2023 Castro Visiting Professor has two big questions for Roadrunners to consider before her Oct. 16-17 visit.

Metropolitan State University of Denver is excited to welcome Nancy López, Ph.D., as the 2023 Richard T. and Virginia M. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professor. López is an author and professor of Sociology at the University of New Mexico. Guided by the insights of intersectionality in all her work, López directs the Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice, which she co-founded. She also is the founding coordinator of the New Mexico Statewide Race, Gender, Class Data Policy Consortium.  

In advance of the events, the Early Bird spoke with Lopez about experiences in life and work that inspired her to pursue the study of “race” and intersectionality, and why she has gravitated toward public institutions.

You consistently use quotation marks around the term “race” in your scholarly work. How would you define the term, and how might you like to see conversations and perspectives on it shift or evolve throughout higher education?

There’s a saying in many Spanish-speaking Latinx homes: “No se puede tapar el sol con un dedo — you can’t cover the sun with one finger.” It is true that there is no biological basis for race or ethnicity as both are social constructions; however, they are analytically distinct and require different questions. Race is a visual, ocular and corporeal dimension. I place “race” in quotation marks to call attention to the myth of race as genetic or biological ancestry. Ethnicity refers to cultural background/heritage, which is not concordant with race. Regardless of intent, Office of Management and Budget federal guidelines’ initial proposal to conflate race and ethnicity by asking about two analytical distinct concepts in one question does harm and nullifies intersectional analysis of social inequalities. If this goes forward, it will have real negative consequences for an accurate count in the 2030 census, documenting segregation in schools, as well as for documenting discrimination and advancing equity policy in voting, housing, employment, health and distribution to marginalized communities.   

I recently co-authored a UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute Report titled “Centering Black Latinidad: A profile of the U.S. Afro-Latinx Population and Complex Inequality. Using Census Bureau data, we find that despite higher levels of educational attainment and labor-force participation, Black Latinx communities experience higher rates of poverty and lower rates of homeownership than their non-Black Latinx counterparts.  

We also find similar results in my co-authored Urban Institute report titled “Observing Race and Ethnicity From a New Lens: An Exploratory Analysis of Different Approaches to Measuring ‘Street Race,’” which is the first empirical study to include the category “brown/moreno-no negro,” in a street-race/perceived-race question, in the U.S. context. (Introducing) categories that have never been tested in any Census Bureau test may reduce the number of people who check “some other race” and illuminate inequities in education that would become visible for Latinx people racialized as brown-not-Black, in relation to Latinx people racialized as white. We must do no harm. We need a moratorium on any changes to federal guidelines until a National Academies consensus study on the scientific meaning and measurement of race, ethnicity and intersectionality is completed before the 2030 census and on a regular basis from then on. There’s too much at stake to proceed with massive changes to our civil-rights data infrastructure based on two studies conducted by the Census Bureau that have not been peer-reviewed and ignore the preponderance of evidence that just like gender and sexuality are not interchangeable, race and ethnicity are not the same thing and require separate questions.  

I invite you to think about what you will you do to advance our ethical and professional responsibility to do no harm. How can you support federal race and ethnicity guidelines that advance equity for those at the margins of power?  

You’ve spent the overwhelming majority of your time as a student and a scholar in public universities. What has consistently drawn you to serving the students and missions of public institutions?

I’ve had the privilege of teaching in public universities for over 30 years. This commitment stems from my own visceral understanding of the role these institutions play for those who have traditionally not had access to higher education and the joy of learning from my students and community. I first started teaching as a graduate student at a variety of campuses in the City University of New York. One of my first classes was at La Guardia Community College — a bilingual class that enrolled immigrant mothers, very much like my mom, factory and service workers, who navigated many other challenges to create a better future for their families and communities. I had the privilege of being the first Latinx woman in the Sociology Department at UMass Boston, as a joint appointment with the Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy. Though I was only there for two years, it was a generative oasis of convivencia, community-building and leadership development for service to community.  

