Priscilla Leiva

Priscilla Leiva is an Assistant Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies and Ethnicity from the University of Southern California in 2014 and holds a B.A. in American Studies from Yale University. Her research interests include relational ethnic studies, urban history and sports history, particularly as it relates to place making and community formation. She is currently working on a book manuscript that examines how stadiums have produced and sustained racial meanings that shape ideas about the city and belonging. She is also the lead researcher for Chavez Ravine: An Unfinished Story, an oral history and archival collaboration that documents a long history of displacement and its aftermath in Los Angeles. Her research has been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, Social Science Research Council Mellon Mays Foundation, Smithsonian Institution, and University of Texas at Austin Center for Mexican American Studies. Her public humanities work includes collaborations with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, Imagining America, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and, most recently, Boyle Heights Museum.