Anita Casavantes Bradford

Anita Casavantes Bradford

Anita Casavantes Bradford is Associate Professor of History and Chicano/Latino Studies, where she is also Co-Director of the UC-Cuba Multi Campus Academic Initiative. She earned her Ph.D. in 2011 in U.S. and Latina/o-Latin American History at the UC San Diego, where she was co-advised by recognized Chicano historians Luis Alvarez and David Gutierrez. Her teaching focuses on comparative and transnational Latina/o history, Cuban and Cuban American history, the history of immigration, race and ethnicity, and the history of childhood. She is Chair of UCI’s Standing Committee on AB540 and Undocumented Students, and was faculty advisor to Dreams @ UCI, the campus organization for undocumented students, from 2013-2015. She is also the Director of the UCI First Generation Faculty Initiative, which recruits and trains faculty to maximize, through their teaching and mentorship, the academic success and wellbeing of students who are the first in their family to attend a four year college. Casavantes Bradford, who is proud to be a first generation college graduate and the first woman in her family to graduate from high school, was the 2015 recipient of the Dynamic Womyn of UCI Outstanding Social Justice Award.