معرفی
Mercedes Chavez serves as Assistant Professor of Media Studies in the Department of Television, Film, and Media Studies at California State University, Los Angeles, within the College of Arts and Letters. Her teaching portfolio spans undergraduate courses including Intro to Media Writing, Media, Culture & Identity, Media Theory, and Media Criticism, alongside graduate offerings in contemporary Media Theory, Post WWII Media History, and Television History & Criticism. She maintains an active research agenda with regular student appointments via Microsoft Bookings.
Dr. Chavez's research investigates transnational production, history, and aesthetic theory in independent US and Latin American cinemas, with particular attention to women and queer filmmakers. Adopting decolonial and feminist frameworks, she explores intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class, and geopolitical location in cinematic narratives. Her work critically examines connections between culture, technology, settler colonialism, and ecological underpinnings in slow cinemas. The current book project, Origin Stories, analyzes the emergence of sensual slow cinema aesthetics through directors including Lucrecia Martel, Alfonso Cuarón, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
Her scholarly publications demonstrate a consistent focus on transnational cinema, slow cinema aesthetics, and ecological discourse. The 2021 article in Afterimage examines the Anthropocene in Kelly Reichardt's films, while the forthcoming piece in The Journal of Cinema and Media Studies analyzes Lucrecia Martel's Zama. These works collectively highlight her methodological approach of triangulating transnational film exports, Eurocentric expectations for Global South cinemas, and regionally inflected cinematic expressions through sensorial and landscape signifiers.
No scientific awards or fellowships are mentioned in the available information.
Dr. Chavez advises undergraduate and graduate students in media studies, though specific advisees are not listed. She collaborates on film projects with her husband Mike Kash, including the in-production documentary With Grace directed by Jonathan R. King, which investigates healing through creative play and memory. Grant information is not provided in the source text, but her creative collaborations represent active professional engagement beyond traditional academic boundaries.
Her primary creative partnership involves film projects with Mike Kash, most notably With Grace—a documentary exploring the healing power of creative play through sculptor/poet/performer Grace Zabriskie's practices. This project blends imaginative reenactment, archival media, and performance to investigate how art creates radical spaces for joy amid trauma, emphasizing the fluidity of memory and reconciliation of difficult experiences.
