Alejandro Ollin Prado is a PhD candidate in the department of Chicana/o Studies and Ford Dissertation Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his BA in Chicana/o Studies and Anthropology from the University of California, Riverside, and his Masters in Chicana/o Studies from UCSB. Alejandro’s research areas of expertise consist of Marxism, Critical Globalization Studies, Cultural Political Economy, Labor Studies, Urban Studies, Chicanx Studies, and Critical Environmental Justice Studies. His current dissertation project, Chicanx Material Conditions: Chicanidad and the ‘Rise of China,’ Global Capitalism, and International Solidarity in 21st Century Los Angeles, California, explores the relationship between 21st century Chicanx/Latinx communities in Los Angeles and China. Through a mixed-method approach of qualitative and quantitative approaches, Prado urges a transnationalization of the discipline of Chicanx Studies to engage with the dialectical relationship between global capitalism and contemporary Chicanidad. His work has received the Cervantes Student Premio by the National Association of Chicana Chicano Studies for its innovative contributions to the discipline. Prado has published an article, War on Terror Paradigm and Contemporary Civil Uprising” in the global-e Journal where he explores the similarities between state repression and rhetoric in the Middle East and in Portland, Oregon in response to the uprising in the 21 st century. Currently, he has a journal article under review, “Chicana-Chicanx Studies: Vendido Politics and Global Capitalism in Los Angeles, California,” in Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies. He looks forward to continuing his work with students and community members upon leaving UCSB.
