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Associate Professor of American Culture and Women's Studies

• Affiliation(s)

  • Faculty: Department of American Culture (AC), Latina/o Studies (LS)
  • Faculty: Department of Women's Studies

• Fields of Study

  • U.S. third World Feminist Theory
  • Latina/o Studies
  • 20^th century literature by women of color
  • History of anthropology and folklore
  • Ethnic modernisms (U.S)

• About

  Maria Cotera began her career as a researcher and writer at the Chicana Research and Learning Center, a non-profit dedicated to supporting research by and about women of color. In 1989 she helped produce "Crystal City: A Twenty Year Reflection," a documentary about the role of young women in the 1969 Chicano student walkouts in Crystal City, Texas. From 1992 to 1994 Cotera worked with Dr. Jose Limon (University of Texas) on a recovery project that uncovered a lost manuscript by Texas folklorist Jovita González. Published in 1996, the manuscript, entitled Caballero, includes a critical epilogue by Cotera. Since that time she has published numerous essays on Jovita González and Sioux ethnographer Ella Deloria and has recovered other works by González.  Having recently completed Native Speakers, her book about the ethnographic fiction of Ella Deloria, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jovita González, professor Cotera's research now centers on recovering the theoretical writing and cultural productions of Chicana Feminists from 1965-1985.

• Education

  • Ph.D., Stanford, 2000