ChicaNerds in Chicana Young Adult Literature: Brown and Nerdy

Cristina Herrera holds a PhD in English from Claremont Graduate University and is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Chicano and Latin American Studies at California State University, Fresno. She is the author of Contemporary Chicana Literature: (Re)Writing the Maternal Script. Cristina has also coedited multiple anthologies, including Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx/Latinx Young Adult Literature (with Trevor Boffone and Voices of Resistance: Essays on Chican@ Children’s Literature (coeditor with Laura Alamillo and Larissa M. Mercado-López). Journal publications include "Seeking Refuge Under the Mesquite: Nature Imagery in Guadalupe García McCall’s Verse Novel" (Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, Summer 2019), "Soy Brown y Nerdy: The ChicaNerd in Chicana Young Adult (YA) Literature" (The Lion and the Unicorn: A Critical Journal of Children’s Literature, Fall 2017), and "Cinco Hermanitas: Myth and Sisterhood in Guadalupe García McCall’s Summer of the Mariposas" (Children’s Literature, 2016), among others.