Meet our Fall 2023 First Cohort of PhD in Sociology Students
Oscar Bueno Carbajal
Oscar Bueno holds a degree in Social Work from the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez and completed his master’s in public Action and Social Development at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. In 2015, participated in the Seventh National Thesis Competition on Youth, gated as the 1st place in the master’s category, an honor bestowed by the Ministry of Social Development and the Mexican Youth Institute.
He has participated in the International Visitors Leadership Program from the United States Department of State and the Leaders for Citizen Security and Justice group at the Inter-American Development Bank.
His research interests are citizen security, violence prevention with a special emphasis on youth at-risk, evidence-based strategies and social participation.
Jonathan Cereceres
Johnathan is a practitioner of policy analysis with demonstrated experience working in multiple public offices, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, advocacy groups, and research initiatives. He graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso as a Top Ten Senior with his Bachelor of Arts, double majoring Political Science and Chicano Studies. He later graduated from the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, a top ten public ranked policy/graduate school. Currently, Johnathan serves on the Board of Directors for the UTEP Alumni Association.
Professionally, Johnathan has served for various state public offices focusing his efforts on underserved and marginalized communities. These public offices include the Texas State Senate and the Texas State Board of Education. Throughout these roles, he developed a unique familiarity on a wide range of policy issues in commonly underrepresented communities while understanding the intersectional impacts that have on these underserved populations.
Johnathan has conducted statewide research for the Texas Education Agency's division of College, Career and Military Preparation (CCMP) to support the College and Career Readiness School Models Network (CCRSM). In tandem, he also conducted independent research for the City of Dallas and City of San Antonio city manager offices highlighting various educational outcomes, migration patterns, and personal narratives of immigrant communities.
His research interests include civic engagement trends along the frontera and communities of color, postsecondary preparations for historically marginalized student groups, and best practices for equitable/sustainable urban planning. Currently, he is a part of the inaugural cohort for the American Planning Association Texas Chapter Leadership Academy and the West Texas Section. Johnathan has additional experience in event development, public engagement, photography, videography, graphic design, and he’s a licensed drone pilot (UAS Part 107).
Cecili Chadwick
Cecili Chadwick earned a B.A. in Communication and Women’s Studies from California State University San Marcos, an M.A. in Women’s Studies from Claremont Graduate University, and a second M.A. in Political Science from The New School in NYC. As an interdisciplinary thinker, she studies a variety of issues related to power, reproductive justice, diversity, and belonging. Cecili is currently a lecturer in both Women’s Studies and Political Science.
Luis Diaz Cepeda
Dr. Luis Rubén Díaz Cepeda is a philosopher and a sociologist. His research focuses on ethics, borders, migration, and social movements. He conducts his studies from a decolonial perspective with an emphasis on philosophy of liberation. Having been published in Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, and the United States, his recent works include Latin American Philosophy and Social Movements: From Ciudad Juárez to Ayotzinapa (Lexington Books, 2020), the edited volumes Latin American Immigration Ethics (Eds. Reed Sandoval and Díaz Cepeda, AUP, 2021), and Ética, política y migración ( Eds. Díaz Cepeda, L.R; Reed-Sandoval, A. and Sánchez Benítez; R., UACJ, 2021).
Valerie Frederick
Valerie Frederick is a first-year PhD student at the University of Texas at El Paso. Valerie first became interested in Sociology work through her gender studies courses as an undergraduate student in both Creative Writing and Women's Studies. Coming into the MA program, Valerie undertook research on academic anxiety amongst first-generation lesbian college students. Hoping to continue this work this upcoming academic year, Valerie plans on presenting her data results at upcoming academic conferences and events. After wrapping up a fellowship at the California Institute of Integral Studies’ Human Sexuality program, Valerie feels more prepared than ever to continue her research on sexuality and mental health.
Besides mental health and sexuality, Valerie's other research interests include disability and single parenting by choice. In her free time, Valerie enjoys the cinema, television, reading fiction, and socializing with a community of like-minded friends.
Josue Lopez
More information coming soon!
Isaac Martinez
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Eric Murillo
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Cesar Rivera
Before joining our Ph.D. program, Cesar obtained juris doctor and interdisciplinary master's degrees at UCLA and UTEP, respectively. He has dedicated over two decades to teaching both non-credit courses for adults and college credit courses in philosophy, religious studies, and the philosophy of law at UTEP, EPCC, and NMSU. Cesar plans to focus his doctoral studies on borders and mobility from the perspectives of the sociologies of law and religion.
Raoul Tayou Tayou
More information coming soon!
Angelica Villagrana-Casillas
Angélica Guadalupe Villagrana Casillas received a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Arkansas in 2021, an specialization degree on International Migration at El Colegio de la Frontera Norte in 2017, and a Law degree from Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla in 2014.
She has conducted research on international migration and human rights since 2017. Angélica collaborated as a Research Assistant in the project “Unintended Consequences to Migrant Family Life and New Diasporas in Mexico” funded by ConTex Collaborative Research Grant through Ibero Puebla, led by Dr. Guillermo Yrizar and Dr. Jeremy Slack. Thanks to the project, they carried out fieldwork in various shelters for migrants in Puebla, Tlaxcala, and Veracruz, as well as visits to monitor the detention centers in that Mexican region. Summed up in the report “Vidas en Contención” published in January 2022, it documented the conditions under which these centers operate.
Having collected a vast amount of data from these experiences, the research team compiled the information and published the chapter "Containment and contagion: Human rights and unhealthy conditions for detained migrants from Asia and Africa in transit through Mexico" in the book Migrations in the hegemonic order contemporary of the modern world-system (pp 167-198, ISBN 978-607-525-900-0) which was thereafter presented at the virtual LASA ASIA 2022 Congress.
Angélica also did some fieldwork with the Seattle-Puebla-Huayacocotla platform regarding the temporary agricultural workers with H2a visas, conducted surveys and interviews focused on understanding the effects of temporary migration with H2a visas. Angélica worked with Dr. Elena Ayala to grasp on the effects on the families of temporary workers, their findings were thereafter presented at LASA 2023 Congress.
Angélica has also been a professor at the Law faculty in Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla. She is a member of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), and her research interests are the externalization of the southern border of Mexico and its militarization, migration in transit through Mexico, detention centers for migrants, human rights violations in migratory contexts, agricultural and temporary migrants and legal sociology.