I have also had the pleasure of working at UNM for 22 years. In partnership with faculty who also committed to creating innovations that center community cultural wealth, I have been part of scholars that have dedicated their lives to opening doors and creating impactful spaces for students who have traditionally been underrepresented in higher education. I am proud to say that I have served on over 85 Ph.D. and M.A. committees. This year was a particularly joyful year for me as I had the privilege of chairing/co-chairing completed-dissertation committees. Four of five were Latinx students, including two Black Latinx, including Chicanx and Puerto Ricans, all of whom were first in their families to have the privilege of earning a four-year college degree and gifted me with their cultural wealth, brilliance and insights from their ancestors. They are each leaders in their own right in academia as assistant professors, postdocs and visiting faculty.  

Were there any experiences during your early education when the ideas of equity, access or resource imbalance began to crystallize? How might those experiences in your formative years have influenced your academic pursuits and research?   

Both of my parents, immigrants from the Dominican Republic, did not have the privilege to pursue education beyond the second grade. I’ll quote my Black Dominican mother, who taught me and my siblings, all of whom were born in NYC. Whenever we faced any injustice, she would say: “No dejes que nadie robe tu derecho ni tu felicidad — Don’t let anyone rob you of your rights or your joy.” I often draw on this nugget of inspiration when navigating. I remember being in a classroom in the second grade in the Lower East Side when a teacher said that since I was an English Language Learner, I wouldn’t be able to excel in school. I thought back to what my mom taught me and actually told the teacher that I didn’t think so because two languages are better than one. When I was told that I shouldn’t consider graduate school or that I should teach certain classes or much less create a universitywide requirement titled “U.S. and Global Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Power” or “DEIP” I thought about my mom’s advice to move mountains with truth-telling. I along with other scholars with peer-reviewed research and teaching in the learning outcomes of the requirement explained to the curriculum committee in my faculty senate that a diversity requirement without the word “power” in the title and learning outcomes would not be rigorous. I also explained that interdisciplinary peer-reviewed research and teaching shows the benefits of deep engagement with power for advancing critical thinking, student success and lifelong learning. Just like we wouldn’t have people reviewing the content of physics or biology classes without expertise in those areas, we need to protect the integrity of a rigorous diversity requirement. That means only people with peer-reviewed records of teaching/research are qualified to review courses for approval.  

What topics will you touch on in your Castro Visiting Professorship keynote address, and what can attendees expect to learn?

I’m humbled, honored and joyful about the opportunity to speak in this year’s Castro Professorship. I am inspired by the theme of “Del Peligro al Poder/From Danger to Power: Navigating the Obstacles to Critical Cultural Truth in Educación.” I would invite all of us to reimagine how we think about equity and justice by engaging in intersectionality at inquiry and praxis (action and reflection) as we work more just futures for all. How could we develop new visions on complex inequalities that are analytically distinct and yet simultaneous? In particular, how could developing this new vision on systems of inequality such as race, gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, immigration status, citizenship, disability, etc., help us advance equity and justice in the education landscape?   

I hope to share how I have engaged in lifelong action and reflection to create what my colleague Ruth Zambrana, author of “Toxic Ivory Tower: The Consequence of Work Stress on Underrepresented Minority Faculty,” calls “equity lifts.” Whether that is through advancing research-practice partnerships on the implementation of ethnic studies in high schools as a lever for building communities of practices committed to healthy and future-oriented youth or collaborating with elected officials to create a state-senate bill to add a parent/guardian’s level of education — a missing but crucial (component to) building a baseline institutional data infrastructure for intersectional analysis and distribution of resources that is grounded in the understanding that educational inequalities are complex. 

Finally, although none of us created systems of oppression/resistance based on race as a visual, social, gender, ethnicity/cultural background/heritage, class, disability, sexuality, immigration or citizenship status, etc., we are all located within these structures, even when we deny their existence. Better disaggregated data does not conflate race and ethnicity data, cultivates flexible solidarity and practices intersectionality as inquiry and praxis and leads to more accurate diagnoses and better, targeted, equitable policymaking needed to close the complex social inequalities faced by everyone in Latinx communities and beyond. Imagine a future where we all embrace reflection and act to create a more perfect union for all.

I look forward to the possibilities of imagining working together toward a more just future in community dialogue, action and reflection with all of you.