2017 Teacher Training Workshop

Alexandra Stern is a professor of American Culture at the University of Michigan. She holds appointments in the Departments of History, Women's Studies, and Obstetrics and Gynecology. Currently she directs the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab in the Department of American Culture.

Her research has focused on the history of eugenics, genetics, society, and justice in the United States and Latin America. She also has written about the history of public health, infectious diseases, and tropical medicine. Through these topics, she has explored the dynamics of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, disability, social difference, and reproductive politics. She believes that historical research and analysis can provide important coordinates for understanding and navigating contemporary dilemmas in health, especially when it comes to reproductive health and genetic technologies.

Alana Rodriguez is the academic program specialist for the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. She joined the University of Michigan in January 2017, bringing administrative and area studies experience from her previous position as the administrative coordinator of the Center for Latin American Studies at San Diego State University (SDSU). She is finishing her MA in Latin American Studies and an MPH in epidemiology from SDSU. Her research interests lie in sexual and reproductive health disparities among rural adolescent and young women in Oaxaca and among women in Cuba, Indigenous worldviews related to health and sexuality, and Cuban reproductive health care policy and practice. Her thesis research was compiled over two summers in Havana, Cuba and looks at declining fertility rates in Cuba and, in particular, the impact of Cuba’s socialist policies on the notion of ‘choice’ in reproduction. She explored hidden barriers to fertility and questioned how recent capitalistic market reforms in Cuba may impact fertility in the future by indirectly addressing these barriers in unequal ways across the population. Her research questions whether these inequalities will surface along racial lines as a result of a colorblind racial policy instituted during and after Cuba’s revolution and may impact access to reproductive freedom. She received a BA in International Business at San Diego State University and a Licenciatura en Negocios Internacionales from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara.

Angelina Trujillo is an instructor of Mixtec language and culture at San Diego State University and interpreter of Mixtec (an Indigenous language spoken by Mixtec communities in the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Pueblo, and Guerrero) to English in the San Diego Federal Court. She is currently pursuing a masters in Latin American Studies from SDSU. She received her BA in medical anthropology with a specialty in Indigenous medicine and a minor in linguistics from California State University at San Marcos and has been conducting health-related field work in her home community of Ixpantepec, Nieves for over a decade.

Pamela Reister is the curator for Museum Teaching and Learning at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. Reister creates curricular tours that tie what students are learning in their social studies, science and writing classes to artwork in the museum.