Nina M. Flores
Associate Professor
Equity, Education & Social Justice (EESJ)
Greetings from the Equity, Education & Social Justice MA program! My name is Nina (9-uh) Flores and I am proud to be a lifelong product of the California public education system, from K-12 in Long Beach Unified, to BA and MA degrees at CSULB, an MA in Political Science at San Diego State, and my PhD in Urban Planning from UCLA. The CSU is truly the People's University and I'm thrilled to be at my alma mater, and back in my hometown.
In my classes we use critical pedagogies to engage in deep analyses of wide-ranging issues while exploring broader themes of justice, power, and resistance. I teach from an interdisciplinary perspective, meaning that my courses are informed by my graduate-level training in the fields of political science, education, and urban planning. For me, teaching and mentoring are the best parts of being a professor. I welcome opportunities to apply what we do in the EESJ program to different areas, and in 2023 the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) honored me with the Curriculum Innovation Award for my work teaching an urban planning and public affairs course on Critical Race Studies.
As Senior Fellow with the UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, I engaged in research about the targeted harassment of faculty by members of the public. My research in the area of sex and gender also examines online and on-the-ground harassment, issues of gendered public space, harassment at conferences, and past projects studied the ways people use social media to share, document, and organize against street harassment. In a second research area I focus on sex education, and I recently completed the Sexual Wellness Education & Enlightenment Training certification program. I'm engaged in new research that looks at sex education in higher ed as an urgent issue of equity and justice, especially given new or ongoing legislative efforts across the country to severely limit conversations about gender and sexuality, and reduce access to comprehensive sex education programming during K-12.
Prior to returning to academia, I had a career as a political messaging strategist and jury consultant. In these roles, I worked as a senior analyst on legal trials and political campaigns in more than 30 states. I'm also a past fellow with The OpEd Project, and my public writing has been featured in national outlets such as the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Ms. Magazine Blog, YES! Magazine, Progressive Planning Magazine, and locally with the beloved, but now shuttered, OC Weekly.
I use an interdisciplinary approach to my research and teaching drawn from my graduate-level training in political science, education, and urban planning (learn more about my research here). My writing and research examines issues such as:
- Gender-Based Violence (street harassment, sexual assault)
- Targeted Harassment of Faculty by the Public (free speech and silencing and self-censorship effect)
- Sex Education
- Pedagogy of the Body
- Critical and Spatial Pedagogies
- Student Activism and Organizing
- Campuses as Communities
- Biracial Identity
Representative Academic Publications:
2022 Flores, N.M. "Teaching, learning, and relationships to space: Toward a spatially engaged pedagogy" in Erualdo Gonzalez Romero, Zuniga, E. M., Hernandez, A. C. & Torres, R. D. (eds.) Gentrification, Displacement, and Alternative Futures. Routledge: New York, NY.
2021 Lee, C. A., Flores, N. M., & Hom, L. Learning From Asian Americans: Implications for Planning. Journal of Planning Education & Research, first published online March 31, 2021 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X211006768
2021 Flores, N. M. Tweets, Threats & Censorship: Campus Resources to Support Faculty Through Incidents of Targeted Harassment. UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. Permanent Link: https://issuu.com/ccowper/docs/flores_-_tweets_threats_and_censorship_2_
2020 Flores, N. M. Harassment at Conferences: Will #MeToo Momentum Translate to Real Change? Gender & Education, 32(1), 137-144.
2020 Flores, N. M. "Street Harassment: Old Issue, Ongoing Struggle, New Movement" in Tom Angotti (ed.) Transformative Planning: Radical Alternatives to Neoliberal Urbanism. Black Rose Books: Chicago, IL.
2020 "Reimagining Citizen Science for Women's Human Security: Shifting Power with Critical Pedagogy and Feminist Perspectives" in Richard Matthews, et al (eds.) Women and Human Security (book chapter with Tera Dornfeld) *In Press*
2019 Flores, N. M. "A Love Letter to My Racial Affinity Group" in the anthology Our Voices Our Stories: Advancing, Celebrating, Embracing and Empowering Girls and Women of Color. National Girls and Women of Color Council, Inc.
2017 Flores, N. M. Tweeting the Gendered City: Analysis of Harassment, Reflections on Justice. Journal of Critical Thought and Praxis, 6(3), 115-127.
2015 Flores, N. M. “Campus Sexual Assault: Myths, Facts, and Controversies” in Shira Tarrant (ed.) Gender, Sex, and Politics: In the Streets and Between the Sheets in the 21st Century, New York: Routledge.
2015 Flores, Nina M & Wong, Karna. Protecting the Rights of Massage Parlor Workers. CSW Policy Briefs, August (2015). UCLA: UCLA Center for the Study of Women.
2014 “Gendered Public Spaces: Examining Cities Through the Nature-Culture Dichotomy,” escholarship. UCLA: UCLA Center for the Study of Women.
