The Center for Critical Race Studies in Education (CCRSE) at UCLA along with the staff, visiting scholars, and invited authors are dedicated to producing and publishing research with the goal of exploring questions related to theoretical frameworks, methodology, methods, conceptual tools, and practice associated with Critical Race Studies.  The inaugural research briefs series was released in June 2016 with five issues.  They explored cultural intuition, racial battle fatigue, racial microaggressions, critical race history methodology, and community cultural wealth.

Established in 2015, the Center for Critical Race Studies in Education at UCLA engages scholars and community members in interdisciplinary research that expands our understanding of crucial educational and social inequality issues. Centering the role of race, racism, and their intersectionality with other forms of discrimination such as sexism, classism, homophobia, and ableism, is key to the CCRSE mission. Producing and supporting research that explicitly highlights historical and contemporary issues impacting Communities of Color is an important step toward achieving educational equity.

assistant Director

Magali Campos, M.A.

maxcampos@ucla.edu

Magali Campos is a doctoral candidate in the Social Science and Comparative Education program (Race and Ethnic Studies specialization) at UCLA GSE&IS. As the assistant director, she is responsible for providing administrative support, participating in research projects, developing programming, and leading the research briefs series. Magali is also a teaching assistant for the Chicana/o Studies Department at UCLA. Her research interests include retention of women of color in higher education, silence as a form of resistance to navigate academia, and femtor/mentorship practices.

Research Associate

Omar Ismael Alvarado, M.Ed.

oalvarado@ucla.edu

Omar is a doctoral student specializing in Race, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies in Education. Broadly, he is interested in understanding student experiences in higher education and their trajectories to graduate programs. Specifically, he hopes to learn how exposure to Critical Race Theory impacts students’ journeys to post-secondary education. As a son of the Central American diaspora, he is learning to honor the stories and legacies of his colleagues who entrust them to him. His research pulls from Critical Race Theory, Critical Legal Studies, Education History, and Central American Studies. He earned his Master’s of Education in Student Affairs and his Bachelor’s in Chicana/o and Central American Studies with a minor in History, with an emphasis on Mesoamerica at the University of California, Los Angeles. His journey through higher education is a meaning-making project as much as an academic endeavor.

Research Associate

Janelle Atienza, M.A.

Janelle (she/ella) is a Mexipina, first-generation doctoral student at UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies specializing in Race, Ethnic, and Cultural Studies. Her research interests include understanding Student of Color epistemological resistance to inform decolonial and abolitionist education, interrogating underlying oppressive ideologies foundational to school systems, and exploring multiracial student experiences. Janelle’s current research focuses on demystifying the covert and dehumanizing cultures of white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy in schools, analyzing the role schools have in promoting internalized dehumanization, and exploring the various ways Students of Color practice everyday resistance through joy, rest, and refusal.

research associate

Kourtney Kawano, M.A.

k14kokawa@g.ucla.edu

Kourtney Kawano (she/her) is a Kanaka ʻŌiwi (Native Hawaiian) doctoral student in the Social Sciences and Comparative Education division of UCLA's School of Education and Information Studies. Her research interests include conceptualizing and applying Native Hawaiian feminist epistemology and Kanaka ʻŌiwi critical race theory to understand and challenge internalized oppression and Hawai'i's multicultural society myth. Additionally, Kourtney volunteers with Honua Scholars, a non-profit organization based in Hawai'i that offers STEM-focused programming for local youth.

research associate

John Pak, M. ED.

johnpak@g.ucla.edu

John Pak is a doctoral student at UCLA’ s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies with a specialization in Race and Ethnic Studies. As a Deaf student of color, John’s research explores the experiences of deaf students of color and the impact of audist and racial microaggressions in higher education. His research interests centers around the intersections of audism and racial microaggression in education, impacts on deaf students of color, Critical Race Theory and Critical Deaf Theory in education, and Community Cultural Wealth.

research associate

yadira valencia, m.a.

yaya2yadi@g.ucla.edu

Yadira Valencia is a doctoral candidate in the Social Science and Comparative Education division (Race and Ethnic Studies specialization at UCLA GSE&IS). She is the cohort coordinator of the UndocuBruins Research Program that is hosted in the Academic Advancement Program at UCLA. Through UndocuBruins she works along with undocumented students through their process in to graduate programs and research experience. Additionally, she is TA for the Chicana/o Studies department, her department as an undergraduate student. Currently, her research looks at redefining violence that Chicanas and Latinas encounter in their graduate program and analyzing their healing methods as resistance.

research associate

Nataly Anai Rincon Garcia, B.a.

natalyarincon@g.ucla.edu

Nataly (she/her/ella) is a Novice TEP & Master's student at the School of Education and Information Studies. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Chicana/o/x Studies major and Educational Studies major. She is pursuing a Social Studies teaching credential with an Ethnic Studies emphasis and a Master's in Education. Her research interests include Ethnic Studies implementation in schools and building community amongst families and schools in the K-12 system. 

