Associate Professor

About

  • Office Hours

    Fall 2019 - Thursdays 2:00 to 3:00pm and by appointment

  • Role

    Faculty

  • Position

    • Associate Professor

  • Concentration

    • Chicana/Indigena Studies
    • Queer Studies
    • Visual Narrative Inquiry

  • Department

    • Ethnic Studies and Women's Studies & Gender Research

  • Education

    • B.S. University of California, Santa Barbara, M.A. San Diego State University, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Barbara
    • Chicana Dissertation Fellow

Biography

Maricela DeMirjyn, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Race, Gender and Ethnic Studies at Colorado State University, where she also serves as the Graduate Coordinator for the M.A. in Ethnic Studies and the Graduate Certificate in Gender, Power and Difference. Her interdisciplinary research bridges Chicana/Latina feminisms, queer studies, disability justice, and environmental humanities, with recent work focusing on queer eco-activism, ancestral healing practices, and visual culture as sites of resistance.

Dr. DeMirjyn has expanded the curriculum through innovative courses such as Queer Studies and Women of Color, Latinx Creative Expressions, Critical Disability Studies, and Queer Creative Expressions. She integrates multimodal pedagogy, including zines, digital storytelling, and art-based research methods, emphasizing student empowerment and community engagement.

Her scholarly publications and presentations explore themes such as spirituality, care praxis, activist aesthetics and environmental relationalities. A recipient of numerous awards—including the Ann Gill Faculty Development Award and fellowships in leadership and the humanities—she collaborates across disciplines and institutions on projects that center sustainability and transformative justice.

She has been an active member is several national academic organizations, including the National Women's Studies Association, the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies, and Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social.

TEACHING: ETST 537 Critical Disability Studies, ETST 535 Chicana Feminism: Theory and Form, ETST 502 Research Methods, ETST 454/SPCM 454 Chicana/o Film and Video, ETST 430 Latina/o Creative Expression, ETST 413 Queer Creative Expressions, ETST 300 Queer Studies and Women of Color, ETST 254 La Chicana in Society, ETST 205 Ethnicity and the Media

HONORS/AWARDS:

2025 Sustainability Acknowledgment, President's Sustainability Commission, CSU.

2024-2025  Interdisciplinary Team-Teaching, CLA. “Graphic Greenprints: Sustainability Stories in Marginalized Worlds”

2023  EnCircle Faculty Member “Connections & Community Across Campus”, CSU.

2022 Fellow in CLA Leadership Program, CSU.

2020-2021 Fellow CLA Humanities Center, CSU.

2018-2019 Ann Gill Faculty Development Award, CSU.

2016 HERS Leadership Institute Fellow.

2015 Disability Symposium Fellow, University of Michigan.

2012-2014 Women of Color Leadership Program Fellow, National Women’s Studies Association.

2011 Margaret B. Hazaleus Award, CSU.

Publications

DeMirjyn, M., 2025. “Waters of Resistance: Queer Eco-Liberationist Solidarity and the Spirit of Chalchiuhtlicue in Water Justice” in Ecological and Social Healing: Multicultural Women’s Voices (2nd Edition), Jeanine Canty (Ed.) Routledge, pp.92-102.

DeMirjyn, M., 2023, “Queering Eco-Activism: Ways of Organizing and Uplifting Conservation Efforts by Queer and Trans Eco-Activists.” Parks Stewardship Forum (UC Berkeley), 39(2), pp. 313-320.

Casto, M. A., Ogle, J., DeMirjyn, M. T., Morales, A., 2022. “Striving Towards Authenticity in the Self Through Dress and Appearance: Stories of Latina Adolescent Immigrants,” Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 0(0), 1-16.

DeMirjyn, M., 2020, “Dignidad Rebelde’s Art Activism: ‘Looking Back, Seeing Forward’,” The Journal of Global Studies and Contemporary Art, 7(1), pp. 211-235.

DeMirjyn, M., 2020, “Bridging MindBodySpirit in the Borderlands ReFraming of Disability,” The Journal of Gender and Women’s Studies, 3(1), pp. 1-8.

DeMirjyn, M., 2018, “The Goddess on Wheels: Maria R. Palacios,” Sexualities, 21(3), pp. 334-349.

DeMirjyn, M., 2015, “The Art of Social Movements and Intersectional Activism by Latinas/os and Queers of Color,” Border-Lines, Volume IX, pp. 21-37.

DeMirjyn, M., 2013, “Fighting in the Streets: Frida as a Chicana and Latina Revolutionary Icon,” Border- Lines, Volume 7 (1), pp. 66-80.

DeMirjyn, M., 2012, “Chicana/Latina Undergraduate Capital: Surviving and Thriving in Higher Education,” Ethnic Studies Review, Volume 33 (2), pp. 1-23.

DeMirjyn, M., 2012, “The Queer Filming of Frida: Creating a Cinematic Latina Lesbian Icon,”
Praxis: Journal of Gender & Cultural Critiques, Volume 23 (1), pp. 11-22.

DeMirjyn, M., 2011, “The Voicing of Chicana/Latina Ethnicity, Emotion and Equity in Higher Education,” Making Connections: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Cultural Diversity, Volume 13 (1), pp. 75-90.

DeMirjyn, M., 2009, “Las Madonnas Morenas: Feminist Narratives of Cultural and Sexual
Spirituality,” Phoebe: Journal of Gender and Cultural Critiques, Volume 21 (1), pp. 23-37.