Dean Tiffany López featured on Erin Gruwell's podcast series "Freedom Writers"

The new dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, Dr. Tiffany Ana López, recently sat down with Erin Gruwell (B.A. '91, Humanities) for the podcast series "Freedom Writers." They discuss Dr. Lopez's journey from being a first-generation college student to becoming a leading voice in the fight for diversity and inclusion in higher education and the arts. The episode is filled with inspiring insights and personal anecdotes from both Lopez and Gruwell. 

 

Erin Gruwell is a teacher, author, podcaster and activist who has been fighting for social justice for over two decades. She first gained national attention in 1998 when she and her 150 students appeared on an ABC special-PrimeTime Live-with Connie Chung. Gruwell is the Executive Director at the Freedom Writers Foundation, an organization created to "inspire young, underprivileged students to pick up pens instead of guns." She is the author of The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them (1999). The 2007 film Freedom Writers and 2019 PBS documentary Freedom Writers: Stories from the Heart, are based on her story.  

 

Dr. Tiffany Ana López is a dramaturg, Latinx theater scholar and founding director of the Latina/o Play Project at the Barbara and Art Culver Center for the Arts in Riverside, California. She is a founding member of the Latino Theater Alliance of Los Angeles and the National Latinx Theater Commons. She is also the author of Growing Up Chicana/o. Her work explores stories about trauma and violence and their impact on personal transformation and social change. She has worked with numerous theaters, including the Mark Taper Forum, Cornerstone Theater Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, CASA 0101, and Breath of Fire Latina Theater. Recent dramaturgy includes Luis Alfaro's Mojada (Southwest Shakespeare), Octavio Solis' Mother Road (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), and Isaac Gomez's La Ruta (Artists Repertory). She is the recipient of a Hispanic Lifestyle Latina of Influence award, Fulbright, and numerous grants and fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and The Rockefeller Foundation. 

 

More info: 

Dr. Lopez's book, Growing Up Chicana/o: amzn.to/3Sn7Brq

The Freedom Writers Diary: amzn.to/3LM2w9D

Dear Freedom Writer: amzn.to/3LLDOq1