Assistant Director of McNair Scholars Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara
About
Dr. Yvette Martínez-Vu is a Xicana PhD mama. She was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley, California to immigrant parents from Jalisco and Sonora, Mexico. Dr. Martínez-Vu has a PhD in theater and performance studies from UCLA. Her dissertation examines how Mexican, Chicana, and indigenous women use theatrical objects as a medium for resistance and empowerment within post-1990s performances in Mexico and the US.
Dr. Martínez-Vu has organized regional and international conferences, including USC and UCLA’s Hemispheric Institute “Experimental Collectivities” Convergence. She has also presented at national conferences including the American Studies Association (ASA), American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), and Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). Dr. Martínez-Vu is the recipient of various awards, including the IUPLR Mellon Fellowship, Ford Dissertation Fellowship, UCLA Dissertation Year Fellowship, a multi-year UC Cota-Robles Fellowship, and the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship.
Dr. Martínez-Vu is also the co-founder of two activist collectives, including this multi-institutional Chicana Motherwork collective and Mothers of Color in Academia de UCLA group. Since completing her PhD, Dr. Martínez-Vu accepted a position as assistant director for UCSB’s McNair Scholars Program. This position is a combination of advising, teaching, grant writing, research, and project management.
Current Work:
My research areas include Chicana and Latina feminist performance, devotional images and objects, and intersectionality in motherhood studies.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Chicana motherwork, Chicana feminisms, women of color feminisms, Chicana/Latina performance, intersectionality
