SRI 2023 - Mentor Bios

SRI 2023

Graduate Research Mentors

Maritza Geronimo (they/them)

Area of Research Inquiry: What are the environmental injustices impacting communities of color in Los Angeles and how are they resisting?

Department: Geography

Maritza Geronimo is a fifth year Ph.D. student in the Department of Geography at UCLA studying Indigenous and Latinx landback projects and food sovereignty efforts in Los Angeles. Through oral histories and ethnographic participant observations, Maritza’s dissertation follows the practice of reclaiming urban space for the creation of farms and gardens. Their work is rooted in decolonial feminist geographies and urban political ecologies to think through the life-giving politics of growing food in places and by people deemed disposable. Their broader interest in environmental (in)justice, social movements, and urban space inspired their Summer Research Incubator question. They encourage their students to think through the complexities of race, class, and gender to understand how communities of color survive, live, and resist in the face of environmental injustice.

Jason Araújo (he/him)

Area of Research Inquiry: How do we address translation and the role it plays—past, present, and future—within the struggle for social justice and equity?

Department: Comparative Literature

Jason Araújo is Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature at UCLA. A first-generation college graduate, he holds a B.A. in History, summa cum laude, from the University of San Diego. Upon graduating Jason spent a year teaching kindergarten in Oakland, CA. He was then hired by the Department of Navy and moved to Washington, D.C. where he worked closely with the Office of the Secretary of Defense to execute then-President Obama’s Veterans Employment Initiative (Executive Order 13518.) After several years with the federal government, he moved to New York City where he worked on undergraduate education initiatives at Barnard College/Columbia University, specifically the role-playing curriculum Reacting to the Past. Prior to arriving at UCLA, he completed an M.A. in French and Francophone Studies at San Diego State University.

Jason is currently writing a dissertation tentatively titled “Transatlantic Triangulations” that examines the capacity for literature and culture to resist in times of war. Using three literary magazines, two French language publications and one Spanish, during the years leading up to and just after WWII he examines a network of writers and publishers producing work that was committed to the anti-fascist cause. During his time at UCLA, he has felt tremendous honor to receive various awards and distinctions including the Cota V. Robles Fellowship, the Lenart Travel Fellowship, and the university-wide Distinguished Teaching Award (2021).

Iris Ramirez

Area of Research Inquiry: How do migration and labor intersect in Los Angeles?

Department: Chicana/o and Central American Studies

Entering her sixth year of doctoral study in the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA, Iris's research interests include Central American history, labor, and migration. Her research explores the experiences of Central American workers in the notorious Los Angeles garment industry. Through one-on-one interviews, Iris aims to capture first-hand accounts of workers' experiences, and in doing so, address the dearth of literature on Central American garment workers. She is also a proud fur parent of two cats and a chihuahua.

Miya Shaffer (she/her)

Area of Research Inquiry: How does social media support, enhance, or challenge contemporary social justice concerns in North America?

Department: World Arts and Cultures/Dance

Miya Shaffer is starting her seventh year as a PhD candidate in Culture and Performance, where she studies contemporary dance and performance art by engaging theories of race and multiracialism, spectatorship, and visuality. Miya's dissertation research explores an original theorization of a multiracial analytic for dance interpretation, but she has also published writing and taught undergraduate lectures on the topic of social media, particularly as a site for exploring, nuancing, and challenging various politics. Her writing has discussed "dance memes" as opportunities to challenge ingrained white supremacy, ableism, and fatphobia in dominant US-based dance forms; she has also explored TikTok dances and their expressions of embodied knowledge. As someone who is always online, Miya is thrilled to provide mentorship on the topic of social media with such a dynamic, committed group of emerging researchers in the SRI.

Fernanda Castellon (she/her/ella)

Area of Research Inquiry: How are schools addressing disability as a component of social justice?

Department: Human Development and Psychology

Fernanda is a PhD Candidate at the University of California, Los Angeles in Human Development and Psychology with an emphasis in Disability and Special Education. She completed her MA at UCLA in Education and received her BA from the University of California, Santa Barbra in Psychology and Chicana/o Studies. Fernanda is interested in researching how culture and Autism intersect and consequently impact family dynamics, schooling, and access to care. She is also interested in culturally appropriate autism interventions for minority communities with the goal of promoting family cohesion and high quality of life. Fernanda’s passion stems from her own experience as a sibling of two Autistic adults. As a native Spanish speaker, Fernanda advocates and promotes the implementation of cultural adaptations to recruitment and intervention protocols in order to promote the recruitment and retention of ethnic and racially minority populations.

Page updated

Report abuse