Education:
Doctoral Candidate, City University of New York, The Graduate Center
MA, New York University
BA, California State University, Los Angeles
Bio/Affiliation:
Wendy Barrales (she, her, ella) is a feminist ethnic studies teacher, artist, and
founder of the WOCArchive, an intergenerational digital project preserving the visual
& aural stories of matriarchs of color. As a Xicana and daughter of formerly undocumented
Mexican immigrants, her family experiences and ancestral wisdom are at the root of
her decolonial pedagogy, community organizing, and visual art.
Wendy began her career as an educator working with LAUSD as a bilingual paraprofessional
and after school site supervisor. She has spent the last decade as a public school
educator in New York City teaching and learning alongside young women of color and
gender expansive youth through the power of art and storytelling. She has also facilitated
political education spaces through the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE)
and was a community engagement coordinator supporting families to resist school closures
in the South Bronx.
Wendy is currently all but dissertation (ABD) in pursuit of her PhD in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her work explores the intersections of gender and race within an arts-based feminist centered high school ethnic studies course. Through an intergenerational community archive she co-created with her students, her research seeks to nuance current understandings of ethnic studies by centering, preserving and celebrating the stories of women of color through art-based testimonios.
Awards/Honors:
2021 Educator Exhibition Grant Recipient, dándoles sus flores (giving them their flowers), Photoville & PhotoWings, Brooklyn, NY.
2021 CUNY Community Ambassador, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY.
2021 The Social Justice Award, New Media Lab at the Graduate Center, New York, NY.
2015 Fostering Girl Empowerment in Malawi and South Africa, Fund for Teachers Grant, New
York, NY.
Publications:
2021 Mangual Figueroa, A., & Barrales, W. Testimonio and Counterstorytelling by
Immigrant-Origin Children and Youth: Insights That Amplify Immigrant Subjectivities.
Societies,11(2), 38. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc11020038
2020 Badhey K., Barrales, W., Guerrero, N., Connecting Through Time: Intergenerational Family Storytelling. Photoville.
2020 Barrales W. (2020). primer país. Mujeristas Collective Virtual Zine. Website. Mujeristas Collective.
2020 Barrales, W. (Contributor). (2020, February 25). BIPOC: Navigating Grad School in Abolition Science Podcast