Representative Popular Publications:
2016 "La Sierra University Latest Campus to Face Allegations of Mishandled Sexual Assault Cases," for Huffington Post
2015 “17 Ways We Can Work Toward Justice for All,” for YES! Magazine
2015 “50 Ways to Up Your Critical Analysis Game,” blog post for Medium
2014 “As a Teacher, I Fought Predatory For-Profit Schools from the Inside,” opinion piece in Washington Post; reprinted in Miami Herald, Valley News, Newsday, and Herald & News.
2013 “How is Your College Improving Sexual Assault Policies? #AskYourCampus,” opinion blog for The Huffington Post
2013 “Beyond the ‘Secularism Tic’: An Interview with Feminist Philosopher Sandra Harding,” article for Ms. Magazine Blog
2013 “One Year Later: Fear Control, and Police Brutality in Anaheim,” opinion blog for The Huffington Post
2013 “Law Doesn’t Make It Right: Suppressing Votes Suppresses Democracy,” opinion blog for The Huffington Post
2013 “Inspired By Wendy Davis? Run for Office,” opinion blog for The Huffington Post
2013 “Campus-based Sexual Assault Coalition Fights Back,” opinion blog for The Huffington Post
2012 “A California College Hopes to Model Best Sexual Assault Practices,” opinion blog for Ms. Magazine Blog
Chair, Faculty Council, College of Education (2024)
Vice-Chair, Faculty Council, College of Education (2022-23)
CED College Meeting Planning Team (2022-24)
President's Commission on Sustainability, Curriculum Committee (2019-present)
Not Alone @The Beach (2019-present)
Advisory Board, Center for Long Beach Urban Planning & Policy (2022-present)
Chair, President's Commission on the Status of Women (2017-18)
CSULB Moot Court Program (2005-present)
To me, teaching and mentoring are the most important roles we play as faculty members. I am proud to have served as thesis and dissertation chairs for students on a wide range of topics such as supporting formerly incarcerated students, examining the challenges facing women and MotherScholars, identifying perceptions of campus safety among People of Color, analyzing the experiences of LGBTQ+ high school students, and naming resistance strategies among first-gen students. I also mentor students in less formal ways, and like spending time getting to know my students. In Mentor Hours/Office Hours I am happy to talk more everything from meeting professional goals to what you absolutely think should be on my "must listen to" list this month.
Below are the graduate courses that I have taught in the Equity, Education & Social Justice program:
EESJ 550: Foundations of Equity, Education & Social Justice
EESJ 551: Critical Pedagogies
EESJ 560: History of Social & Educational Inequalities
EESJ 561: Urban Education Policy
EESJ 566: Education & Global Inequities
EESJ 567: Activism & Social Movements in Global Perspective
EESJ 568: Globalization, Power, and Educational Inequities
EESJ 695: Equity, Education & Social Justice Capstone
As part of my research on sex education, I have completed two different sex education certifications:
2023 -- Sexual Wellness Education & Enlightenment Training Certificate through the Institute for Sexual Education & Enlightenment (ISEE)
2021 -- Sex Education Certification through Everyone Deserves Sex Education (EDSE)
I've also completed many Sexual Attitude Readjustment (SAR) trainings about current issues in sex, gender, and sexuality.
Invited Speaking and Guest Lectures
2024 Moderator for the 6th Annual Speech Matters Conference, UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement for a panel titled "Just Doing My Job": Targeted Harassment of University Employees.
2023 Invited Panelist for the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan for panel titled Envisioning Institutional Responses to Supporting Scholar Safety.
2023 Invited Speaker for a public talk at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln titled Tweets, Threats, and Censorship: Supporting Faculty Through Incidents of Targeted Harassment.
2023 Invited Panelist for the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan for panel titled Safeguarding Principles: Interrogating Free Speech in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Discourse.
2022 Invited Presentation for the Equity & Public Affairs Training at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs titled More Than Words: Critical Race Studies and Critical Pedagogies.
2021 Invited presentation (with Dr. Nina Wooldridge) for the California Global Education Project titled Practices to Foster Radical Love and a Community of Care for Our Students and Ourselves.
2020 Invited presentation for the University of Oklahoma Urban Planning Department titled Gawking, Stalking, and Doxxing — Oh My! Gender-Based Harassment from the Street to the Screen.
2019 Keynote Speaker for WomenShelter of Long Beach's 2nd Annual Building Healthy Relationships Through Prevention Education Youth Conference.
2019 Invited speaker at Demography, Redistricting & Power: A Symposium in Honor of Dr. Leobardo Estrada, hosted by the Luskin School of Public Affairs, UCLA.
2018 Invited Speaker for the American Association of University Women, Long Beach titled Gawking, Stalking, and Doxxing — Oh My! Gender-Based Harassment from the Street to the Screen.
2018 Gentrification 101 in Southern California. Invited presentation for the Deconstructing Diversity Initiative (DDI) at the University of California Irvine.
2018 A Rare Lesson on Justice From a Jury. Invited keynote speaker for the Emerging Scholars in Social Justice Conference, California State University Long Beach.
2018 Resistance Through Research Methods. Invited Speaker at the Resistance Through Research Conference, University of California Los Angeles.
2017 Gawking, Stalking, and Doxxing — Oh My! Gender-Based Harassment from the Street to the Screen. Invited speaker at Cypress College, Cypress, CA.