Research Assistant

Brenda Chavez, B.A.

Brenda Chavez transferred from Santa Ana College to UCLA where she completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology with a minor in Education Studies. During her time at UCLA she was a research fellow with AAP’s Educators for Tomorrow and a research assistant for the Research, Assessment and Evaluation. Brenda's research centers the experiences of non-traditional Latinx students in higher education, specifically community colleges. She currently works at Santa Ana College as a Student Services Specialist for the EOPS, CARE, and CalWORKs programs and volunteers for the Transfer Mentor Program where she provides culturally-relevant mentoring to first-generation BIPOC students on the transfer path. 

Research Assistant

SARAHY TORRES

Sarahy Torres is a third-year undergraduate student from Oxnard, California. She double majors in Chicanx Studies and Education and Social Transformation at UCLA. As a research intern, she co-teaches a college transition class to high school seniors at the RFK UCLA Community School. She is a current research fellow for the Educators for Tomorrow research program. Her research focuses on the mental health of students from farmworking backgrounds using critical race and social-emotional learning theories. She currently serves as a state council representative for the Student California Teacher Association (SCTA), advocating for curriculum and instruction in California.

Visiting Scholar

Lorena Camargo Gonzalez, ph.d.

lcamargo@ucla.edu

Lorena Camargo Gonzalez [she/her/ella] is an Assistant Professor of Undergraduate Studies in Education and Gender Equity at Sacramento State University. Dr. Camargo Gonzalez earned her Ph.D. from UCLA’s School of Education and Information Studies with a specialization in Race and Ethnic Studies. She also holds a master’s degree in education from Long Beach State University and a bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies with a concentration on Chicana/o Studies from Sacramento State University. Her educational experiences as an immigrant and first-generation college student inform her interdisciplinary approach in drawing from Critical Race theories, Chicana/Latina Feminist theories, and historical methods such as oral histories and archival research to address the following areas: 1) the activism of Latina/o/x librarians; 2) racial justice within library services, and 3) the history of Latina/o/x children’s literature. Dr. Camargo Gonzalez’s research has been published in book chapters and journal articles including the Handbook of Latinos and Education, Urban Education, and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Dr. Camargo Gonzalez also serves as a visiting scholar for UCLA’s Center for Critical Race Studies in Education.

Visiting Scholar

gabriela Corona Valencia, pH.d.

gcoronav1995@ucla.edu

Gabriela Corona Valencia is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of Education and Information Studies. She is an educator, researcher, and bridge-builder passionate about versatile ways of knowing, learning, and thinking. Her work explores eugenicist methods of control, containment, and surveillance inflicted by educational, familial, religious, and digital spaces that have affected Latina/o/x women's access to their sexual citizenship throughout time, space, and place. She utilizes digital archival sources to pinpoint evidence of Latina/o/x girls and women punished for “crimes” related to impermissible female pursuits of pleasure and desire between 1909 and 1979. Her methodological intentions seek to uphold the buoyant oral histories of past and present Latina/o/x girls and women who have experienced systemized trauma throughout their lives. In addition, she has supported international antiracist initiatives organized by the International Planned Parenthood Federation as a qualitative research consultant. Before her graduate school journey, Gabriela obtained her BA in Chicana/o/x studies with a minor in Anthropology from CSU Dominguez Hills.

Visiting Scholar

Cindy Raquel Escobedo, Ph.d.

