Role · Institute participant
Johns Hopkins Racial Politics Summer Institute
An intensive graduate institute on racial politics, democratic backsliding, authoritarianism, and institutional power.
Read the full updateResearch Impact & Achievements
Transparent counts with conservative rounding. Updated 2026.
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$1.5M+Research grants contributed toContributions across 8 awards including NEH, National Park Service, and Doris Duke Foundation projects.
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200+Oral history interviews conductedCommunity based interviews across Florida, the Mississippi Delta, and Indigenous communities nationwide.
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175+Students taught at CornellThree sections across two semesters, with another graduate TA appointment upcoming.
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40+Student volunteers coordinatedOver three years as Assistant Director at the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.
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1Peer reviewed publicationPlus several manuscripts under review and in revision.
Grant total reflects full award amounts for projects I contributed to and does not represent personal earnings.
About My Journey
Biography
I am a PhD student in Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. I study how worker centers and community organizations help immigrant, low-wage, and undocumented workers build voice, leadership, and collective power—especially when traditional union protections are out of reach. Drawing on oral history, ethnography, and the Power Resource Approach, I look closely at how grassroots organizations create spaces of dignity and democratic participation within unequal labor systems.
This work is personal to me. I come from a working-class Mexican and Salvadoran family in Humboldt Park, Chicago, where I saw how hard people worked and how often their knowledge went unrecognized. Years of fieldwork—from documenting Black resistance in the Mississippi Delta to collaborating with Indigenous communities through the Doris Duke Oral History Project—have deepened that commitment. I approach labor scholarship as a form of listening: grounded in collective memory, accountable to the people who share their stories, and connected to struggles for dignity and justice.
Ethical commitment: I follow IRB-approved protocols and oral-consent practices, but ethics goes beyond compliance. It means treating participants as partners, respecting their dignity, and remaining responsible for how their stories are represented.
Contact
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Curriculum Vitae
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What I’m doing
Recent work in public.
A selective record of research presentations, methods training, and community-engaged work—organized from newest to oldest and grounded in the role I held.
Role · Presenter
LERA 78th Annual Meeting
I presented “Is Ithaca Still a Union Town?”—research on worker power, labor repertoires, and uneven regeneration in Tompkins County.
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Role · Presenter
Cornell ILR Graduate Student Symposium
I presented “Field Generated Power Resources in Decentralized Labor Ecosystems,” connecting worker-center strategy to debates about labor power.
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Inside the dissertation archive
Reading worker power through its own press.
My dissertation research follows how workers and community organizations in Tompkins County built collective capacity beyond the traditional union hall. The Working Press and The Workers’ Edge show how those groups explained workplace struggles, connected campaigns, and created a public language of solidarity.
The question guiding this work: What kinds of power become possible when workers build their own institutions, media, relationships, and memory?
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Recognition & support
View honors on the CV →
Honors that sustain the work.
Selected fellowships and awards supporting doctoral research, migration scholarship, and continued participation in academic communities.
Industrial and Labor Research Award
Cornell ILR research support for the current doctoral program.
Graduate Migration Fellow
Cornell University Migrations Initiative.
Benjamin Miller Fellowship Award
Graduate fellowship support for academic development.
Ronald E. McNair Scholar
Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program scholar and research community member.
Selected recognition only. The full curriculum vitae includes additional scholarships, travel grants, certificates, and community-engagement awards.
Selected Media
