Arcelia Gutiérrez
Assistant Professor, Film & Media Studies
School of Humanities
School of Humanities
Affiliated Faculty, Chicano/Latino Studies
School of Social Sciences
School of Social Sciences
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2019
Email: arceliag@uci.edu
University of California, Irvine
2212 Humanities Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697
2212 Humanities Gateway
Irvine, CA 92697
Research Interests
Latinx Media Studies, Media Activism and Advocacy, Industry Studies
Websites
Short Biography
Dr. Arcelia Gutiérrez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she specializes in Latinx studies, media activism studies, and media industry studies. She is the author of "Deploying Latinidad: A Genealogy of Media Advocacy and Activism" (New York University Press, 2027). The book traces the ways Latinx activists have fought against the stereotyping and underrepresentation of Latinxs in US English-language radio, television, and film. Dr. Gutiérrez has also published articles about Latinx Twitter, Latinx social media entertainment, and media reparations. In 2023, she was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Award.
Publications
Books:
Deploying Latinidad: A Genealogy of Media Advocacy and Activism, Critical Cultural Communication Series, New York University Press, 2027.
About the book: The 1980s and 1990s—frequently labeled the "Decade of the Hispanic" and the "Latino Boom"—marked a critical turning point for the formulation of Latinidad in the United States, defined by both the institutionalization of a panethnic identity and the widespread commodification of Latino culture. Yet despite this cultural visibility, Latinx presence in film and television remained restricted to narrow stereotypes of criminality and domestic servitude.
In "Deploying Latinidad," Arcelia Gutiérrez offers a genealogy of Latinx media advocacy from the 1980s to the early 2000s, tracing the strategies media activists used to confront and redefine industry representation and employment practices. Set against the backdrop of Reaganomics, neoliberalism, and media deregulation, the book examines diverse forms of resistance: protests against film stereotypes, demands for equitable employment at local television stations, consumer boycotts of talk radio, pushback for an inclusive public television system, and calls for media reparations.
Gutiérrez explores how multiculturalism, the culture wars, and the institutionalization of Hispanic panethnicity informed and enabled varied political deployments of Latinidad. By offering a rigorous consideration of the so-called "Decade of the Hispanic" and "Latino Boom," Deploying Latinidad underscores the ways marginalized groups leverage collective agency to contest structural inequalities and racial oppression within the media industries.
Deploying Latinidad: A Genealogy of Media Advocacy and Activism, Critical Cultural Communication Series, New York University Press, 2027.
About the book: The 1980s and 1990s—frequently labeled the "Decade of the Hispanic" and the "Latino Boom"—marked a critical turning point for the formulation of Latinidad in the United States, defined by both the institutionalization of a panethnic identity and the widespread commodification of Latino culture. Yet despite this cultural visibility, Latinx presence in film and television remained restricted to narrow stereotypes of criminality and domestic servitude.
In "Deploying Latinidad," Arcelia Gutiérrez offers a genealogy of Latinx media advocacy from the 1980s to the early 2000s, tracing the strategies media activists used to confront and redefine industry representation and employment practices. Set against the backdrop of Reaganomics, neoliberalism, and media deregulation, the book examines diverse forms of resistance: protests against film stereotypes, demands for equitable employment at local television stations, consumer boycotts of talk radio, pushback for an inclusive public television system, and calls for media reparations.
Gutiérrez explores how multiculturalism, the culture wars, and the institutionalization of Hispanic panethnicity informed and enabled varied political deployments of Latinidad. By offering a rigorous consideration of the so-called "Decade of the Hispanic" and "Latino Boom," Deploying Latinidad underscores the ways marginalized groups leverage collective agency to contest structural inequalities and racial oppression within the media industries.
Journal Articles:
“The Case for Media Reparations,” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 64, no. 4 (Summer 2025): 159-165.
“Situating Representation as a Form of Erasure: #OscarsSoWhite, Black Twitter, and Latinx Twitter,” Television and New Media 23, no. 1 (2022): 100-118.
“Pero Like and Mitú: Latina Content Creators, Social Media Entertainment, and the Politics of Latinx Millenniality,” Feminist Media Histories 7, no. 4 (2021): 80-106.
“No More Prostitutes, Pimps, & Pushers: Deploying Hispanic Panethnicity in Media Advocacy,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 36, no. 4 (2019): 309-322.
“The Case for Media Reparations,” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 64, no. 4 (Summer 2025): 159-165.
“Situating Representation as a Form of Erasure: #OscarsSoWhite, Black Twitter, and Latinx Twitter,” Television and New Media 23, no. 1 (2022): 100-118.
“Pero Like and Mitú: Latina Content Creators, Social Media Entertainment, and the Politics of Latinx Millenniality,” Feminist Media Histories 7, no. 4 (2021): 80-106.
“No More Prostitutes, Pimps, & Pushers: Deploying Hispanic Panethnicity in Media Advocacy,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 36, no. 4 (2019): 309-322.
Grants
2023-2024, National Endowment for the Humanities Faculty Award.
Professional Societies
Society for Cinema and Media Studies
Latina/o Studies Association
Research Centers
2024-2025, Center for Liberation, Anti-Racism & Belonging Fellow, University of California, Irvine.
Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6977
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6977
Last updated
09/08/2026
09/08/2026