SCAE Student Awarded Summer Student Research Assistantship
Social and Cultural Analysis of Education (SCAE) master’s student, Germán Aguilar-Tinajero has received a summer student research assistantship to work with Dr. Lindsay Pérez Huber. His project, tentatively titled, "Uncertain Futures: An Examination of Undocumented Students' Pursuit of Post-Baccalaureate Education" will examine “undocumented student’s resiliency and motivation in their graduate school programs as well as the barriers that they have faced as they further advance along the educational pipeline.” Combining critical race theory as a theoretical foundation and community cultural wealth as a conceptual framework, the project aims to illuminate the experiences of undocumented graduate students. Aguilar-Tinajero shares, “Given the current political climate, it is also of importance to highlight the stories of resistance and resilience that these undocumented graduate students exemplify in the face of threats that criminalize them, dehumanize them, and strip them of their rights and agency.”
A second-year graduate student, Aguilar-Tinajero is utilizing the foundational aspects of the SCAE master’s program and refining them as part of his project. “As a student in the SCAE program, I am trained to engage and synthesize concepts and ideas related to social and educational inequalities. This project has allowed me to further identify the concepts introduced in my program, and also to strategize potential solutions to enact social and educational justice,” says Aguilar-Tinajero.
Aguilar-Tinajero is looking forward to working with his advisor Dr. Pérez Huber and hopes that, “…this research will be able to highlight the systemic and oftentimes 'invisible' barriers that undocumented students encounter as they pursue an advanced degree…"
