Research Interests

• Sociology of Education
• Race/Ethnicity, Class and Gender
• Racial/Ethnic Minorities
• Stratification/Mobility
  
• Immigration
• Children and Youth

Current Research

"Mexican-American Postsecondary Pathways: Investigating the College Attendance Gender Gap"
Funded by the National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant, the UC Davis and Humanities Dissertation Research Award, the Institute of Governmental Affairs Graduate Research Award, and the Consortium for Women and Research Graduate Research Award

My dissertation explores theories of differential resources, returns, and expectations through in-depth interviews with 50 San Francisco Bay Area Mexican-American students as they progress through their senior year of high school and enter their postsecondary educational or labor force careers. I use these qualitative findings to propose a more comprehensive, generalizable model of Mexican Americans' postsecondary pathways, testing the model with the first and second follow-ups to the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002. Using this mixed-methods approach, I illuminate some of the factors that result in a female educational advantage for Mexican American students at the local and national levels. This project was recently presented at the 2009 Sociology of Education Association annual conference.

"Youth Civic Engagement in California" (with Dina G. Okamoto)
Funded by SierraHealth "Healthy Youth/Healthy Regions" project

This project conducts multidisciplinary, policy-oriented, and community inclusive research documenting the connections between improvements in youth well-being and regional prosperity and equity in the nine-county Sacramento Capital Region. Our research examines the civic engagement of youth in the region using regional and national statistical data.

"Academic Enrichment Organizations: The Transmission of Cultural Capital among Underrepresented Minority Undergraduates" (with Brian Veazey)
Funded by National Institute of Health Minority Opportunities in Research Evaluation Program

This project uses original interview and survey data to examine outcomes of underrepresented minority participants in the Biology Undergraduates Scholars Program (BUSP). We find that, unique among similar programs that seek to ameliorate the attainment gap among minority students, BUSP intentionally works to augment the cultural, social and professional capital of underrepresented minority students in the biological sciences.

Publications/Research Under Review

"This Ain't My School! Criminality, Control, and Contradictions in Institutional Responses to Truancy" (under review at Sociology of Education)

While previous research has explored the causes and consequences of school truancy, few have considered the meanings of institutional responses to truancy. Through participant observation and interviews with personnel, this article examines the meanings behind a pilot program designed as a more “progressive” approach to truancy. Midvale Truancy Center claimed that its main purpose was educative, while also providing human service interventions for vulnerable students. In practice, however, schoolwork was primarily used as punishment. The Center’s competing goals—maintaining control, truancy deterrence, and organizational survival—resulted in education being increasingly pushed to the side in favor of behavioral control and enforced normalization.