Bio

Susy Zepeda

Susy Zepeda was born in Monterey Park, California to two Mexican migrants from El Limón, Jalisco and Chínipas, Chihuahua. Raised primarily by her Mexicana mother, tías and tíos, and prima/os along with her two sisters in the Los Angeles area. Susy remembers as a child often climbing the cerro and visiting el rio in her mother’s hometown in Mexico with instruction and guidance from her abuelita, Rosario. Zepeda is a former 5 th grade teacher for Los Angeles Unified School District, and currently an assistant professor in the Department of Xicana/x Studies at the University of California, Davis. She is a self-identified queer Xicana Indígena whose scholarly work is intentionally interdisciplinary, decolonial, and feminist. Zepeda received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and her B.A. from California State University at Long Beach. Susy’s research and teaching focus on: women of color feminisms, critical race and ethnic studies, collaborative methodologies, decolonization and spirit work, oral history, visual storytelling, and intergenerational healing. Most recently, Susy’s writing “Creating an Altar for the Healing of our Younger Self” and “Decolonizing Spirit in the Classroom con Anzaldúa” appear in the 2019 anthology Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices. Susy is a part of the Santa Cruz Feminist of Color Collective, who published the collaborative article “Building on ‘the Edge of Each Other’s Battles’: A Feminist of Color Multidimensional Lens.” Zepeda is currently working on her first book manuscript, Tracing Queer Mesoamerican Diasporas: Remembering Xicana Indígena Ancestries.