Democratizing Racial Justice Team

Dr. C. Alejandra Elenes

Principal Investigator

Alejandra Elenes is Professor and Chair of the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies and PI of the Democratizing Racial Justice Mellon Foundation Grant at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her interdisciplinary scholarship centers on the application of Anzalduan philosophy to examine Chicana feminist epistemologies, methodologies, spirituality, and social justice. Currently, she is conducting two research projects. One studies the experiences of Chicanas in women’s, gender and sexuality studies and the formation of Chicana intellectual thought. In this research project, she is conducting genealogical, archival, and ethnographic research. The other project is a book project on Mario Compeán, Chicano Movement organizing, and social justice. The book is based on oral histories with Compeán, his family, and movement activists and archival research. She is the former co-lead editor of Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social. Her recent publications have appeared in a variety of journals such as, Aztlán, Frontiers, Journal of Latinos in Education and Journal of Latino/Latin American Studies. She has published chapters in anthologies on the history of women's studies, Chicana/o studies, and Latin American studies.

Dr. Kirsten Gardner

Co-Principal Investigator

Kirsten E. Gardner, Associate Professor of History, teaches in the Department of History, Program of Women’s Studies, and American Studies Program.  In 2015, she was honored with the UT System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.  She is also a member of the UTSA Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars and a winner of the President’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Core Curriculum.

Justine Cantu

Multimedia Designer

I'm Justine Cantu and my pronouns are she/her. I'm a multimedia designer for the Democratizing Racial Justice Project through the Women's Studies Institute at UTSA. I also work with the College of Education and Human Development as a multimedia designer.

I hope to work with the community, using research to understand human-centered interaction and design, create thoughtful experiences, and produce a clear understanding of our project and what our team is accomplishing by bringing change to higher education.

I received my B.S. in Radio-Television-Film at UT Austin and a Master's Degree in UX Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Yasmín Codina

Program Manager

My name is Yasmín Parra Codina. I was born and raised in San Antonio and I am excited and honored to be the Community Liaison for the Democratizing Racial Justice Project at UTSA.

I received my double major undergraduate degrees in Mexican American Studies and Anthropology and a Master’s in Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at The University of Texas at San Antonio. I have over 15 years of experience working with multicultural families, collaborating with local government, and community organizations to advocate for social change through education.

I am a proud daughter and granddaughter of migrant farmworkers and generations of educators, with roots from Michigan and the Texas Rio Grande Valley. It is my family’s humble beginnings and dedication to investing their lives’ work through education that moves me to continue to serve my community.

I advocate for amplifying young leaders of color, and centering community input in spaces that foster mentorship, equality, and dismantling unfair social conditions. I look forward to being part of a collaborative project dedicated to a just future that all generations deserve.

Daniele Dixon

Community and Library Liaison

Gabriella V. Sanchez

Project Manager

Dr. Sonya M. Alemán

Sonya M. Alemán, Ph.D. (she/her/ella) is an Associate Professor in the Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department and Mexican American Studies Program at the University of Texas, San Antonio. She received her BA from St. Mary’s University, an MA from the University of Texas, Austin, and a Ph.D. from the University of Utah. A Chicana from south Texas, she studies mainstream media representations of communities of color, alternative media content produced by communities of color, and manifestations of race, racism, and whiteness in the media. In addition, she is invested in improving the educational experiences of students of color. She draws on critical race theory and Chicana feminism to inform both her scholarship and pedagogy. She developed and teaches Texas’ first class based on the life and career of Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla. She served as Editor of Chicana/Latina Studies from 2017-2022. She is published in Critical Studies in Media Communication; Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies; Review of Research in Education; Race Ethnicity & Education; and International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Dr. Carolina Arango-Vargas

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Carolina Arango-Vargas holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and a Certificate in Advanced Studies in Women's and Gender Studies from Syracuse University (2018). She has conducted ethnographic research with professional feminist NGOs and grassroots women's organizations of the Colombian women's movement. In particular, she focuses on the organizational and personal trajectories of popular-sector rural and urban women –popular women- who use feminism as a political tool to resist multiple forms of violence and discrimination. More broadly, Carolina's research interests include the development of women's political agency and political consciousness, the significance of feminismo popular in Latin America, and the impact of political violence on women's subjectivity, memory, and healing, particularly in her native Colombia. Carolina uses ethnographic methodologies and draws upon transnational and decolonial feminist theories, working at the intersection of political and feminist anthropology.

Arango-Vargas C. Perched on a Parched Hill: Popular Women, Popular Feminism, and the Struggle for Water in Medellín. Latin American Perspectives. May 2021. doi:10.1177/0094582X211013007

Dr. José G. Villagrán

Former Post-Doctoral Fellow

I was born and raised on the migrant farmworker circuits between Northern California, South Texas, and Wisconsin and claim the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas as home. I completed an undergraduate degree in 2007 at Michigan State University in Interdisciplinary Studies in Social Science with minors in anthropology and Chicano/Latino Studies. I then attained an M.A. in Mexican American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012 and a Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from the same university in 2019. I studied migrant and seasonal farmworkers of the “Midwest stream” between South Texas and the U.S. Midwest for my doctoral dissertation and continue to study migratory Latinx labor in the U.S. Overall, I am interested in migration, labor, race, gender, social movements, anthropological theory, borderlands studies, and U.S.-Mexico relations.

Madelyn Duffey is a doctoral student in the Counselor Education and Supervision program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Madelyn received a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities with concentrations in English and History from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a Master of Arts in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi, and a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has served on the American Counseling Association (ACA) Professional Advocacy Task Force and the ACA Awards Committee and was the Awards Co-Chair for the Sigma Alpha Chi Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota. This year, Madelyn serves on the ACA Graduate Student Committee and as Treasurer for the Sigma Alpha Chi Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota. A Mellon Democratizing Racial Justice Fellow through the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at UTSA, Madelyn teaches Introduction to Women's Studies to undergraduate students. Madelyn's research interests include intersectional identity development, multicultural counselor education, historical trauma, and trauma sites, feminist career counseling, and the mental health impact of political polarization.

Olga Estrada (They/She) is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Culture, Literacy, and Language program at UTSA. She is currently a Democratizing Social Justice fellow through the Andrew W. Mellon grant. As part of the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality, she teaches introductory courses in women, gender, and sexuality studies. As an Anzaldúan theorist, her research interest is centered on decolonial Chicana feminist theory and epistemology. Her current research involves critical autoethnography to explore the experience of being a Queer Chicana/x in higher education. She has served as a summer graduate research assistant for the Mexican American Studies Teachers’ Academy for three consecutive years. She is currently an active board member of the Association for Jotería Arts, Activism, and Scholarship(AJAAS) and serves on the committee as a scholarship liaison.