Dr. Brenda Sendejo has been at Southwestern five years, and in that time, she has made an important impact as a teacher-scholar and a university citizen.  Dr. Sendejo has taught classes in Anthropology, Feminist Studies, Latin American and Border Studies, Race and Ethnicity Studies, and the Americas Paideia cluster.  She has twice been a finalist for the Teaching Award in the untenured category.  And, although she has only taught capstone two times, two of her capstone students have won awards at regional Anthropology meetings for the high quality of their papers.  Dr. Sendejo has also collaborated with a number of students on two oral history projects (the first is “Spirit Stories” and the second is the upcoming Latina History Project).  These projects have allowed her students to engage in in-depth ethnographic and oral history research. 

 

While at Southwestern, Dr. Sendejo has regularly presented her research at both regional and national conferences and has had three peer-reviewed scholarly works accepted for publication.  She is the author of a chapter titled “Methodologies of the Spirit” on methodology, academia and Chicana feminism to the co-edited book, Fleshing the Spirit: Spirituality and Activism in Chicana, Latina and Indigenous Women’s Lives, (University of Arizona Press, 2014). She has also published an article in Chicana/Latina Studies (2013, volume 12) titled, “The Cultural Production of Spiritual Activisms” which focuses on how women’s spirituality and religious practice changed as they mobilized for race and gender-based activism.  Finally, her chapter, “The Space Between” has been accepted for publication in an edited volume under consideration by the University of Texas Press (expected date of publication: 2016). In this work, Dr. Sendejo details how 19th century Mexicana and Tejana intellectuals and their written works later influenced elements of the 20th Century Chicana feminist movement and the field of Chicano/a Studies. 

Dr. Sendejo contributes to the university community in multifaceted ways.  She has brought speakers to campus for multiple events, including the Latino Heritage Symposium and the Jessie Daniel Ames Lecture. Dr. Sendejo is also an integral and valued member of our department.  In addition to her teaching, mentoring, advising, and collegiality, Dr. Sendejo has served as the faculty co-advisor for the Anthropology and Sociology Department’s student organization.  She has also helped to organize the spring dinner for graduating seniors and the fall picnic for anthropology and sociology majors.

 

We are so thrilled that Dr. Sendejo is here and we look forward to working with her for years to come!