Biography
Dr. Breny Mendoza is Professor of the Department of Gender and Women's Studies and Academic Lead of the M.A. program in Diverse Community Development Leadership at California State University, Northridge.
She received her Ph.D. from Cornell University in City and Regional Planning with an emphasis on feminist theory and Latin American Studies. Her BA and MA in Political Science were obtained from the Ruprecht-Karl University of Heidelberg and the Free University of Berlin in Germany. Her research is focused in the areas of feminist decolonial theory, political theory, transnational feminism, and Latin American Studies.
Books and articles
Breny Mendoza’s work has appeared in book chapters in the US, Brazil, Spain, Argentina and Colombia and in journals such as Signs, Feminist Studies, Feminist Theory, Women’s Studies Quarterly, feminist@law, Latin American & Caribbean Ethnic Studies- LACES, Tapuya, Journal of World Philosophies and Mesoamerica, Revista Centroamericana de Ciencias Sociales and Istmo. She has published three books: Sintiendose Mujer, Pensandose Feminista (Editorial Guaymuras,1996), a book about the making of the feminist movement in Honduras, Rethinking Latin American Feminisms (LASP, Cornell University, 2000), co-edited with Debra Castillo and Mary Jo Dudley a book based on a conference held at Cornell University in 1999 and the single-authored book Ensayos de Crítica Feminista en Nuestra América. The book was published in October 2014 by Editorial Herder Mexico as the first publication of their new book series on Latin American decolonial feminisms. The book compiles nineteen essays that offer poignant critiques of Latin American feminisms, Western feminist theories, postcolonialism, queer theory, Marxism, theories of empire and the new theories of decoloniality in Latin America.
Her latest articles are:
“La Cuestión del Imperio Español y la Leyenda Negra” In: E-Humanista: Journal of Iberian Studies, College of Letters and Science of the University of California Santa Barbara, United States
"Presentación. Debate sobre la colonialidad y los feminismos descoloniales en los sures globales” With Karina Ochoa Muñoz. Tabula Rasa, 38, 11-23, (2021)
"Latin American Decolonial Feminist Philosophy of Knowledge Production” with Sandra Harding. In: The Routledge Handbook of Feminist Philosophy of Science. New York, Routledge pp. 104-116 (2021).
“Decolonial Theories in Comparison” Journal of World Philosophies Vol. 5 No. 1, Indiana University Press (2020).
"Can the Subaltern save us?" Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society, Volume 1, 2018 - Issue 1
"Colonial Connections" in Feminist Studies Volume 43, Number 3 (2017)
“Coloniality of Gender and Power: From Postcoloniality to Decoloniality” in the Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory in April, 2015,
Forthcoming book: Colonialidad, Género y Democracia, Editorial Akal, 2022.
Courses taught:
- GWS 440 Latin American Feminisms
- GWS 430 Global Sexualities
- GWS 400 Senior Seminar
- GWS 370 Women and Violence
- GWS 350 Gender, Race, Class, and Sexuality
- GWS 340 Women and Global Development
- GWS 305 Women’s Studies Community Service Learning
- GWS 300 Women as Agents of Change
- GWS 301 Feminist Theories
- GWS 100 Introduction to Gender and Women's Studies