Torres retired from the University in June 2021. She was an Associate Professor in the Departments of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies and Chicano and Latino Studies, with adjunct status in American Studies.

Beginning college at the age of thirty-five, she received her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota and taught in the College of Liberal Arts for thirty years. A specialist in Chicana/x feminisms, cultural studies, and critical pedagogy, Torres focused on the intersecting and overlapping nature of socially-constructed categories like race, class and gender. She tried to inspire students to analyze and think critically about the world around them and to see themselves as important historical actors.

Because she was nominated for these awards by her students, Torres is most appreciative and proud of winning the Arthur "Red" Motley Award for Exemplary Teaching 2003-2004, and the Council on Graduate Studies Outstanding Faculty Award, 2013.

Torres is the author of Chicana Without Apology/Chicana sin vergüenza: The New Chicana Cultural Studies. During her tenure, Torres served two terms as the Chair of the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies.

Educational Background & Specialties
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Educational Background

  • Ph.D.: American Studies, University of Minnesota, 1998 - none

Specialties

  • race, class & gender
  • Chicana/o cultural studies
  • Chicana/Chicano history and politics
  • Chicana feminist theory
  • Feminist & Critical Pedagogies
  • Gender, Labor & Politics