Associate professor

Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
M.A., University of Texas at Austin
Licenciatura en Filosofia, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua

Lucila Vargas's main academic interest is communication and social change (i.e., development communication). For her teaching and research, she takes a social constructivist stance, and she relies on qualitative methods for her research. Her first book, Social uses and radio practices. The use of radio by ethnic minorities in Mexico (Westview Press, 1995), and other publications pay special attention to the role of media and communication in the reproduction of class, gender, race and ethnicity. The same interest in difference led her to edit the anthology Women faculty of color in the white classroom. Implications of teacher diversity in higher education (Peter Lang, 2002). It compiles narratives written by 16 women professors on the classroom challenges and opportunities of "other” teachers.

In the last 10 years, she has been working on issues related to Latinos/Hispanics and the media, such as the representation of Latinos in the mainstream media and on the coverage of health in Latino-oriented newspapers. She is writing a book (Peter Lang, forthcoming) that explores the relationship between identity and media and popular culture among a small group of working-class, transnational Latina young women. Her work has been published in several anthologies and also in Fem (the preeminent feminist journal in Latin America), The Howard Journal of Communication, The Urban Review, Social Education, The Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, and Critical Studies in Media Communication.

Vargas is an associated faculty with UNC-CH’s Institute of Latin American Studies where some of her classes include content on Latin American and Caribbean studies. She received a Chapman Family Faculty Fellowship from UNC-CH’s Institute for the Arts and Humanities (2002) and was Professor-in Residence of UNC-CH’s Year-at-Seville Study Abroad Program (Spring 2003). Also, Her students nominated her as a distinguished member of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (2001). Her public service includes serving on the boards of the North Carolina Humanities Council (2002-2005) and involvement in several local grass-roots organizations serving Latinos.

Office phone: (919) 962-2366
Office location: Carroll 359
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
Personal URL: www.unc.edu/~lcvargas/vargas_homepage.html