Originally from Southern California, Dr. Cristina Herrera is Professor of Chicanx and Latinx Studies and served as director and department chair of the department from 2021-2026 and served as Interim Vice Provost of Student Success from 2025-2026. Prior to arriving at PSU in 2021, she was a tenured faculty member at Fresno State in California. Cristina is a leading scholar of Chicanx literary studies and is the author and editor of multiple books on Latinx and Chicanx young adult literature, including Nerds, Goths, Geeks, and Freaks: Outsiders in Chicanx and Latinx Young Adult Literature (University Press of Mississippi), winner of the Children's Literature Association's 2022 Edited Book Award. Her monograph, Welcome to Oxnard: Race, Place, and Chicana Adolescence in Michele Serros's Writings (University of Pittsburgh Press), is the 2026 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Book Award winner.
Research Interests:
Chicana/Latina young adult literature, Chicana feminism, Chicana memoirs and life writing