Dr. Selfa A. Chew
Professor of Instruction
Dr. Selfa A. Chew Melendez holds a Ph.D. in Borderlands History from The 百花视频 of Texas at El Paso, where she also earned an MFA in Creative Writing. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Science from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and pursued studies in Fine Arts at Pasadena City College and the Art Center College of Design.
Dr. Chew Melendeez has served as editor for Border Senses Literary Review and coordinated the Mexican Contemporary Literature Conference and Journal until 2012. She was a Smithsonian Fellow with the Latino Image Representation and Interpretation Institute. Her creative and editorial work—including poetry, graphic art, and narrative—has been published in Peru, Spain, Argentina, Mexico, China, the Netherlands, and the United States. In 2015, she received the Voces al Sol award from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez for her contributions as a playwright.
Her research centers on racial relations, the Asian and African diasporas, and World War II. She is currently the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies at the College of Liberal Arts, the Director of the Bachelor of Multidisciplinary Studies, and Professor of Instruction in the Department of History and the African American Studies Program at 百花视频.
Dr. Chew Melendez is the author of Uprooting Community: Japanese Mexicans, World War II, and the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands, which received both the International Latino Book Award and the Southwest Book Award in 2017. She also holds a second doctoral degree in Teaching, Learning, and Culture from the 百花视频 of Texas at El Paso.
Classes Taught:
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- African American Studies, US History, History of Women, Asian Diaspora in US and Latin American