Creel Falcón named Women’s and Gender Studies Director
Dr. Kandace Creel Falcón is the new Women’s and Gender Studies Director. Her term will begin in the Fall 2014 semester and will last for three years.
Dr. Creel Falcón is Assistant Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at MSUM. She teaches courses on feminist theory from a woman of color intersectional approach, digital media production for social justice, and popular culture. She values a practical application of feminist thought into direct action in her pedagogical approach and her scholarship. Creel Falcón earned a bachelor’s degree in Women’s Studies and Psychology with a minor in Leadership Studies from the University of Kansas. She earned a doctorate degree in Feminist Studies with a minor in Development Studies and Social Change from the University of Minnesota where she was awarded a MacArthur Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change MacArthur Scholar Fellowship. Her research blurs the boundaries between creative and academic writing with specific attention on the power of storytelling for Chicanas in the Midwest. Her scholarly investments center women of color feminist methodologies and she has used this approach to conduct oral histories with Mexican American women across Minnesota and Kansas, explore the Latina/o higher educational experience in Moorhead, Minnesota, examine the representation of Chicana/o identity in the media, and produce case studies on the successes of farmworker organizing in the state. Her research also investigates new media practices, specifically making, writing about and presenting on digital stories and social media activism.
The recipient of the Harvard University Schlesinger Library Oral History Grant, her work has been published in women’s and gender studies anthologies, Feminist Cyberspaces: Pedagogies in Transition (2012), El Mundo Zurdo 3 (2013), and Multicultural America (2013). She is currently editing an anthology on women’s writings on the social, political, and economic impact of the railroad in midwestern communities. She is an active member of the National Women’s Studies Association, the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Scholars, the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa, and Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social. She is the co-founder of Third Side Media, an independent consulting grassroots media-sharing group located in Moorhead, and serves on the board of the Chicano Latino Affairs Council (CLAC) for MN congressional district seven. In 2014 Creel Falcón joined the Blandin Foundation Board of Trustees, whose mission is to continue to support vibrant rural communities in Minnesota. She is passionate about social equity issues and speaks publicly on the issues of diversity, inclusion, and civic engagement for positive social change.
Congratulations to Dr. Creel Falcón on being named to this important leadership position.