Chela Sandoval

Dr. Chela Sandoval is Associate Professor and Chair Emerita at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on Indigenous Texts, De-Colonial Feminism, Liberation Philosophy, and Radical Semiotics. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Her research focuses on decolonial methodologies, spiritual activism, and the history of consciousness. Sandoval's interdisciplinary work bridges indigenous epistemology, feminist theory, and media studies to examine power structures and liberation practices. Her scholarship emphasizes transformative knowledge systems and activist praxis.

Sandoval is the award-winning author of Methodology of the Oppressed and has co-edited several anthologies including Performing the US Latina and Latino Borderlands and The Chicano Studies Reader. Her current research explores Story-Wor(l)d-Art-Performance-as-Activism (SWAPA) and Shaman-Nahual/Witness Ceremony frameworks.