Cover of book 'Queering Mesoamerican Diasporas'
Queering Mesoamerican Diasporas

In her new book Queering Mesoamerican Diasporas: Remembering Xicana Indígena Ancestries (University of Illinois Press, August 2022), Susy J. Zepeda, an associate professor of Chicana and Chicano studies, highlights the often overlooked yet intertwined legacies of Chicana feminisms and queer decolonial theory through the work of select queer Indígena cultural producers and thinkers.

Susy Zepeda, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Chicana/o Studies department at the University of California, Davis (Patwin land). Susy (she/they/ella) was born on Tongva lands in Monterey Park, California to Adela and Armando Zepeda, Mexican migrants from El Limon, Jalisco and Chínipas, Chihuahua respectively. Susy remembers often climbing el cerro (the mountain) as a child and visiting el rio in her mother’s hometown following the guidance of her abuelita, Rosario. Susy is a student rooted in remembering and practicing Traditional Indigenous medicine of this hemisphere, and more specifically of Mesoamerica. Susy is a former 5 th grade teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and from 2013-2014, Zepeda was a Visiting Assistant Professor with the Social Justice Initiative at UC Davis.


Dr. Zepeda’s scholarly work is intentionally transdisciplinary, decolonial, and feminist in a community-centered and grounded way. Her research and teaching focus on: Xicana Indígena spirit work, decolonization, critical feminist of color collaborative methodologies, oral and visual storytelling, and intergenerational healing.

View the book at University of Illinois Press 

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