Rate My Professor Magdalena Barrera

Dr. Magdalena L. Barrera is a Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at San José State University, currently serving as Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Accreditation Liaison Officer. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University in 2006 and a Bachelor of Arts with honors in English and Latin American Studies from the University of Chicago in 1997. Her career at SJSU includes roles as Vice Provost for Faculty Success from 2020 to 2025, Professor and Department Chair of Chicana and Chicano Studies, inaugural Director of the Ethnic Studies Collaborative in the College of Social Sciences, Faculty-in-Residence for Diversifying the Faculty in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for two years, and Faculty Fellow at the Chicanx/Latinx Student Success Center for one year. In her leadership positions, she oversees Faculty Success, Institutional Effectiveness and Accreditation, Institutional Research and Strategic Analytics, Graduate Studies, Undergraduate Education, and Undergraduate Advising and Success. She directs SJSU’s Accessible Technology Initiative and Hispanic-Serving Institution activities, emphasizing collaboration, academic culture, faculty recruitment, onboarding, evaluation, and professional development.

Barrera’s academic interests encompass higher education processes and navigational strategies, Chicanx history, literature, film, comparative Ethnic Studies, and public speaking. She teaches courses such as Chicana/o Literature (CCS 144), Mexican American History (CCS 10A and 10B), Chicanx Film (CCS 170), Comparative Ethnic Studies (CCS 252), Chicanx Families (CCS 115), Public Speaking (CCS 74), and Applied Chicana/o Studies Seminar (CCS 240). Key publications include the co-authored book The Latinx Guide to Graduate School (Duke University Press, 2023), providing a roadmap for marginalized students in graduate programs. Her refereed articles feature “ ‘I Love How We Developed a Community Already’: A Graduate Student Orientation Model for Minority-Serving Programs and Institutions” (Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 2020), “‘Doing the Impossible’: Tracing Mexican Women’s Experiences in Americanization Curricula, 1915-1920” (California History, 2016), “Domestic Dramas: Mexican American Music as an Archive of Immigrant Women’s Experiences, 1930–1950” (Aztlán, 2012), and others. She has contributed book chapters, public scholarship in Inside Higher Ed and Ms. Magazine, conference papers, and reviews. Awards include the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (1996-97) and Institute for Citizens and Scholars Career Enhancement Fellowship (2011-2012). Her contributions have shaped faculty and student success initiatives at SJSU.