Diversity Series features speaker on surviving segregation and racial violence

Yakima Valley College’s 2022 Diversity Series presents a virtual conversation featuring Rubisela Gamboa, a scholar who has explored the undocumented migrant experience and grew up on the Yakama Reservation. The free event will be held on Wednesday, May 25 at 10:30 a.m. PST. A Q&A will follow the lecture. Register for the event online.

Gamboa’s talk will focus on surviving segregation and racial violence, drawing upon an understanding of the historical Chicana/o experience.

Gamboa is an associate professor and chair of the American Ethnic Studies Department at Ventura College in Ventura, Calif., where she teaches history and Chicana/o studies. She grew up on the Yakama Reservation within a farmworker family. As a first-generation college student, she earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Eastern Washington University and master’s degree in Mexican American studies from the University of Arizona.

As an undergraduate she worked as an advocate and activist in her community through M.E.Ch.A (Movimiento Estudiantil de Change & Action) leadership, volunteering with the UFW Foundation  and as treasurer of the Yakima County Voters Registration Project. As a graduate student she contributed to research focusing on the undocumented migrant experience in the context of the criminal justice system and health concerns at the Arizona/México Border. She also worked as a researcher under Project EXPORT, exploring the prevention of drug use among Latino youth and adolescent sexual risk behaviors. Her passion in life has been to make a difference through higher education; guiding students in understanding Chicana/o history, self-identity and self-consciousness.

Since 2005 Yakima Valley College has partnered with several area organizations to host events and lectures through its annual Diversity Series. The events provide YVC the opportunity to bring diverse perspectives to everyday topics and push the boundaries of the term beyond race, gender, social class and sexuality.

For more information contact Counselor Vicente Lopez at vlopez@yvcc.edu.