New Mexico State University is now home to the “Chicana/Latina Studies Journal: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS).”
MALCS is an organization for self-identified Chicana, Latina, Native American and gender non-conforming students, scholars and activists. The journal’s goal is to promote inclusive and diverse scholarly manuscripts, art, essays, creative writing and book reviews. It is published twice a year. The organization also produces MALCS radio and a podcast to promote the scholarship shared in the journal.
To introduce the community to the mission of the journal, two professors in the College of Arts and Sciences and one in the Honors College, are hosting a public celebration with food, music and various campus leaders speaking about their support for the project from 12 to 2:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16 at Garcia Center’s backyard located on the east side, on the NMSU Las Cruces campus.
With the 40th anniversary of the national organization, Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social, and now with the Chicana/Latina Studies Journal at NMSU, Judith Flores Carmona, Manal Hamzeh and Georgina Badoni will usher in a new era at NMSU, stretching the boundaries of knowledge creation, teaching and femtoring, a term Chicanas have coined and used it as a challenge to the male-centered western etymology of mentoring. They want the community to understand the value of marginalized ways of knowing, research and academic publishing.
“This launch is an exciting opportunity to bring the supporters and community together to celebrate that the journal is finally here, and we will be completing the first fall issue later this semester,” said Flores Carmona, associate professor of education and faculty fellow for the Honors College in the office for equity, inclusion and diversity. “It’s also the kickoff event to Latinx/Hispanic Heritage Month so we are joining with several offices across campus in this very exciting time.”
The “Chicana/Latina Studies Journal: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social” began at the University of California at Davis in 1991. After a competitive process which included two major universities, one in California and another in Texas, NMSU was chosen to lead the journal for the next five years.
The vision and mission in the NMSU team proposal seeks to expand the definitions and perspectives of transborderly feminisms. Two other editors, Grisel Y. Acosta, a professor from New York, and Annamarie Perez from California, will round out the editorial group making decisions on research selected to appear in the journal.
“Editing the journal offers a unique opportunity to bridge with colleagues living on/with other borderlands and colonial borders worldwide. We want to build up the existing work of MALCS scholars in the journal with publications by Indigenous Native, Palestinian and Arab feminists,” said Hamzeh, a professor in the Department of Borderland and Ethnic Studies. “We aspire to publish knowledges of feminists not only from the borders of Mexico and the U.S. but also the borders in northern New Mexico and borders of Palestine/Jordan militarized by the settler colonial state of Israel.”
Badoni, an assistant professor of Native American Studies, is focused on the artists and images to bring to the journal.
“I have a really strong background in visual arts, mostly in Native American visual arts, focusing on Native American women. I think I’m the first Native American woman to be part of this publication,” Badoni said. “Bringing an Indigenous Native person into this journal widens that definition of what borderlands are and what borders are. Being Navajo, I understand border towns and those divisions are realities for Native peoples throughout the United States and also north among First Nations peoples.”
Santa Fe artist Avis Charlie will be the featured artist in NMSU’s first edition of the journal.
A couple of MALCS board members will be on campus in an all-day meeting Thursday, Sept. 15. A panel discussion by scholars in feminist thought, including the Chicana/Latina Journal’s previous editor, will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at Domenici Hall, Room 109. The MALCS board members also will attend the launch celebration Sept. 16.
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