
Norma Elia Cantú, Ph.D.
- Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities , Modern Languages and Literatures
Born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas and raised in Laredo, Texas, I am intimately bound to the US-Mexico border region. As a scholar, I focus on issues of borders and boundaries whether in academic disciplines or the geopolitical borderlands of Mexico and the United States, all through a Chicana feminist theoretical lens. I write poetry and prose, what I call creative autobioethnography, also with a focus on the borderlands and heavily rooted in the cultural traditions of the region. My life formation as a working-class Chicana shapes my intellectual and aesthetic endeavors and impels me to act to deconstruct the oppressive structures that exist in society. I passionately believe that words have power and that literature has the potential to create the change we need. I work with my students to use the power of their stories and their words to create a better world for all sentient beings.
The US-Mexico Borderlands, Chicana Literature, Folklore, Literary Theory
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