Clarissa Rojas, Ph.D. 
California State University, Long Beach
Chicano & Latino Studies Dept.
1250 Bellflower Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90840-1004
Tel. (562) 985-7689
Fax (562) 985-4631
Email: crojas2@csulb.edu
(Ana) Clarissa Rojas Durazo spent her childhood in Mexicali, Mexico and Calexico, California. Her family immigrated to Chula Vista, California when she was 12. Her father’s family is from Guadalajara, Jalisco and her mother’s family is from Magdalena, Sonora and Nogales and Douglas, Arizona.
Clarissa received her PhD in (Medical) Sociology at UC San Francisco. She holds a M.A. in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University and a B.A. in Women’s Studies and Chicano Studies from UC Santa Cruz.
Prior to arriving at Cal State Long Beach, Clarissa taught for 9 years in Raza Studies, Ethnic Studies, Urban Studies, and Sociology at San Francisco State University. She also taught in Latin American Studies and Sociology at the University of San Francisco and in Chican@ Studies at UC Davis.
Her current research explores young Latinas’ experiences with and conceptualizations of multiple and intersecting manifestations of violence. Her transdisciplinary research and teaching interests include: Violence; Sex/Gender/Sexuality Studies; Race/Racialities; Chican@, Latin@, Latin American, Zapatista, Transnational, Decolonizing/Post-Colonial, and Women of Color Literatures, Feminisms and Movements; Globalization, Border and Migration Studies; Sociology of Health and Illness, Medical Violence and Latin@ Health; Cultural Studies.
Clarissa co-edited Color of Violence: the INCITE Anthology. http://www.southendpress.org/2005/items/8762X
Her article “Fighting Violence Against Women and the Fourth World War” appears in The Revolution will Not be Funded: The NonProfit Industrial Complex, which was awarded the 2007 Gustav Myers Outstanding Award for Advancing Human Rights. http://www.southendpress.org/2006/items/87662
Clarissa Rojas serves on the Editorial Board of Chicana/Latina Studies: the Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) http://malcs.net/journal.htm.
Her poetry has been published in literary journals in Mexico and the U.S.
Clarissa is a long-term community activist and organizer. Her community work has focused on resisting and transforming violence against and within raza and communities of color. She has been invited to speak throughout the United States and internationally and is available for a wide variety of speaking engagements. She co-founded INCITE: Women of Color Against Violence, and serves as Commissioner on CSULB’s President’s Commission on the Status of Women.
She practices rebel dignity, believes in caracoles, and trusts the creative spirit.