Linda Garcia Merchant 11252 S. Normal Avenue, Chicago, IL 60628 c (312) 399-7811 f (773) 629-8170 [email protected]

EDUCATION 1982, B.S., with honors, Advertising Design/Photography Western Illinois University 2008-2009, Columbia College Chicago, MFA Film & Video, Follett Fellowship Recipient SELECTED PROFESSIONAL POSITIONS: Producer, Las Pilonas Productions, Phoenix, Arizona 2011 to present Project Coordinator, ‘The Virtual Reunification of the Wisconsin Latina Activist Network’ Course CLS 330: Past and Present Ideologies of the Chican@/Latin@ Movements, University of Wisconsin, Madison 2012 to present Technical Director ‘Chicana Por Mi Raza’ Digital Humanities Project, University of Michigan, 2009 to present Consultant, Somos Latinas Digital Humanities project, 2012 to present Organizing Manager, Voces Primeras, LLC, 2006 to present Web Designer/Developer, Duografix, 2000-2008 Adjunct Professor, Columbia College, Arts, Entertainment & Media Management Department “Management Applications for the Web”, 2000 to 2001 Editor and Content Producer, twotightshoes.net, Chicago, IL 1998 – 2003 Marketing Specialist/IT, Larry Gordon Agency, Chicago, IL 1998 to present Graphics Production Coordinator, 1996 Olympics /Atlanta. GES Exposition Services FILMS/PUBLICATIONS Producer, Director, “Chicana Por Mi Raza Digital Humanities Project: Mujeres del Partido” 2012 Director, ‘Thresholds’, February 2011 Writer, Producer, Four In Grace, 2009, Noelle, 2013 Blogpost, ‘Organized Coraje’, Summer of Feminista, Viva La Feminista, 2012 Producer, Co-director, ‘The A Word’, 2011 Blogpost, ‘Chicanas who spoke out and inspire’, Summer of Feminista, Viva La Feminista, 2011 Producer, Director, ‘Amigas! Fifteen Years of Amigas Latinas’ 2010 Producer, Co-director, ‘Palabras Dulces, Palabras Amargas’ (Sweet Words, Bitter Words) 2009 “From Ava Gardner to Mis Nalgas: The Story of My Brown Skinned Sexuality”, Dialogo, DePaul University Press, 2009. Producer, Writer, Director, ‘Las Mujeres de la Caucus Chicana’ 2007 Producer, Writer, Director, ‘Margaret Cruz: Little Giant’ 2007 Production Assistant, Second Camera, ‘A Crushing Love, Chicanas Motherhood and Activism’ Sylvia Morales, Director, 2007

PANELS/PRESENTATIONS Panel: ‘Going Digital: Chicano/Latino Projects Whose Time Has Come’ National Association of Chicana and Chicago Studies National Conference, San Antonio, Texas 2012. Panel: ‘The State of Women of Color Indie Filmmakers in Chicago’, Lake Shore Feature Film Filmmakers Seminar, Chicago 2013 Panel: 'The Talking Cure for Empire? Oral History & Testimonio in the 21st Century', American Studies Association Conference San Juan, Puerto Rico, 2012 Visual Historiography Presentation: ‘No Es Facil, Life as a Legacy Scholar’ Screening and Q&A: Las Mujeres de la Caucus Chicana, Wellesley College, Wellesley Massachusetts Roundtable: Raza Unida Party Legacy: A Chicana perspective Panel: The REEL Chicano Stories: Moviemaking and Documentaries. Screening: , “Chicana Por Mi Raza Digital Humanities Project: Mujeres del Partido” National Raza Unida Party Convention 40th Commemoration, University of Texas at El Paso and Mercado Mayapan, El Paso, Texas 2012 Roundtable: ‘Virtual, Visual Voices: Technological Tools for Women of Color’, Panel Moderator: ‘Testimonios: Mujeres De Arizona Forming Home and Healing in the Face of Rejection’, MALCS Summer Institute, University of California at Santa Barbara, 2012 Women’s History Month Plenary, ‘From Las Mujeres to Chicana Por Mi Raza: The Virtual Reunification of a Chicana Feminist Narrative’, University of Texas at El Paso, 2012 Chicana Caucus Plenary: ‘No Es Facil”. Life as a Legacy Scholar: Navigating the split seams, cracks and crevasses of a Chicana Feminist Movement‘, Panel: ‘Tortilleras in the Middle: Performing, Filming, Historicizing, and Writing the Midwest, Roundtable: ‘Uncovering the Chicana Archive: Problems, Challenges, and Possibilities’, National Association of Chicana and Chicago Studies National Conference, Chicago 