Bio
Dr. Anita Tijerina Revilla is a Muxerista and Jotería activist-scholar, Professor, and former Chair of the Department of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at California State University, Los Angeles in the College of Ethnic Studies. With over 25 years of experience in research, teaching, and leadership in higher education, she is a nationally recognized scholar in Jotería Studies, Muxerista pedagogy, Critical Race Theory, and Women of Color feminisms.
Dr. Revilla’s scholarship centers student movements, queer and feminist activism, immigrant rights organizing, and social justice education as vital sites of knowledge production and resistance. Her work theorizes Muxerista and Jotería consciousness, spirit restoration, radical love, and femtorship as liberatory frameworks that bridge community struggle and academic spaces. She is co-editor of Marching Students: Chicana and Chicano Activism in Education, 1968 to the Present, recipient of the American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Book Award, and co-editor of the forthcoming Jotería Studies: A Radical Reader. Her publications appear in journals such as Aztlán, Chicana/Latina Studies, Educational Foundations, Frontiers, and leading law reviews. Her recent and forthcoming work advances theorization of Muxerista femtorship, healing-centered pedagogies, and interventions against academic spirit murder.
Dr. Revilla has held administrative leadership roles for more than a decade. At Cal State LA, she has mentored lecturers into tenure-track positions, launched the Ethnic Studies Pedagogies Certificate, strengthened graduate pathways into doctoral programs, and institutionalized transformative and healing justice practices within departmental culture. Previously at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, she co-founded and chaired the Department of Interdisciplinary, Gender, and Ethnic Studies, revitalized multiple Ethnic Studies programs, expanded Gender and Sexuality Studies into a major and graduate curriculum, and helped establish campus-wide diversity and social justice infrastructures.
Her teaching is rooted in Muxerista and Jotería pedagogies that center queer and feminist students, community, testimony, storytelling, and activist praxis. Across her career, she has femtored dozens of students and has received multiple awards for excellence in teaching, research, mentoring, and social justice leadership.
Dr. Revilla is co-founder of the Association for Jotería Arts, Activism, and Scholarship and has been an active member and leader in NACCS and MALCS, and other scholarly communities for over two decades. She is a frequent keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, offering national and international talks on spirit restoration, healing justice, and queer Chicana feminist praxis.
A proud Southsider from San Antonio, Texas, and graduate of Harlandale High School, Dr. Revilla is the first in her family to attend college. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, her master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, and her doctorate from the UCLA Graduate School of Education. She is also a visual artist whose paintings honor her community and embody her commitment to creativity, healing, and liberation.
Anita Tijerina Revilla, PhD. Joteria and Muxerista Studies Scholar 