Litzy Galarza

Litzy Galarza is a first-generation Mexican American and Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Galarza’s research is situated at the intersection of Media Studies, Latina/o/x Studies, and Citizenship Studies. Her scholarship focuses on the representation of Latina/o/x labor and citizenship in popular media, including television and advertising. Galarza’s work appears in the International Journal of Communication (2021) and the Howard Journal of Communications (2022) as well as in the following edited collections: The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture (2023), Immigrant Generations, Media Representations, and Audiences (2021), and The Routledge Companion to Media and Class (2019). At Pitt, Dr. Galarza teaches courses in Latina/o/x media, media and consumer culture, race/ethnicity, and gender in popular media (especially television), and media law, among other topics. In fall 2022, NCA’s Latina/o Communication Studies Division and La Raza Caucus awarded Dr. Galarza, and second-author Paulina A. Rodríguez Burciaga, the “Book Chapter of the Year Award” for “Un Puente a la Mesa: The Role of Cultural Translators in the Production of Disney/Pixar’s Coco.” In fall 2017, Galarza’s conference paper, “‘#IMMIGRATIONREFORM’: Jane the Virgin speaks back to power and complicates representations of pan-Latinidad identities in television,” was part of the top papers panel for the National Communication Association’s Latina/o Communication Studies Division and La Raza Caucus. Dr. Galarza is currently working on her first book, which addresses discourses of Latina/o/x citizenship and belonging in the television series Jane the Virgin.

Education

PhD Mass Communications, Pennsylvania State University

MA Journalism Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia

BA Journalism & Political Science, University of Arizona

Biography

Dr. Galarza’s research lies at the intersections of Latina/o/x media, citizenship, and advertising studies. Her work is most concerned with Latina/o/x citizenship and labor in the culture industries. Dr. Galarza’s latest work has been published in the International Journal of Communication, the Howard Journal of Communications, and in the 2021 anthology “Immigrant Generations, Media Representations, and Audiences” edited by Omotayo O. Banjo.  

Video

Recorded Lecture with Northwestern University's Center for Latinx Digital Media
Litzy Galarza and weaving biography and scholarship - Podcast on Spotify

Publications

Journal Articles

Galarza, L. (2022). Alba the Undocumented: Immigration Law and Citizenship Excess in Jane The Virgin. Howard Journal of Communications, 33:2, 160-179

Galarza, L., & Stoltzfus-Brown, L. (2021). 84 Lumber’s Constrained Polysemy: Limiting Interpretive Play and the Power of Audience Agency in Inspirational Immigrant Narratives. International Journal of Communication, 15, 20, 41-60

Book Chapters

Galarza, L. (2021). Language, Telenovelas, and Citizenship: A Mexican Immigrant’s Exploration of First-Generation American Narratives in Jane The Virgin. In: O.O. Banjo (Ed.). Immigrant Generations, Media Representations, and Audiences. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Galarza, L., & Rodríguez Burciaga P.A. (2021). Un Puente a la Mesa: The Role of Cultural Translators in the Production of Disney/Pixar’s Coco. In: O.O. Banjo (Ed.). Immigrant Generations, Media Representations, and Audiences. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

McAllister, M. P., & Galarza, L. (2019). Working-class bodies in advertising. In E. Polson, L. S. Clark, & R. Gajjala (Eds.). The Routledge Companion to Media and Class (pp. 17-26). New York: Taylor & Francis/Routledge. 

Book Review

Galarza, L. (2022). Book Review of Lynn Stephen’s “Stories That Make History: Mexico through Elena Poniatowska’s Crónicas.” Journalism History Journal.