Month: October 2020

Celebrating Latinx Scholarship and Activism in HESA

As we reach the end of Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month (September 15-October 15), we want to highlight and celebrate some of our HESA faculty and educational leadership doctoral students’ recent contributions to scholarship, practice, and activism in higher education. Our faculty and students are uplifting Latinx voices and experiences, contributing to the policy and public discourses,  and centering, celebrating, and pushing the boundaries of Latinidad in student affairs and higher education. 

In this post, we highlight program faculty Dr. Milagros Castillo-Montoya and Dr. Kenny Nienhusser, recent graduate Dr. Joshua Abreu (‘20G), and current Ph.D. student Luz Burgos-López. Though all of their work integrates and spans research, public engagement, service, and activism, we have put specific publications and projects into those categories below. We hope that you will learn more about and engage with their work as we end this month of celebration and uplift, and well beyond. 

Research Articles

Castillo-Montoya, M. & Verduzco Reyes, D. (2020) Learning Latinidad: The role of a Latino cultural center service-learning course in Latino identity inquiry and sociopolitical capacity, Journal of Latinos and Education, 19:2, 132-147, DOI: 10.1080/15348431.2018.1480374

Nienhusser, H. K., & Oshio, T. (2020). Postsecondary education access (im)possibilities for undocu/DACAmented youth living with the potential elimination of DACA. Educational Studies, 56(4), 366–388. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131946.2020.1757448

Nienhusser, H. K., & Oshio, T. (2019). Awakened hatred and heightened fears: “The Trump Effect” on the everyday lives of mixed-status families. Cultural Studies « Critical Methodologies, 19(3), 173–183. https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708618817872

While Dr. Nienhusser’s scholarship does focus on undocumented students and about 80% of undocumented immigrants are Latinx, he does not hold this as synonymous to Latinx. In other words, the undocumented community comprises a diverse membership of individuals from a wide array of racial/ethnic identities.

Public Scholarship

Dr. Nienhusser on the Hablemos de Política podcast. The podcast episode, which is in Spanish, though it did not focus on the U.S. Latinx population, provided an overview of the U.S. higher education system and current issues, including cost of college, international students in US higher education, and undocumented students. The podcast audience is for Spanish-speaking audiences in the US and abroad.

Dr. Joshua Abreu’s article in La Galería magazine, “Gaining Political Power and Losing Bodegas: A Dominican-American Paradox” reflects on community voter engagement in Dominican-American communities, engaging with the tension of increasing voter participation at the same time of increasing gentrification in communities like Washington Heights. 

In a recent article in The Crime Report, which was informed by his dissertation research, Dr. Abreu critiques and provides recommendations for criminal justice education. Dr. Abreu highlights the importance of examining instructional equity in Criminal Justice education, “given that about 40 percent of criminal justice degree recipients are either Latinx or Black college students.” 

Service and Activism 

At UConn, Dr. Nienhusser serves as the faculty director for La Comunidad Intelectual, which is a learning community with a residential community component focused on supporting students who are a member of or have a strong appreciation for the Latinx diaspora. 

Ph.D. student Luz Burgos-López is actively involved in activism and community engagement, including founding the online community Non-Black Latinx in Higher Ed: Addressing Antiblackness in Comunidad, the purpose of which is “for non-Black Latinx folx to engage in unpacking our antiblackness in ourselves, our familia, our community, and within our field of higher education.” Luz’s research interests focus on antiblackness in constructions of Latinidad in higher education, and she will also be presenting a scholarly paper titled “The erasure of Blackness and role of Antiblackness in the Construction of Higher Education Latinidad” at the upcoming Association for the Study of Higher Education annual conference. 

Luz has also recently co-founded Colectivo Bámbula, a coalition of anti-racist Eduvists cultivating Puerto Rican liberation politics, artistry and scholarship with the intent to re-imagine and honor ancestral knowledge and work towards the decolonization of the past, present and future.

Fall 2020 HESA Director’s Welcome

Dear HESA Family,

As the season changes and we enter into the crisper and cooler months, I want to send a warm and heartfelt welcome to our HESA community. This Fall semester is different from any other we have experienced before given the wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and surge of anti-Blackness racism in the US. More than ever, the student affairs professional is being asked to redefine their role and re-conceptualize programming and activities to both combat anti-Blackness, simultaneously contend with the spread of a pandemic and traverse virtual and racial battle fatigue.

Throughout it all, the HESA faculty continues to excel, lead and set an example in the field of higher education and student affairs with their scholarship, leadership and activism. I invite you to visit our HESA website to see all they have been engaged with and accomplished. They work tirelessly to prepare for a virtual Fall semester and like many of us, have had to pivot, become more agile and adapt to our “new” normal. I would like to welcome both Drs. Frank Tuitt and Adam McCready to the team as well as our graduate assistant Ashley Robinson. We are excited to have this stellar compliment of scholar-practitioners within the HESA program.

This year, we hosted our first virtual academic welcome and welcome back retreat for both cohorts of students. Our admissions cycle went live in September and we are actively preparing for our upcoming informational webinars. Our first HESA Prospective Student Webinar will be held on October 13 from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

The HESA program continues to engage in curriculum renewal and we will announce some exciting changes to our program in the near future. As we strive to engage our students in transforming theory to practice, the program faculty decided to sign up for a program-wide registration for this year’s ACPA21 Virtual Convention. This means that all students and faculty in our program will be able to participate in the convention, which will take place from March 1-17, 2021. The registration also includes a complimentary 1-year membership for master-students who are not currently not members.

Lastly, I want to thank our graduate assistantship and practicum site supervisors, who continue to provide invaluable on-site training and professional development for our students. Without you, our program would not be complete. As we all continue to pivot and adjust to a constantly changing climate, I ask that we show grace, support and care for each member of our community. I wish for you and your loved ones continued good health, safety and wellness.

Saran Stewart, Ph.D.
Director
HESA Program

Saran Steward, headshot