Book Project: “La Calle Cuatro: Conflict and Commerce in a Gentrifying Latino Downtown“

I am currently working on my book manuscript. Through archival research, fieldwork, and in-depth interviews in the Mexican-majority commercial district of Calle Cuatro in downtown Santa Ana (Orange County, CA), my book project uniquely offers insight into within-group differences of stakeholders (e.g., business and property owners, residents, activists, and organizations), demonstrating the heterogeneity of Latino/a-led gentrification. My work builds on research at the intersection of class and ethnicity/race in the gentrification of communities of color, shedding light on the formation of intra-ethnic tensions among different classes as well as generational statuses. This project offers insight into whether Latino/a-led gentrification is a repackaging of white-led gentrification that markets and commodifies culture or is an agentic cultural preservationist alternative. I demonstrate the importance of examining Latino/a-led gentrification from the perspective of stakeholders as they are drivers of and participants in potentially direct or indirect displacement processes.

Grants and Research Support

California State University, Long Beach
2024 NCFDD Faculty Success Summer Program Scholarship, Faculty Center
2024 Summer Student Research Assistantship Fellowship, Academic Affairs & Office of Research and Economic Development
2023 NCFDD Faculty Success Summer Program Scholarship, Faculty Center
2023 Professors Around the World Grant, Office of the Provost & Office of International Education and Global Engagement
2023 Summer Student Research Assistantship Fellowship, Academic Affairs & Office of Research and Economic Development
2023 Faculty Small Research Grant, Office of Research and Economic Development
2022 Scholarly Intersections Grant Award, College of Liberal Arts
2022 Ethics Across the Curriculum Award, Ukleja Center for Ethical Leadership
University of California, Irvine
2020 Haynes Lindley Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation
2021 Research Grant, Center for Organizational Research
2019 Christian Werner Graduate Student Fellowship
2019 Research Grant, Center for Organizational Research
2017-2020 Summer Fellowship Award, Department of Sociology
2017 William T. Grant Foundation Mentoring Grant for Junior Researchers of Color, P.I. Kristin Turney (includes a stipend and summer support over two years)
2015 The University of California Institute for Mexico and the United States Small Grant
2014 Eugene Cota-Robles Diversity Fellowship, Graduate Division, UC Irvine (includes tuition remission, stipend, and summer support over four years)

Awards and Fellowships

2024 CSULB President’s Commission on the Status of Women, Faculty Advancement of Women Award
2024 Career Enhancement Fellowship, Institute for Citizens and Scholars
2024 CSULB CBA Reassigned Time for Exceptional Service to Students (3 WTUs-Spring)
2024 California Alliance for Hispanic-Serving Social Science Advancement Writing Fellow
2023 Urban Affairs Association Publishing Fellow
2023 CSULB CBA Reassigned Time for Exceptional Service to Students (3 WTUs-Spring)
2023 Council of American Overseas Research Centers Faculty Development Seminar, Mexico
2022 Summer Institute on Tenure and Professional Advancement, Duke University
2021 California Chancellors Doctoral Incentive Program (Declined)
2020 Ford Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship (Honorable Mention)
2018 Outstanding Research Award, Department of Sociology, UC Irvine
2017 Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship (Honorable Mention)
2016 Faculty Mentor Program Fellowship, Graduate Division (Honorable Mention)