Cindy R. Escobedo is a Ph.D. Candidate from UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, a 2020 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow, and a 2020-2021 UC Office of the President Dissertation Fellow. As a scholar practitioner, Cindy’s professional and research passions explore the intersections of educational (in)equities, Student and Women of Color academic pathways, mother-daughter relationships, and the raced and gendered sociology of family. Cindy is concurrently a Research Associate for the Center for Critical Race Studies in Education at UCLA and has for the past seven years, served as a Senior Research Consultant for the Peer Learning Unit within the UCLA Academic Advancement Program (AAP). AAP is the nation's largest undergraduate student diversity program promoting academic excellence for scholars from historically underserved backgrounds. A three-time UCLA Bruin, Cindy holds a M.A. degree in Education, and a B.A. degree in Political Science with double minors in Education and Public Affairs.

Visiting Scholar

Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano, Ph.D.

tgaxiolaserrano@sdsu.edu

Dr. Tanya J. Gaxiola Serrano (she, her, ella) is Assistant Professor in Administration, Rehabilitation and Postsecondary Education (ARPE) at San Diego State University. Dr. Gaxiola Serrano earned her Ph.D. from UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies with a specialization in Race and Ethnic Studies. During her time at UCLA, she served as a founding member and assistant director for the Center for Critical Race Studies in Education. She is a Ford Foundation Fellow and American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) Graduate Student Fellow and Faculty Fellow. Dr. Gaxiola Serrano is a student of Critical Race Theory and Chicana/Latina feminisms. As a first generation immigrant and college student from the Tijuana-San Diego borderlands, her research explores the racialized inequities faced by Communities of Color when navigating educational and border spaces, as well as conceptualizes critical methodological approaches in higher education. Dr. Gaxiola Serrano’s research has been published in book chapters and journal articles including the Community College Journal of Research and Practice, the Journal of Latinos and Education, and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

visting scholar

Elizabeth González Cárdenas, Ph.D.

Egonzalezcardenas@unm.edu

Elizabeth González Cárdenas received her Ph.D. in Education with an emphasis on Race and Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. She was born and raised in Boyle Heights, California. Her family migrated to East Los Angeles in the early 1960s from México. Dr. González Cárdenas was also a community college student who majored in Chicana Chicano Studies, which led her to her research and teaching interests. Dr. González Cárdenas’ approach to her research is multi-disciplinary and incorporates the fields of education, sociology, and history to examine the efficacy of Chicana Chicano Studies curriculum and pedagogy. Using oral interviews and archival research, her findings demonstrate that participants developed and maintain a social justice ethos within their careers, family, and community. Her research also demonstrates that Chicana Chicano Studies provides culturally relevant support towards students when obtaining their baccalaureate degrees.  Dr. González Cárdenas has published research on community-based learning in Chicana Chicano Studies and is currently researching the intellectual, curricular, pedagogical, and research impact of Chicana Chicano Studies. In addition to her research, Dr. González Cárdenas taught K-Graduate School in California public schools from 2000-2019 that include LAUSD, LBUSD, CSU, UC, and LACCD systems. Dr. González Cárdenas’ research interests include the following: Chicana/Chicano Latina/Latino Educational Access and Equity, Culturally Relevant Curriculum and Pedagogy, History of Education, Student Educational Movements, Sociology of Education, Chicana and Women of Color Feminism and Epistemologies, Critical Race Theory, and Latina/Latino Critical Theory. 

Visiting Scholar

Tonia F. Guida, PH.D.

tonia.guida@austin.utexas.edu

Dr. Tonia Guida is a higher education scholar-practitioner with more than nine years of experience teaching, training, and facilitating social justice education and dialogue facilitation. She is both the Assistant Dean for Opportunity and Belonging and an Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Division of Pharmacy Practice at The University of Texas at Austin. As Dean in the College of Pharmacy, Dr. Guida leads the Opportunity and Belonging portfolio of the college and serves as the chief college spokesperson for all programs and initiatives relating to the college’s Opportunity and Belonging goals. Dr. Guida's research agenda entails theorizing around whiteness in higher education and developing more racially and socially just campus environments. Her most recent scholarship has been featured in Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education, Urban Education, The Review of Higher Ed, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, and Community College Review.

VISITING SCHOLAR

'INOKE HAFOKA, PH.D.

inoke.hafoka@byuh.edu

‘Inoke Hafoka is an Assistant Professor for Pacific Studies at Brigham Young University-Hawaii which is situated within the Ko'olauloa region of O'ahu. Hafoka descends from the villages of Faleloa, ‘Uiha, Taoa and Ha‘akio in the Ha‘apai and Vava‘u regions of Tonga. He is connected and was raised in the Glendale neighborhood of Soonkahni (Salt Lake Valley), Utah. Hafoka’s work has appeared in AlterNative, Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Global Indigeneity, Oceania, and Pacific Studies. Hafoka received his Ph.D. from UCLA in the Social Sciences & Comparative Education (SSCE) with an emphasis on race and ethnic studies. His teaching and research interests include Pacific Studies, diaspora, educational spaces within and beyond tertiary schooling, Indigeneity, race and ethnicity, and sports.

