Keynote Speaker

Dr. Alexandro Gradilla

(He/Him) Born and raised in San Diego (City Heights) with parents from Jalisco, Mexico, Dr. Gradilla is a first-generation college graduate. He received two B.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, one in Chicana/o Studies and the other in Anthropology. He then received an M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan and his doctorate in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. His dissertation focused on the rhetoric and discursive practices that dehumanize the Mexican-origin population in the United States. His broader expertise includes medical anthropology, bioethics, political theory, decolonial theory, institutional racism,

racialization, cultural competency, popular cultures, and futurity/utopias/freedom dreaming for people of color. In addition to his research agenda, Dr. Gradilla is interested in issues connected to higher education policy, primarily focused on Latina/o student success, retention, graduation, mentorship, transfer student success, and other collaborations between student affairs and academic affairs. He is now focused on helping students of color and first-gen students with the project of academic healing and “undrowning” (desahogar) which are sub-projects of his current work for the Latinx Lab. 

In 2022, the Mellon Foundation awarded CSU Fullerton’s Chicana/o Studies Department $1.2 million to create The Latinx Lab for Storytelling and Social Justice. The Latinx Lab aims to inspire our students to use storytelling to uncover marginalized stories and experiences and share their narratives while building community and engaging in social activism. Our students’ stories are more important now than ever to address structural racism, find healing, imagine more just futures, and forge new compassionate and joyful relationships and experiences. The stewards of the Lab believe that all students are writers, scholars, and storytellers, and strive to affirm that all students bring skills, knowledges, languages, and assets from their homes/communities. The SJSI fellows explore the disciplines’ key ideas, methods, theories, and traditions. Key lessons include the foundational humanities skills and practices that shaped Chicana/o Studies. SJSI fellows engage with one of the program’s primary learning outcomes, which is comprehending the university’s conflicted history with social inequality.