Multiple Award Winning Book
How Schools Make Race
Teaching Latinx Racialization in America
A groundbreaking investigation of how everyday schooling practices produce racial meanings, boundaries, and the Latinx racialized group while unintentionally hindering anti-racist efforts
About Laura Chávez-Moreno
she/ella/they
Laura Chávez-Moreno is an award-winning researcher, qualitative social scientist, and assistant professor at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Departments of Chicana/o & Central American Studies and Education. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education in Curriculum & Instruction.
Dr. Chávez-Moreno’s 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. Click here for Publications.
She has been awarded the 2026 American Sociological Association Section on Sociology of Education Anna Julia Cooper Award and the 2025 Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA) Early Career Award. Other recognitions include awards 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. 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 School District of Philadelphia for five years, wrote district curriculum, and served on boards of community organizations. She grew up in Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Sonora, México.
Accolades
Recipient of the CRSEA Early Career Scholar Award
May 29, 2025 | Community Arts Auditorium, Mcgregor Conference Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Assistant Professor, UCLA Department of Chicana/o & Central American Studies
Joint appointment with the UCLA Department of Education
2018-2021
Postdoctoral Scholar at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies
- 2026
- 2025
- 2025
- 2025
- 2025
- 2024-2025
- Grant Award, UC Society of Hellman Fellows
- 2024-2025
- Grant Award, UCLA Institute for American Cultures and UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
- 2023
- Alan C. Purves Award from National Council of Teachers of English for journal article “The Continuum of Racial Literacies: Teacher Practices Countering Whitestream Bilingual Education,” Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 57, Issue 2, Nov 2022, p. 108 – 132.
- 2023-2024
- Award, Latinx Studies Seed Grant, UCLA
- 2022
- National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship, for project: “Teaching Racialization: Latinidad and Equity”
- 2020-2022
- National Council of Teachers of English Research Foundation’s Cultivating New Voices Among Scholars of Color Program
- 2019
- Distinguished Dissertation Award, American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division G Social Context in Education, Sole Award Winner
- 2019
- Outstanding Dissertation Award, American Educational Research Association (AERA) Bilingual Education Research Special Interest Group, First-place Award Winner
- 2019
- Outstanding Dissertation Award, American Educational Research Association (AERA) Hispanic Research Issues Special Interest Group, Sole Award Winner
- 2019
- Outstanding Dissertation Competition, American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, Third-place Award Winner
- 2019
- Honorable Mention in Outstanding Dissertation Award, National Association of Bilingual Education
- 2017-2018
- American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Ford Foundation Graduate Student Fellow
- 2017-2018
- Advanced Opportunity Fellowship/University of Wisconsin, Madison, Education Graduate Research Scholar (Provided 1 year of tuition/fees & stipend)
- 2016-2017
- Arvil S. Barr Graduate Fellowship; Awarded to one PhD candidate annually by University of Wisconsin, Madison, School of Education from nomination by University of Wisconsin, Madison, Curriculum and Instruction Program (Provided 1 year of tuition/fees & stipend)
- 2015-2016
- Carrie R. Barton Memorial Scholarship Award; Awarded $7,000 to one graduate student annually in support of pre-dissertation research of PhD student in English Language Arts; Awarded by University of Wisconsin, Madison, Curriculum and Instruction Program
- 2015-2016
- Annalee Good, Principal Investigator; Ira & Ineva Reilly Baldwin Wisconsin Idea Endowment Grant for Wisconsin Policy, Outreach & Practice (WiPOP) project: “Creating Dialogue Between Public Policy & Teacher Practice: Refining the ‘WiPOP’ Model”
- 2013-2014
- Advanced Opportunity Fellowship/University of Wisconsin, Madison, Education Graduate Research Scholar (Provided 1 year of tuition/fees & stipend)
- Chicanx/Latinx education
- Critical race & ethnic studies in education
- Relational racialization
- Intersection of racialization, language, literacy, and education
- Racial literacy
- Bilingual education
- Urban schooling
- Teacher education, teaching, & pedagogy
- Qualitative research methodologies
Education
B.S. in Education
Northern Arizona University
- Secondary Education
- Extended Major in Spanish
- Minor in Latin American Studies
- Magna Cum Laude
M.A.
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Educational Studies
- Emphasis: Literacy, Language, and Culture
Graduate Certificate
Boston College
Curriculum & Instruction
Ph.D.
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Curriculum & Instruction
- Emphasis: Languages & Literacies, Critical Race Studies, and Pedagogy
- Minor: Qualitative Research Methods & Methodology in Education
Research Funders
How Schools Make Race
Teaching Latinx Racialization in America
How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America reveals how schools unintentionally engage in race-making work, teaching students about race both implicitly and explicitly through everyday educational practices. Drawing on ethnographic research in a Spanish-English bilingual education program, Laura Chávez-Moreno shows how educational policies, pedagogy, language ideologies, and broader societal ideas interact to produce, reinforce, and sometimes blur racial boundaries. In doing so, the book illustrates the contradictions that emerge even within schools and communities committed to anti-racism.
This provocative book challenges assumptions that the Latinx category is a straightforward ethnicity and reconceptualizes it as a racialized group, showing instead how Latinidad is continuously constructed and contested through educational institutions and in relation to Blackness, Indigeneity, Asianness, and Whiteness. Chávez-Moreno offers new insights into racialization, Latinidad, and inequity in educational settings while identifying possibilities for ambitious teaching that enhances students’ critical consciousness and disrupts the racial ideas that undermine anti-racist efforts.
Ultimately, Chávez-Moreno’s groundbreaking work demonstrates that understanding how our schools teach about Latinidad reveals how our society understands race and imagines solutions to racial inequities. The book’s lessons are essential not only for scholars but also for educators, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand how race is made, maintained, and challenged in everyday institutional life.
Praise
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Accolades
Publications
Refereed Articles in Research Journals
Book Chapters
Book Review
Media
Interviews
Features & Reviews
Videos
Audio
Latino racialization in schools & after-school programs | Amplified Houston Friday
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Events
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Keynote Speaker
How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America
Lunch and Learn - How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America
Series on Structural Racism & the Root Causes of Prejudice
How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America
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Prospective Students
Prof. Chávez-Moreno 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.
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
Prospective graduate student applicants: Please read Dr. Chávez-Moreno’s publications to gain insight into her research expertise. She reviews applications through her appointments in both the Department of Chicana/o & Central American Studies and the Department of Education. Prospective students interested in working with her should apply to one of these departments. Dr. Chávez-Moreno especially welcomes candidates with secondary-level classroom teaching or other relevant practitioner experience, though all applicants with a strong interest in related research areas are encouraged to apply.
Guest Speaker in Prof. Zeus Leonardo’s graduate course “Critical Race Theory, Education & Society” (University of California Berkeley)
Photo by Zeus Leonardo (Nov 2024)
Contact
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