Darrel Wanzer-Serrano
  • Director of Race and Ethnic Studies Institute
  • Associate Professor

Introduction

Darrel Wanzer-Serrano (PhD, Indiana University, 2007) is Director of the Race & Ethnic Studies Institute and Associate Professor in the Department of Communication & Journalism. He is also Core Faculty in the Latino/a and Mexican American Studies (LMAS) Program. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in rhetoric, race/racism, and Latina/o/x studies. His award-winning book, The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation, crafts a critical rhetorical history of the Latinx social movement organization and treats them as a touchstone for building decolonial theory and praxis. 

Biography

 

Dr. Darrel Wanzer-Serrano (PhD, Indiana University) is Director of the Race & Ethnic Studies Institute and Associate Professor in the Department of Communication & Journalism at Texas A&M University. He is also Core Faculty in Latino/a & Mexican American Studies. His research is focused on the intersections of race, ethnicity, and public discourse, particularly relating to shifting cultural and organizational terrains. His last book, The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation, is the first scholarly monograph on one of the most significant organizations of the Puerto Rican diaspora. More recently, he edited a forum in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, for which he penned the introduction, titled “Rhetoric’s Rac(e/ist) Problems,” which is among most viewed/downloaded articles in the history of the journal. Trained in critical/cultural approaches to rhetorical studies, he was the first to bring Latinx/Latin American decolonial theory and methods to his home field of communication. Currently, Wanzer-Serrano is conducting critical interpretive research related to the discourse of emerging Hispanic-Serving Institutions as co-PI of the EVOLVE HSIs study.



Courses Taught

  • COMM 343: Communication in a Diverse World
  • COMM 423: Communicating Latinidad
  • COMM 431: Rhetoric of Social Movements
  • COMM 616: Topics in Communication Methods || Topic: Archival Methods & Thought
  • COMM 635: Communicating Race/Racism
  • COMM 658: Seminar in Communication & Culture || Topic: Decoloniality

Research Interests

  • Humanities & Critical/Cultural Studies
  • Rhetoric and Public Affairs

Specialty

  • Latinx/a/o Studies
  • Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
  • Hispanic-Serving Institutions

Selected Publications

  • Representative Publications

    Books

    Wanzer-Serrano, Darrel. The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation . Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2015.

    In The New York Young Lords and the Struggle for Liberation , Darrel Wanzer-Serrano details the numerous community initiatives that advanced decolonial sensibilities in El Barrio and beyond. Using archival research and interviews, he crafts an engaging account of the Young Lords’ discourse and activism. He rescues the organization from historical obscurity and makes an argument for its continued relevance, enriching and informing contemporary discussions about Latino/a politics.

    “Professor Wanzer-Serrano has made a significant contribution to scholarship through his book. His sophisticated discussions of theory and praxis, his bold move to challenge contemporary conceptions of coloniality, and his detailed case study … render this not only a book worth reading, but also one that becomes part of the canon of rhetorical studies , a hallmark of the best work rhetoric has to offer…. In short, I would say that it is now not possible to talk about race, otherness, marginality, or power seriously in rhetorical studies without having to confront Wanzer-Serrano’s suggested optic of decoloniality .” (Kent Ono, Advances in the History of Rhetoric 21.3 [2018])

    Wanzer-Serrano, Darrel. The Young Lords: A Reader . New York: New York University Press, 2010.

    The Young Lords offers readers the opportunity to learn about this vibrant organization through their own words and images, collecting an array of their essays, journalism, photographs, speeches, and pamphlets. Organized topically and thematically, this volume highlights the Young Lords’ diverse and inventive activism around issues such as education, health care, gentrification, police injustice and gender equality, as well as self-determination for Puerto Rico. In recovering these rare written and visual materials, Darrel Wanzer-Serrano has given voice to the lost chorus of the Young Lords, while providing an indispensable resource for students, scholars, activists, and others interested in learning about this influential grassroots “street political” organization.