J. Rubén Díaz Vásquez

J. Rubén Díaz Vásquez is an interdisciplinary scholar of race, immigration, coloniality, performance, and literature in Chicanx and Mexican culture, with a specialization in Indigeneity. He is currently a PhD Candidate in the Modern Thought & Literature Program at Stanford. His current dissertation studies the ubiquitous representations of Indigeneity—Indigenous history, aesthetics, and identity—in late 20th century poetry and cultural performances by Mexican-origin people on both sides of the border. His dissertation is tentatively titled, “Between Tenochtitlan and CalifAztlan: Making Mexicanidad and the Poetics of Indigeneity, Performance, and Culture.” It juxtaposes analyzes of Chicanx and Mexican poetry with ethnographic observation of Aztec Dance in the Bay Area and Mexico City. This interdisciplinary and transnational methodology allows for understanding Indigeneity as it is localized in the body, the body’s rehearsal of identity and heritage, and the body’s experiences of racial structures across/crossing borders. 

Díaz Vásquez’s research areas include Latinx studies, Critical Latinx Indigeneities, Nahuatl studies, Latin American studies, and Decolonial Thought. Across all his areas of research, Díaz Vásquez practices community-engaged, collaborative scholarship in research and teaching practices. He works with Aztec Dance practitioners in the Bay Area and in Mexico City. He is also student of the Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnologica de Zacatecas (IDIEZ), which is an Indigenous-led non-profit organization that supports language revitalization of Nahuatl language and cultures. At Stanford, Díaz Vásquez has mentored, taught, and collaborated with the Centro Chicano y Latino, the Center for Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity, the English Department, the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, and the Center for Latin American Studies. 

Díaz Vásquez holds a Master of Arts in Sociology from Stanford, and a B.A. in Sociology from Emory University with a minor in Creative Writing. He combines interdisciplinary research training, community-engaged experience, and a passion for teaching to develop curricula and research agendas that advance education’s power to transform communities from the ground-up.