Christine Vega

Christine Vega serves as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at San Jose State University's College of Social Sciences, where she conducts community-engaged scholarship focused on transformative resistance through cultural spaces. Her work directly addresses contemporary challenges to Ethnic Studies curricula amidst political efforts to ban people of color histories.

Her research spans community partnerships, Motherscholars, first-generation education, Chicana Feminisms, spirituality, counterspaces, and activism. Currently, she is conducting fieldwork at Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural in the Northeast San Fernando Valley through listening tours, archival analysis since 2001, and community interviews to document how cultural centers function as vital hubs for Ethnic Studies education. This work positions community spaces as essential locations of hope and resistance against systemic erasure of marginalized histories.

Vega's scholarship integrates current socio-political movements with academic practice, emphasizing community voice elevation and humanistic research methodologies. She draws inspiration from San Jose activist scholars like Josie Mendez-Negrete and Chicana movement historians including Dolores Delgado Bernal, while mentoring the next generation of scholar-activists at SJSU to lead transformative work in both academic and community contexts.

Scientific Awards: No awards, fellowships, or medals were mentioned in the source material.

Advising and Grants: Vega actively supports student development through the President's and Dean's Scholars program and community-based research initiatives. While specific grant funding isn't detailed, her methodology prioritizes practical collaboration with communities of color to address local needs through humanistic research frameworks.

Labs and Teams: Her primary research collaboration occurs at Tía Chucha's Centro Cultural, where she engages with community activists and participants in the Northeast San Fernando Valley through structured listening tours and archival projects focused on cultural resistance and educational transformation.