Visiting Scholar

ALEJANDRA MAGAñA GAMERO, Ph.d.

alemagana310@g.ucla.edu

Alejandra Magaña Gamero received her Ph.D. in Social Sciences and Comparative Education with an emphasis in Race and Ethnic Studies from the University of California Los Angeles in 2023. Her dissertation explored the experience of Mexicanas/Chicanas in Master of Arts in Education Programs and the factors that influence their decisions to pursue graduate degrees. Alejandra currently serves as Institutional Engagement Manager for Excelencia in Education, a higher education non-profit that accelerates Latino student success in higher education by promoting Latino student achievement, conducting analysis to inform educational policies, and advancing institutional practices while collaborating with those committed and ready to meet the mission. Alejandra holds a Master of Arts in Education from the University of California Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Ethnic Studies from Santa Clara University. 

visiting scholar

Socorro Morales, Ph.D.

socorrom1@cpp.edu

Socorro Morales (she/her) is a queer Chicana raised in Fontana, CA. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Education, Culture, and Society. Her research agenda focuses on understanding and promoting educational equity for historically marginalized populations, specifically through the lenses of Critical Race Theory, Chicana feminisms, and critical youth studies. In particular, she examines the educational experiences of Chicanx and Latinx youth, focusing on subjectivity, youth agency, and pedagogical practice. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Educational Leadership Department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Her publications span across areas such as Chicanx youth agency and resistance in K12 as well as Chicana feminist pláticas methodology.

Visiting Scholar

Audrey D. Paredes, ph.d.

aparedes@csusm.edu 

Audrey D. Paredes, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of educational leadership and administration in the School of Education at California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM). Her role as a teacher-scholar is informed by her positionality as the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, first-generation college student, and a former college student affairs practitioner. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Paredes’ broader research agenda utilizes critical approaches to understand and conceptualize the ways in which institutions of higher education, specifically Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), can be sites of transformation so that systemically marginalized communities can thrive. Currently, her research focuses on responding to the heterogeneity of the Latina/o/x college student population within the context of federally designated Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) by way of examining the lived experiences of Central American undergraduates. Dr. Paredes’ has expertise in anti-racist and decolonial theories such as Critical Race Theory and Chicana/Latina Feminist Theories as well as, Chicana/Latina Feminista qualitative methodologies. Prior to joining CSUSM, she was a post-doctoral scholar at UCLA, the lead project manager for the University of California’s Hispanic Serving Institutions (UC-HSI) Initiative, and a consultant for the UC Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) working group. Dr. Paredes earned her Ph.D. in education with a specialization in race and ethnic studies at the UCLA, MA in education at UCLA, and BA in Gender, Ethnicity, and Multicultural Studies (concentration in Chicana/o Studies) from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

Visiting scholar

bryant partida, Ph.D.

brypar@ucla.edu

Bryant Partida was born in East Los Angeles, raised in South Phoenix, and is currently rooted in Pacoima. He earned his Ph.D. from UCLA in Social Science and Comparative Education with an emphasis on Race and Ethnic Studies. Bryant’s research agenda focuses on documenting the 20th-century educational histories of Mexican, Mexican American, and Chicana/o communities in Phoenix, Arizona through a Critical Race Educational History and relational lens. He is currently expanding his dissertation work focusing on the 1970 Chicana/o boycott of Phoenix Union High School into diverse research strands that include a wider district relational analysis of race and racism in the Phoenix Union High School District between 1895 and 1982, further documenting the history of segregated Mexican schools in the Valley, and early 1900’s historical Mexican and Mexican American educational social movements at Arizona State Teachers College. Bryant has also translated his interdisciplinary research skills to serve as a public history consultant and co-curator of Chicana/o educational and community history exhibits that have been displayed throughout Los Angeles, California, and Phoenix, Arizona. He is currently a lecturer in Chicana/o Studies at CSU Fullerton and CSU Dominguez Hills.

Visiting scholar

Lindsay Pérez Huber, Ph.D.

