, Latin America, and minorities in the United States.
She also wrote, directed and produced a half-hour bilingual ethnographic documentary video entitled "La Charreada: Rodeo a la Mexicana" in collaboration with KTEH, San Jose Public Television Station. Winner of the prestigious Silver Apple Award at the National Educational Film and Video Festival in 1997, this video provides an intimate view of the charreada (or Mexican rodeo) as described by Mexicanos living on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. To order a copy of this video call 1-408-795-5411, Fax 1-408-995-5446, or write to:
KTEH-TV
Viewer Services: La Charreada Tape
1585 Schallenberger Rd.
San Jose, CA 95131-24
Prof. Olga Nájera-Ramírez is a member of the UC Santa Cruz Chicano Latino Research Center (CLRC) located at Casa Latina, Merrill College. Established in 1992, the center has fostered collaborative work among scholars in the United States, Mexico, Central, and Latin America. Over the years, the CLRC has gained international recognition for transdisciplinary and cross-border scholarship on Chicano and Latino issues. UCSC faculty members and graduate students in the fields of sociology, literature, education, anthropology, and history of consciousness are doing work on Chicano/Latino themes under the auspices of CLRC. For more information, please visit http://clrc.ucsc.edu/.
She also serves as the faculty advisor for the campus Mexican folkdance company, Grupo Folklórico Los Mejicas.
Los Mejicas
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| Selected Publications | |
Chicana Feminism: A Critical Reader. Co-edited with Gabriela Arredondo, Aida Hurtado, Norma Klahn, and Patricia Zavella. Duke University Press, 2003.
Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change. Co-edited with Norma Cantú. University of Illinois Press, 2002.
La Fiesta de Los Tastoanes: Critical Encounters in a Mexican Festival Performance. University of New Mexico Press, 1997. |
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