Dr. Lisa Ortiz (Social Justice/ Latina/o/x Studies) is serving as Director of the 2020-21 Obermann Working Group, "Latina/x/o Migration and Education."
The Latina/x/o Migration and Education Working Group explores the contemporary knowledge production and experiences of migrants moving between the Americas. Through a critical and interdisciplinary approach, the group seeks to highlight how migrants utilize their own and/or their communities’ knowledges to negotiate new terrain in different destinations. Bringing together scholars in Latina/x/o Studies, Education, American Studies, Languages, and Political Science, it is crucial to reflect on, yet, beyond schooling processes with a particular interest in the Midwest. As a site of historical and continual presence of Latina/x/os, the Midwest necessitates a current analysis of how structures of power shape the intersection between education and migration and the implications for non-migrants and institutions alike. Members will interrogate such intersection through interdisciplinary theories and methods. Ultimately, by examining education broadly, the goal is to propose a research agenda that documents the knowledge production and needs of migrants currently living in, or tied to, the Midwest.
Dr. Lisa Ortiz is one of the 2020–21 provost’s postdoctoral faculty fellows. Dr. Ortiz earned her Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies with minors in Latina/o Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018. She is currently an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the “Imagining Latinidades: Articulations of National Belonging” Mellon Sawyer Seminar at the University of Iowa. Her research juxtaposes representations of Puerto Rican migration in the media with narratives of intergenerational individuals engaging in rural-to-rural migration between the islands and the United States in the 21st century. In doing so, she examines how neoliberal discourses of value, devaluations, and progress point to ethnoracial ties and tensions while embodying Latinidad in the Midwest.
At U Iowa, she has taught LATS:2280 Introduction to Latina/o/x Studies, and SJUS:1001 Introduction to Social Justice. She has also organized events to help students to explore these programs of study.
