De La Torre, Monica. (In-progress). Feminista Frequencies: Chicana Radio Praxis in Community Broadcasting. Book manuscript under advance contract at the University of Washington Press.
ABOUT ME
Know Me Better
Discover My
ACADEMIC ACTIVISM
Monica De La Torre is Assistant Professor of media and expressive culture in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University. De La Torre’s interdisciplinary research and teaching practices bridge Chicana feminist theory, Latinx feminist media studies, radio and sound studies, and women’s and gender studies. A former community radio producer and member of the Los Angeles based radio collective Soul Rebel Radio, De La Torre analyzes media content and production practices in community radio. De La Torre’s forthcoming book, “Feminista Frequencies: Chicana Radio Praxis in Community Broadcasting,” details the powerful story of Chicana and Chicano farmworkers and media activists turned community radio broadcasters beginning in the 1970s.
“What I love most is becoming more and more fearless.”
– Maria Hinojosa
EDUCATION
Field of Studies
2016
Ph.D. Feminist Studies
University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
2009
M.A. Chicana and Chicano Studies
California State University, Northridge, Northridge, CA.
2005
B.A. Psychology and Chicana and Chicano Studies
University of California, Davis, Davis, CA.
“We decided that it was important to have a woman’s program addressing women’s issues, that focused on music by women, and that’s what we did on the show Mujer.”
– Rosa Ramón
PUBLICATIONS
Discover My Works
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
De La Torre, Monica. (2018). “Sonic Bridging: The Radio Preservation Task Force and Archiving Spanish-Language/Bilingual Radio in the United States” in “Archiving as Activism Forum” (Forum Co-Editors: Kathleen Battles and Nora Patterson) for New Review of Film and Television Studies Volume 16 (4) pp. 446-453.
De La Torre, Monica. (2015). “Programas Sin Vergüenza (Shameless Programs): Mapping Chicanas in Community Radio in the 1970s.” Women’s Studies Quarterly WSQ: The 1970s Volume 43, Numbers 3&4 pp. 175-190.
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapters
De La Torre, Monica. (2018). “Feminista Frequencies: Chicana Radio Activism in the Pacific Northwest.” In ¡Chicana Movidas! Mapping Technologies of Resistance in the Moviemiento Era edited by Maylei Blackwell, María Eugenia Cotera, and Dionne Espinoza. Austin: University of Texas Press. Purchase on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
Habell-Pallán, Michelle, Sonnet Retman, Angelica Macklin, and Monica De La Torre. (2018). “Women Who Rock: Making Scenes, Building Communities (Convivencia and Archivista Praxis for a Digital Era).” In Routledge Companion to Media Studies and Digital Humanities edited by Jentery Sayers. London and New York: Routledge. Purchase on Amazon.
Peer-Reviewed Online Publications
Casillas, D. Inés and Monica De La Torre. July 11, 2019. “Looking Back on the Lesser Known Histories of Chicano Public Radio.” Current: News for People in Public Media https://current.org/2019/07/looking-back-on-the-lesser-known-histories-of-chicano-public-radio/
De La Torre, Monica. October 12, 2015. “SO! Reads: Dolores Inés Casillas’s ¡Sounds of Belonging!” Sounding Out!: The Sound Studies Blog, http://soundstudiesblog.com/2015/10/12/so-reads-dolores-ines-casillas-sounds-of-belonging/
De La Torre, Monica. May 20, 2013. “Chicana Radio Activists and the Sounds of Chicana Feminisms.” Sounding Out!: The Sound Studies Blog, http://soundstudiesblog.com/2013/05/20/chicana-radio-activists-and-the-sounds-of-chicana-feminisms/
Manuscripts in Progress
De La Torre, Monica. “El Sonido del Activismo: Media Activism in Spanish-Language Community Radio.” Journal article in preparation.
De La Torre, Monica. “The Emergence of the Latina Nerd in Film and Television.” Journal article in preparation.
“Only 4 percent of tenured or tenure-track women faculty members in the United States are Latina (78 percent are white, 7 percent are African American, and 7 percent are Asian American), and only 3 percent of women full professors are Latina.”
TEACHING
Teaching Experience
I teach courses at the undergraduate and graduate level spanning introductory content, interdisciplinary methodologies, and creative media production grounded by a feminist social justice framework that promotes equity, innovation, and collaboration. I value every person in the classroom as both a teacher and learner, an approach which then frames my work as a pedagogue to facilitate critical thinking and collaborative inquiry that interrogates power and privilege within the spectrum of social difference, facilitate students’ ability to connect to, question, and critique course material through their own lived experiences and perspectives, and incorporate opportunities for students to learn to think creatively and critically. I utilize a variety of methods in my teaching and assessment with the goal of engaging a diverse classroom and the different ways students learn, including traditional exams (multiple-choice and short essays), research essays, group projects, reflection papers, and creative digital projects.
-
Latina/o Media and Pop Culture
-
Chicana/o Film
-
Latina/os in Hollywood
-
Introduction to Transborder Society and Culture
-
Epistemologies and Transborder Thought
-
Latinx Feminist Media Studies
- Undergraduate Courses
-
-
Latina/o Media and Pop Culture
-
Chicana/o Film
-
Latina/os in Hollywood
-
Introduction to Transborder Society and Culture
-
- Graduate Courses
-
-
Epistemologies and Transborder Thought
-
Latinx Feminist Media Studies
-
“I dream my painting and I paint my dream.”
– Vincent van Gogh
BLOG
Tune In
CONTACT
Get in Touch
If you would like to learn more about what Monica De La Torre PhD is doing or if you would like to invite her to speak to your students or faculty, contact her by filling out the form on this site.
Follow me
© 2023 All Rights Reserved | MonicaDeLaTorrePhD.com