Lindsay.PerezHuber@csulb.edu

Dr. Lindsay Pérez Huber is Professor in the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach. She leads and coordinates the master’s program in Equity, Education, & Social Justice (EESJ) program. Her research specializations include race, immigration and higher education, racial microaggressions, and critical race feminista methodologies and epistemologies. Her work is known for further developing theoretical and conceptual frameworks in Critical Race Theory (CRT), bridging CRT and Chicana Feminist perspectives in Education, and for her contributions in understanding Latinx undocumented student experiences. Dr. Pérez Huber is a Ford Foundation Fellow and Faculty Fellow of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE). She is also the past Vice President of the Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA). During her career, Dr. Pérez Huber has supported over 70 thesis and dissertation Students of Color as chair and/or committee member. Dr. Pérez Huber was a recipient of the 2019 Derrick Bell Legacy Award for her contributions to Critical Race Theory (CRT) by the Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA). She received her Ph.D. in Social Science and Comparative Education (SSCE), with a specialization in Race and Ethnic Studies from the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. In 2020, Dr. Pérez Huber published the co-authored book, “Racial Microaggressions: Using Critical Race Theory to Respond to Everyday Racism.” She is also co-editor of the 2021 book, “Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education.”

rita kohli

University of California, riverside

Although heightened by the current hate-filled platform of the 45th U.S. President, scholars of Critical Race Theory (CRT) have exposed racism as a permanent fixture in the policies and practices that govern U.S. and other settler colonial and colonial societies. As people of Color are subjected to racialized structures in their daily lives, racism can have material, physiological, and psychological consequences that negatively affect the manner by which they see themselves, their culture, and the world around them.

alma itzé flores

Loyola marymount university

Moved by Gloria Anzaldúa’s (1990) call for nueva teorías, in this research brief I outline what I refer to as muxerista portraiture. As a meXicana (pronounced me-chi-cana) scholar who examines Mexicana/Chicana mother-daughter pedagogies, I argue for the partnership of portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot, 1983) and Chicana/Latina feminist theory (CLFT) (Delgado Bernal & Elenes, 2011). My goal is to offer a thoughtful and deliberate methodology that borrows from these two theories and not an alternative or replacement for one or the other.

socorro morales

University of California, los angeles

I spent two years as a researcher and educator collaborating with elementary aged Brown youth in creating, developing, and sustaining a Critical Race Counterspace within their elementary school. Drawing from Critical Race Theory (CRT) scholars within the field of education, I initially understood counterspaces as “sites where deficit notions of People of Color can be challenged” (Solórzano, Ceja, & Yosso, 2000, p. 70). In thinking about this definition, I sought to co-create a counterspace with Brown youth that would allow them to reimagine what “schooling” or education could look like, given the dismal state of K-12 educational curriculum for youth of color (Valenzuela, 1999).

edward r. curammeng    

University of California, los angeles

tracy lachica buenavista                         &                         stephanie cariaga

  california state university, northridge                        University of California, los Angeles

Asian American Critical Race Theory is one of numerous group-specific Critical Race Theory (CRT) movements that emerged to address the complex racialization of people of Asian descent in the United States. In particular, Asian American Critical Race scholars document a legacy of state-sanctioned, anti-Asian discrimination and violence, and problematize the marginalization of Asian American perspectives in Critical Race work (Chang, 1999; Matsuda, 1993).

Ryan e. santos

University of California, los angeles

            Michaela J. López mares-tamayo                 &                           Lluliana alonso

  university of california, los Angeles                   University of California, los angeles

In their foundational piece on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and education, Gloria Ladson-Billings and William F. Tate (1995) wrote, “Historically, storytelling has been a kind of medicine to heal the wounds of pain caused by racial oppression” (p. 57). As Critical Race theorists, we are especially invested in understanding how those actions relate to Students of Color and their educational histories.

verónica vélez

western washington university

DuBois (1903) first articulated the notion of the “color-line” more than 100 years ago. Still significant today, DuBois’ work inspired the development of Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA). First conceived in 2007, CRSA emerged as part of a case study of one of the most robust color-lines in Los Angeles, California – the Alameda Corridor (Solórzano & Vélez, 2007). By utilizing maps to reveal the socio-spatial-historical significance of the Alameda Corridor, this study motivated a pursuit to further digital map-making and other geographic and spatial tools within Critical Race research in education.