2012. Moderator, Screening and Q&A with filmmakers, ‘Abuelita Perfecta’ and ‘A Crushing Love, Chicanas, Motherhood and Activism’, Panel: “Crossing Thresholds: Representing Queer Latin@ Filmmaking”, MALCS Summer Institute, California State University at Los Angeles, 2011 Special Session: “Chicana Por Mi Raza: Uncovering the Hidden History of Chicana Feminism (1965-1985) National Association of Chicana and Chicago Studies, Tejas Regional Conference, 2011 Panel: “Reimagining the Chicana archive: Documenting the development of Chicana feminist thought through new media” Reimagining the Archive, Remapping and Remixing Traditional Models in the Digital Era, University of California, Los Angeles, 2010 Workshop: ‘Speaking the Language: Engaging your world in the conversation of social movement through film’. Screening and Q&A: ‘The Story of My Beaten Burned and Defeated Soul’ as featured in ‘Palabras Dulces, Palabras Amargas’. National Coalition Against Domestic Violence Conference, Anaheim, 2010 Panel: “The Current State of Chicana Activism Through Film”, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2009 Women’s History Month Presentation University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2009 UCC Women’s Week Presentation Desert View UCC, El Paso, Texas, 2009 The 2008 Sor Juana Festival, Texas The Museo Alameda del Smithsonian San Antonio, Texas The Mexican American Cultural Center Austin, Texas (debut of the MACC in the festival) Screening and Q&A: Best of Cine Mujer University of Texas-Pan American Edinburg, Texas, 2008 Keynote Speaker: Women's History Month De Paul University, Chicago Illinois 2008 Screening and Q&A: National Women's Studies 29th Annual Conference Film/Video Series, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2008 Screening and Q&A: “Human Rights Week” University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, 2008 Panel: “Preserving the Dream”, 15th Annual 'Dia De La Mujer' Conference, Michigan State University, Lansing, 2008 Panel: "Chicana Foundations, Generations, Transformations: a Mother-Daughter Dialogue" NWSA Conference, 2007 AWARDS Screenplay ‘The Benjamin of the House’ chosen for Director’s Workshop, Lake Shore Feature Film Filmmakers Seminar, 2013 Chicana Por Mi Raza Digital Humanities Project: 2012 Scalable Research Challenge Recipient, The Institute for Computing in Humanities, Arts, and Social Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2012 Thresholds, Official Selection “QWOCFF: Queer Women of Color Film Festival 2012”, San Francisco Thresholds, Official Selection ‘Out in the Desert 2012’ Tucson LGBT International Festival, Tuscon, Arizona Thresholds, Best Consciousness-Raising Film, 2011 Long Shadow Film Festival, Phoenix, Arizona Palabras Dulces, Palabras Amargas, Official Selection, Orlando Hispanic Film Festival, 2010 Palabras Dulces, Palabras Amargas, Premier, Sor Juana Festival, Chicago 2009 Breaking Boundaries Award, Latino Student Activist Conference: Politcal Rights, Educational Achievement and Equality of Justice, Latinos Unidos, University of Wisconsin, Parkside 2008 Follett Fellowship Recipient, Columbia College of Chicago, MFA Film & Video, 2008 Volunteer of the Year, Partnership to End Homelessness, 2005 Honorable Mention for Advances in Design, Chicago Police Department, 1983, 1985 A.B. Roberts Award for Outstanding Student of the Year, Department of Education, Western Illinois University, 1982 MEMBERSHIPS American Studies Association, 2012 to present National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies, 2011 to present HASTAC, Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, 2010 to present Lesbian Leadership Council, Chicago Foundation for Women 2010 to present Amigas Latinas, 2007 to present National Association of Latino Independent Producers, 2006 to 2010 National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, 2006-2010 National Women’s Studies Association, 2006-2010 Mujeres Activas en Letras & Cambio Social, 2008 to present