Viviana G. López, Ph.D. 

In fall 2008, Viviana joined the faculty of the Bilingual Education Department at Boise State University. She is a first-generation college graduate who’s educational, social, and political experiences helped shape her desire to pursue and earn a college education.  Her bachelor’s degree in General Studies: Sociology and Education was earned from Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, DC.  Her Master’s degree from New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Educational Administration & Leadership and she earned a Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction with an emphasis in Literacy, Language, and Culture with a minor in Bilingual Education from New Mexico State University. 

Viviana brings her academic development where she locates educational equity and social justice issues central to her cultural and intellectual work in education.  Her eclectic pedagogical approach recognizes, nurtures, and promotes learning as an inclusive cultural, linguistic and diverse set of values that is influenced by Freirean and Indigenous notions of how individuals make meaning in their lives.   Viviana’s dissertation, “Forging a path of ACTION towards liberation: How Indigenous Research provides opportunities for conscientizacion in a group of Mexicanas along a U.S./Mexico border town” includes theoretical frameworks such as Border, Indigenous/Latin@ Critical Race, Sociocultural and Feminist Theories.  Her community and research interests include the impact of hegemony on disenfranchised communities, social justice and equity issues, race relations, critical literacy, linguicide, identity/language/culture, inequities in education, research as praxis, and issues relating to Indigenous peoples, Latin@s, immigrants, and other disaffected communities and their residents. 

Viviana is a member of National Association of Bilingual Education (NABE),  National Association for Multicultural Education (NAME), National Indian Education Association (NIEA), American Educational Research Association (AERA) including Specific Interest Groups (SIG) Co-Chair for the Paulo Freire; Critical Educators for Social Justice; Critical issues in Curriculum and Cultural Studies; Curriculum Studies;  Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.  She is also co-organizer for the2009 International Conference on Education, Labor and Emancipation (CONFELE)  forthcoming in Salvado, Bahia, Brasil and former 2006 CONFELE held in El Paso, Texas/Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México.