On May 5, 2014 Larissa Mercado-Lopez, Ph.D., presented to well over 100 people in the University Union room 311 on the ways in which discussions of size, fitness, and health are complicated by the conflicting cultural and mainstream constructions of Latina bodies and identity. Dr. Mercado-Lopez's presented engaged with feminist theory to examine how "fit" bodies are colonized in mainstream media and exclude the bodies of women of color.
Dr. Mercado-Lopez earned her Ph.D. in English/Latina literature from the University of Texas at San Antonio and completed her dissertation on a Ford fellowship. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Women's Studies Department at Fresno State University.