ABOUT
Dr. Yosso follows in the tradition of scholars who believe education can serve as a tool for liberation.
Her research addresses race as a social construction and analyzes the consequences of racism at its intersections with other forms of subordination across time and place.
Dr. Yosso's scholarly publications have focused on education access and opportunity, civil rights law, and portrayals of Latina/Latino students in Hollywood films. Her work seeks to reframe the debate about educational inequality, centering the knowledges and voices of Communities of Color.
Her Community Cultural Wealth framework has been cited 8,000 times by scholars and used widely nationally and internationally across disciplines, including but not limited to: K-12 education, higher education, human resource development, leadership development, counseling, social work, public health, marketing communications, community and advocacy organizations, business operations and more.
Dr. Yosso's work informs praxis at many universities such as the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Stanford, University of Texas, Austin, and Brown, in state colleges with large teacher education programs such as Cal State Sacramento and Michigan State, in community colleges including those across California, Washington State, Minnesota, Hawaii, and Oklahoma. Her research is utilized internationally in universities and organizations in New Zealand, Canada, Germany, Poland, and the United Kingdom.
Dr. Yosso's work provides grounding framework for a middle school in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Esperanza Academy, a first year program at Pasadena City College, a mentoring program at East Los Angeles College, an institute at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston, and in the Residential Life at Western Washington University. Similarly, Dr. Yosso has been in dialogue with a mentoring program in Norway who utilize the Community Cultural Wealth framework with refugee students from Somalia. She is also collaborating with the first all-Black University in South Africa, and their network of faculty across Caribbean and European Universities.
Image of Dr. Yosso from the 2018 keynote at the Cal State Los Angeles event marking the 50th Anniversary of the East Los Angeles High School Walkouts. The audience included hundreds of high school students from Los Angeles Unified School District who participated in a "Walk In" to the University.
AWARDS
Critics’ Choice Book Award
American Educational Studies Association: Critical Race Counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano Educational Pipeline
Derrick Bell Legacy AwarD
Critical Race Studies in Education Association
Distinguished Alumni Award
University of California, Los Angeles: Academic Advancement, 35th Anniversary Celebration
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2021 - 2022
2017 - Present
2015 - 2017
2007 - 2017
2005 - 2006
2007 - 2017
2003 - 2017
2001 - 2007
Inaugural Distinguished Scholar in Residence
San José State University | Institute for Emancipatory Education, Connie L. Lurie College of Education
Professor
University of California, Riverside | School of Education
Professor
University of Michigan | School of Education
Faculty Associate
University of Michigan | Latino/a Studies Program
Associate Professor
University of California, Santa Barbara | Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies
Ford Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Utah | College of Education
Ford Foundation, National Research Council Fellowship Program for Diversity and Excellence in University Teaching
Visiting Scholar
University of California, Los Angeles | Chicano Studies Research Center
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
University of California, Santa Barbara | Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies
Affiliate, Associate AND ASSISTANT Professor
University of California, Santa Barbara | Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
University of California, Santa Barbara | Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies
Coatlicues Legacy 2018 (Right)
by Luis-Genaro Garcia
Juxtaposing Coatlicue, the earth goddess, against a Los Angeles Times article about the 1968 East LA walkouts. The image is a counter narrative to the original article's title by Jack McCurdy, Student Disorders Erupt at 4 high schools, Policeman hurt. (Jack McCurdy, Los Angeles Times, March 7, 1968 p. 3.) Luis places prominence on the power it took for students to fight against the oppression they faced, noting that a lot of the original footage showed police assaulting students.
"I appreciate that Luis-Genaro Garcia carries on in a tradition and aesthetic of Chicano artists before him, telling stories about those who are actively struggling to reassert our humanity in often dehumanizing circumstances. He sees that there is a struggle over the narrative, and he holds up a prism to show the many facets of that struggle." -Tara J. Yosso, PhD
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Education: Urban Schooling, emphasis in Chicana/o Studies and Visual Sociology
University of California, Los Angeles
Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Social Psychology of Education, emphasis in Chicana/o Studies
University of California, Los Angeles
"
I EMPHASIZE that history matters, especially when we're talking about race, especially when we're talking about culture, ideas, schooling—about how we can move forward in a more humane way.
-Tara J. Yosso, PhD
TARA J. YOSSO, PHD