Biography
Gabriela Díaz de Sabatés is assistant professor in the Humanities, History, and Social Sciences department at Columbia College Chicago. Her teaching areas are Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies, Women's Life Stories, and Latin American Feminisms. She served as the coordinator for the Minor in Latin American Studies from 2018 to 2022.
Dr. Díaz de Sabatés research interests center on life narratives, gender, race, ethnicity, immigration, and Latin-American feminisms from an intersectional approach. With the understanding that life narratives create, reform, and refashion personal and collective identity, her research concentrates on the meaning that women-identified people make of their own experiences, utilizing life narratives as an effective feminist method of inquiry. She is currently working on women’s life narratives in the U.S. and Latin America, connecting their testimonies with gender, art and social activism.
Dr. Díaz de Sabatés teaching style is interdisciplinary in nature, pivoting on student collaboration and development of critical thinking skills, especially in areas related to committed theorizing and community activism. Since hired, she has taught “Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies”, “Women and U.S. Society”, “Introduction to Latin American Studies”."Women's Life Stories", and "People, Power and Narrative: Unsung Heroines". During her first semester at CCC (2017) Dr. Díaz de Sabatés created the course “Women’s Life Stories” which has been taught periodically with full enrollment. In 2019 and in collaboration with Dr. Richard King, Gabriela co-developed the CCCX 215 umbrella theme "People, Power, and Narrative in Chicago" and within the theme created the course "Unsung Heroines", which has been taught regularly with full enrollment since its creation.
Dr. Díaz de Sabatés coordinated the Latino and American Studies Lecture Series, where students, faculty and staff across our college gather to learn from the expertise of their peers on Latin American issues. Also, in 2022 and in conjunction with Dr. Sabatés, she created Columbia's Study Abroad program in Latin America: "Latin American Culture, Arts and Gender in Argentina". The program generated instant interest among students and faculty and had a robust enrollment: It took the first group of students during 2023 J-Term and is slated to be repeated yearly, already enrolling students for the 2024 J-Term.
Since arriving to Columbia in the Fall 2017, Dr. Díaz de Sabatés has over 5 articles published in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals, and regularly presented her work at several national and international conferences in both English and Spanish. From 2019 to 2021, Dr. Díaz de Sabatés served as member of the DEI Executive Committee, position that she throughly enjoyed. She is also a member of a multi-national research team working on the feminization of migrations, funded by the Spanish Government and of LASA (Latin American Studies Association).
DEGREESPh.D., Curriculum and Instruction, Kansas State University, 2014
Graduate Certificate, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Kansas State University, 2014
M.Ed., Risk and Prevention, Harvard University, 1994
B.A. (Licenciatura), Psychology, University of Buenos Aires, 1989
Instructional Areas
Women, gender, and sexuality studies; Latino and Latin American studies, women's life stories, oral stories and narratives, gender and immigration, state violence and gender.
Creative Practice and Research Interests
Dr. Díaz de Sabatés research interests center on life narratives, gender, race, ethnicity, immigration, and Latin-American feminisms with an intersectional approach. With the understanding that life narratives create, reform, and refashion personal and collective identity, her research concentrates on the meaning that women make of their own experiences, utilizing life narratives as a feminist method of inquiry.
Degrees
M.Ed., Harvard University 1994
Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction Kansas State University 2014