It is well known that history is written by those who are in power – meaning, there are a myriad of histories and experiences that sit at the margins of normative U.S. histories. For example: Did you know that before Dodger Stadium was built, the area housed 3 thriving Latino/a immigrant communities? Are you aware of the reasons why Latino/a families in Texas claimed to be legally racially White before the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision? Did you learn about how U.S. border policies informed Nazi Germany’s use of Zyklon B in concentration camps? Or what happened in the 1920s to the Black community known as Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma? Each session in this course explores an invisible history of marginalized communities in the United States through research, storytelling, and visuals.

Lorena Muñoz (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor and Director of Ethnic and Race studies and Associate Dean for Equity, Inclusion & Engagement for the College of Arts and Sciences at California Lutheran University.

Dr. Muñoz is an urban/cultural geographer whose research focuses on the intersections of place, space, gender, sexuality, and race. Dr. Munoz’s research agenda has been focused on Latinx/e in the global south, particularly in the areas of the (in)formal economy, sexuality and race. Some of her research has focused on immigrant street vendors’ lives across Latin America. Dr. Munoz was raised in a mix-status transnational migrant family between Ensenada, Baja California and San Diego, California. She loves to knit and crochet, loves the beach and spending time with her family.