Laura Chávez-Moreno

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Laura Chávez-Moreno

Assistant Professor
Core Faculty

Office: 7369 Bunche Hall

Email: ChavezMoreno@ucla.edu

Biography

Laura C. Chávez-Moreno is an award-winning researcher, qualitative social scientist, and assistant professor in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Prof. Chávez-Moreno researches, writes, and teaches about Chicanx/Latinx education. She works at the intersection of education, pedagogy, language, literacy, and ethnic studies, particularly Chicanx/Latinx Studies. Her research has been published in top-tier journals such as Review of Educational Research, Educational Researcher, American Educational Research Journal, Research in the Teaching of English, and Journal of Teacher Education.

Dr. Chávez-Moreno’s research has been recognized with multiple awards, including from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division G Social Contexts in Education; AERA Latinx Research Issues Special Interest Group (SIG); AERA Bilingual Education Research SIG; American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education; and National Association of Bilingual Education. Notably, she was a fellow of the 2020–2022 cohort of NCTE Research Foundation’s Cultivating New Voices among Scholars of Color, and she was awarded a 2022 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. Most recently the National Council for Teachers of English awarded the 2023 Alan C. Purves Award to her article in Research in the Teaching of English, “The continuum of racial literacies: Teacher practices countering whitestream bilingual education.”

Prof. Chávez-Moreno is sought after as a speaker by school districts, university organizations, and teacher preparation programs. She draws from her research and extensive teaching experience across a variety of educational levels—including elementary, secondary, tertiary, teacher education, and older-adult education. She served as a high school teacher of Spanish in the Philadelphia Public School District for five years, wrote district curriculum, and served on boards of community organizations. She is deeply committed to mentorship, emphasizing support for students from underrepresented backgrounds and/or those dedicated to social justice causes. Among her many service activities, she has mentored undergraduate and graduate students through several organizations, including the Hispanic Scholarship Fund. She grew up in Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, México.

Education

  • PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison; School of Education; Curriculum & Instruction
  • Graduate Certificate, Boston College; School of Education; Curriculum & Instruction
  • MA, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; School of Education; Literacy, Language, & Culture
  • BS in Education, Northern Arizona University; College of Education; Spanish, Secondary-level Education, and Latin American Studies

Research

  • Chicanx & Latinx education
  • Critical race & ethnic studies
  • Critical literacy & language studies
  • Bilingual education
  • Critical pedagogy
  • Teacher education & teaching
  • Sociopolitical & cultural contexts of teaching & learning

Selected Publications

For an updated bibliography, please visit Chávez-Moreno’s GoogleScholar webpage.

  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2023). Examining race in LatCrit: A systematic review of Latinx critical race theory in education. Review of Educational Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543231192685
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2024). A Literature Review of Raciolinguistics in Dual-language Bilingual Education: A Call for Conceptualizing Racialization. In J. Friere, C. Alfaro, & E. de Jong (Eds.), The Handbook of Dual Language Bilingual Education (pp. 254–265). Routledge. 10.4324/9781003269076-20
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2023). A raciolinguistic and racial realist critique of dual language’s racial integration. Journal of Latinos & Education, 22(5), 2085-2101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2022.2086555
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2022). Critiquing racial literacy: Presenting a continuum of racial literacies. Educational Researcher (51)7, 481-488. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X221093365
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2022). The continuum of racial literacies: Teacher practices countering whitestream bilingual education. Research in the Teaching of English, 57(2), 108-132. Recognized with the 2023 Alan C. Purves Award.
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C., Villegas, A. M., & Cochran-Smith, M. (2022). The experiences and preparation of teacher candidates of color: A literature review. In C. Gist & T. Bristol (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color & Indigenous Teachers, p. 165-180. American Educational Research Association. PDF
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2022). Race reflexivity: Examining the unconscious for a critical race ethnography. In S. May & B. Caldas (Eds.), Critical Ethnography, Bi/Multilingualism, Race(ism) and Education, p. 91-107. Multilingual Matters. PDF
  • Pacheco, M., & Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2021). Bilingual education for self-determination: Re-centering Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x student voices. Bilingual Research Journal, 44(4) 522-538. doi: 10.1080/15235882.2022.2052203
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2021). Dual language as white property: Examining a secondary bilingual-education program and Latinx equity. American Educational Research Journal, 58(6) 1107-1141. doi: 10.3102/00028312211052508
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2021). Racist and raciolinguistic teacher ideologies: When bilingual education is “inherently culturally relevant” for Latinxs. The Urban Review, 54(4) 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-021-00628-9
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2021). The problem with Latinx as a racial construct vis-à-vis language and bilingualism: Toward recognizing multiple colonialisms in the racialization of Latinidad. In E. G. Murillo, Jr., et al. (Eds.), Handbook of Latinos & Education (2nd ed., pp. 164-180). Routledge. PDF
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2021). U.S. empire and an immigrant’s counternarrative: Conceptualizing imperial privilege. Journal of Teacher Education, 72(2) 209-222. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487120919928
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2019). Researching Latinxs, racism, and white supremacy in bilingual education: A literature review. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 17(2) 101-120. doi: 10.1080/15427587.2019.1624966
  • Chávez-Moreno, L. C. (2018). A review of “Stamped from the Beginning”: On a definitive history of anti-Black racism. Education Review, 25, 1-5. doi: 10.14507/er.v25.2407

Courses

Undergraduate
  • Latinxs & Public Education
  • Critical Race & Ethnic Studies in Education
  • Latinx Literacies
  • 10B – Introduction to CCAS
Graduate
  • Teaching & Learning Racialization
  • Critical Race Theory & Latinxs

Student Advising

Dr. Chávez-Moreno welcomes applications from prospective graduate students who are interested in developing lines of research with these or similar topics:

  • how education makes Latinidad
  • the specificity of the Latinx racialized category in education
  • teachers’ racial-literacy practices
  • teaching of critical race & ethnic studies in secondary classrooms
  • using a relational racialization lens in education research
  • advancing critical race theory in education research
  • examining imperial privilege
  • and other areas where she can employ her expertise to advise students in their independent research projects

Dr. Chávez-Moreno especially welcomes applications from prospective graduate students who have experience as secondary-level classroom teachers or other similar practitioner experience. Please read Dr. Chávez-Moreno’s publications for information on her research expertise