2016 Guest Lecture, #Resistance to Street Harassment: Contextualizing On-Line Actions in a New Era of Women's Resistance in Public Space" for the course Urban Transportation Planning, School of Community and Regional Planning, University of British Columbia.
2016 Speaker, 3rd Annual Women's Conference, California State University Dominguez Hills
2014 Speaker, “Grassroots & Media Activism,” Gender Justice in the 2014 Election, San Diego State University.
2014 Speaker, “Street Harassment and Sexual Assault,” Department of Social Work, California State University Northridge.
Recent Conference Presentations
2024 Paper, “Who Are They Targeting This Week?”: Supporting Faculty During Incidents of Targeted Harassment by the Public, Presentation for the Asian Conference on Education and International Development (ACEID) in Tokyo, Japan.
2024 Paper, "Who Are They After this Week?" Toward a Model for Understanding Targeted Harassment of Faculty, Virtual Presentation for the American Educational Research Association Annual Conference.
2024 Workshop, “Who Are They After This Week?” Supporting Faculty During Targeted Harassment By the Public, at the Educational Leadership Symposium at California State University Long Beach.
2023 Roundtable, "Planning and Pedagogy in the Face of Unjust Laws" at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Annual Conference in Chicago, IL
2022 Roundtable, "Planning for Fun, Love, Abundance, and Joy in Times of Despair," at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Annual Conference in Toronto, Canada.
2021 Paper, "I Second that Emotion: Experiences Using Engaged Pedagogies and Emotional Intelligence in Planning Education," at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Annual Conference (COVID, presented online)
2020 Paper, "Championing Student Agency: From Sharing Classroom Power to Sharing Work with the Public," at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning Annual Conference (COVID, presented online).
2019 Presentation, "Preparing Students for the Potential Peril of Joining the Public Conversation Online," at the Teaching, Learning & Technology Conference in Harrisonburg, VA.
2019 Paper, "Public Harassment from Street to Screen," at the National Women's Studies Association annual meeting in San Francisco, CA.
2019 Panelist, "Improving Faculty Responses to Student Disclosures of Predatory Violence," at the 24th annual International Summit on Violence, Abuse & Trauma in San Diego, CA.
2019 Panelist, "Shaking Up the Idea of 'Progressive Planning': The Case of the Radical Planning Escuelita," at the Urban Affairs Association annual meeting in Los Angeles, CA.
2018 Paper Presentation, "Toward a Typology of Public Harassment" at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning annual meeting in Buffalo, NY.
2018 Paper Presentation, "Seeking Spaces of Mixed Race Resistance: Connecting Campus to Community," at the Critical Mixed Race Studies conference in College Park, MD.
2018 Panelist, "Sex and Social Media: The Politics of Free Speech. CatlystCon in Los Angeles, CA
2017 Roundtable, "Hope and Struggle: Jackie Leavitt and the Fight for Radical Planning," at Spaces of Struggle: A Mini-Conference on Radical Planning in Denver, Co.
2017 Roundtable, "Indigenous Feminisms: Keywords in the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Crisis," at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning annual meeting in Denver, CO.
2016 Paper presentation, "On Pedagogy and Practice: Lessons Learned Conducting Social Media Research," at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning annual meeting in Portland, OR.
2016 Roundtable, "Opinion Writing, Blogs, and Social Media: The Potential Peril of Contributing to the Public Conversation," at the Western Political Science Association Conference in San Diego, CA.
2015 Paper presentation, "#Resistance to Street Harassment: Contextualizing On-Line Actions in a New Era of Women's Resistance in Public Space," at the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning annual meeting in Houston, TX.
2015 Paper presentation, “A Qualitative Approach to Social Justice-Based Twitter Research,” at the Social Equity Leadership Conference in Nashville, TN.
2015 Paper presentation, “#Resistance to Street Harassment: On-line Activism, On-the-Ground Action Agendas,” presented at the Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV.
2015 Roundtable, “Interdisciplinarity and Intersectionality,” at the Western Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV.
2014 Paper presentation, “Freirian-Feminist Pedagogy: Coming Soon to a City Near You,” at the Californian Association of Freirean Educators conference in Los Angeles, CA.
2014 Paper presentation, “Gendered Public Spaces: Examining Cities through the Nature-Culture Dichotomy,” at the Thinking Gender conference at UCLA.
2013 Paper presentation, “One Word, One Meaning?” There’s More than One Rung on the ‘Ladder of Empowerment’,” at the Comparative and International Education Society Western Regional Conference, Los Angeles, CA.
2023-24 Named Senior Fellow with the UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement
2023 Curriculum Innovation Award, a joint award from the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP, national association for urban planning scholars)
2020-2021 Fellow with the UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement
2019 -- Most Valuable Professor, College of Education, CSULB
2018 -- Ethics Across the Curriculum Pedagogical Stipend, Ukleja Center, CSULB
2016 -- Outstanding Doctoral Student, Department of Urban Planning, UCLA
2015 -- Policy Brief Prize, Center for the Study of Women, UCLA
2014 -- Advancement of Women Award, President's Commission on the Status of Women, CSULB
