Ricardo A. Bracho is a playwright whose work has been produced at Brava Theater Center, Theatre Rhinoceros and INTAR and has been staged read at Pregones Theater, Intersection for the Arts, Brown University and Stanford University. A former participant in the NEA/TCG Residency Program for Playwrights, Bracho has received two commissions from the Latino Theater Initiative of the Mark Taper Forum. His plays include The Sweetest Hangover, A to B, Sissy, and Querido.

Bracho will use his residency at the Center for Chicano Studies to develop a new play titled Mexican Psychotic, first developed in residency with the theater group Mabou Mines in New York City. Mexican Psychotic uses the silent movie genre and incorporates actors, an altar, slide projection and live piano to tell the life story of the visual artist Martin Ramirez, who emigrated to the US in the early 1900's and spent thirty mute years in the psychotic ward of a Northern California mental asylum. During this time Ramirez produced drawings of intense detail and stunning beauty that the playwright proposes to transpose and decode for the stage. Beyond his career as an artist Bracho has a long history of community involvement and education and has worked closely with lesbian and gay youth of color, Latina/o HIV services, incarcerated men and the harm reduction movement. Bracho will make himself available to the Chicano/Latino and LGBT community at UCSB campus this coming year.

The Center seeks applications for a fellowship from scholars or artists who pursue interdisciplinary research and/or creative activity on Chicana/o or /Latina/o Studies. Projects on the ways in which migration, economics, media, and social movements are altering ethnic and racial dynamics are especially valued, as are creative endeavors in theatre, music, dance, art, film or fiction.

The Center is looking for projects that directly benefit and enrich the UCSB campus. Applicants are urged to contact the Center's director prior to applying.

We encourage applications by junior, senior or independent scholars and artists of any nationality who are conducting research on Chicana/o or Latina/o Studies. The fellowship carries a stipend of $30,000 plus travel and the possibility of research expenses depending upon funding availability. Although there is no housing allowance, assistance will be made available in finding housing contacts. Fellows are required to be in full-time residence at the Center during the duration of the award period which is from September 1, 2005 through June 30, 2006. Fellows will be expected to present their research through lectures and workshops, to engage with faculty and students at colloquia and conferences, and to teach one class in the area of their specialization.

Application Deadline: March 1, 2005. For more information please contact: Director, Center for Chicano Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6040, (805) 893-2226, Fax (805) 893-4446
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