Chicano and Latino Studies Welcomes New Faculty Member

September 27, 2021

Dr. Jacqueline Lyon, whose research focuses on the intersections of race and citizenship, has been hired as an associate professor of Chicano and Latino studies. 

Dr. Lyon will be teaching the new ethnic studies course, along with Asian and Latino Migration Since WWII. Previously, she’s taught Latin American anthropology, looking at the ways scholars in the Americas generated anthropological theory that responded to the histories, cultural production, and societies in the region; a course titled Race, Racism, and Redress that considered theories of race and racialization, racial violence, and activist efforts; and a class on Citizenship, Borders, and Belonging, which used an intersectional perspective to understand how citizenship is experienced for migrants and non-migrants alike. 

She is excited to join the CSULB faculty, where she will be able to ground her teaching and scholarship in ethnic and Latino studies. 

“CSULB offers the opportunity to work with a student body to which I am personally and professionally committed,” Dr. Lyon says. “In particular, joining the Chicano and Latino Studies department and being part of the new ethnic studies initiative allows me to collaborate with scholars and teachers of color who understand and value both scholarly and community work.”

Dr. Lyon is currently working with a group of Dominicans of Haitian descent who are struggling to assert their citizenship rights after the government decided to retroactively eliminate birthright citizenship. She is writing a book based on this research, and plans to soon begin a new research project looking at the ways Puerto Rican ancestry researchers construct narratives about colonialism, migration, and race.

“As a scholar who studies Blackness in Latin America, I hope to strengthen the connections between Africana Studies and Chicano and Latino Studies,” Dr. Lyon says. “I see the new ethnic studies course as part of this effort.”