Sally Casanova Pre-Doctoral Scholars
Stephanie Calderon
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nina Flores
Program/Major: Master’s – Social and Cultural Analysis of Education
Doctoral Field of Interest: Education
Research Interests: Stephanie’s research focuses on critical college access for culturally and linguistically diverse students and families. As a college access practitioner, Stephanie finds that many college access programs disregard the intersecting identities of the students they serve, ultimately resulting in low persistence rates upon the transition to college. Her master’s thesis centers on the experiences of young men of color who participated in college access programs as they transition to four year institutions. Stephanie has presented at the National College Access Conference (NCAN) regarding student enrichment that leads to post-secondary success. Stephanie aims to continue examining practices that enhance the college experiences and resources of culturally and linguistically diverse student to and through college in her doctoral studies.
Alondra Perez Cortez
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Robert Schug
Program/Major: Bachelor’s – Psychology
Doctoral Field of Interest: Neuroscience
Research Interests: Alondra’s research examines potential biomarkers that may distinguish different groups of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD), such as brain activity using electroencephalography. To date, few attempts have been made to validate current diagnostic measures, which have comprised of subjective information using self-report measures of personality functioning, with more objective neuroscience methodologies. Alondra is also conducting research to understand eating behaviors in rats that can be translated to humans, such as sucralose-preference generalization to ethanol. Her interest in neuroscience has also driven her to conduct research at the University of California, San Diego, where she studied hippocampal neurons to understand underlying biological mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). As a future doctoral student, Alondra plans to continue investigating neurological diseases such as AD.
Cammie Lam
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Niloofar Bavarian
Program/Major: Bachelor’s – Health Science
Doctoral Field of Interest: Public Health/Epidemiology
Research Description: Cammie’s primary research interests examines prescription drug abuse. During her time at CSULB, she has been heavily involved in community service organizations, which have enabled her to learn about different populations in her community and showed her, firsthand, what social and health issues they experience. With the desire to further serve her community and leave a long lasting impact, she developed an interest in epidemiology, a field that provided her with opportunities to work with large-scale data. During her time at the 2019 Summer Research Program in Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Cammie gained epidemiological research experience examining pre-diagnostic levels of metabolite HMDB05396 and risks of advanced prostate cancer. Due to her research experience and coursework, Cammie plans to further her education and research experience in epidemiology through doctoral studies.
Stephanie Leal
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Deepali Bhandari
Program/Major: Bachelor’s – Biochemistry
Doctoral Field of Interest: Sciences/Biochemistry
Research Interests: Stephanie is interested in studying how cancer cells withstand Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Like our body functions are carried out by different organs, a cell relies on different organelles to perform its functions. The ER is a major organelle responsible for proper folding of proteins. A perturbation in this function can cause ER stress which if not corrected in a timely manner leads to cell death. Cancer cells can withstand and survive ER stress better than regular cells. Stephanie's research focuses on how cancer cells evade ER stress-induced cell death. Currently, she is trying to identify pathways that may play a decisive role in a cell’s decision to either survive or succumb to ER stress. Ultimately, she hopes her research will contribute to a better understanding of cancer biology and lead to identification of a druggable target for to curb cancer cell viability.
Jacqueline Piña
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Catha Paquette
Program/Major: Bachelor’s – Art History
Doctoral Field of Interest: Latin American Art History
Research Interests: Jacqueline’s research explores past museum methodology and analyze how they inform current practices. For instance, the Getty PST: LA/LA series of exhibitions during 2017 to 2018 was a landmark event that finally brought to center stage an inclusive view of Latin American art. In contrast, early survey exhibitions done in the 1980’s produced vastly different spaces that were limited in context and favored the opinions of Euro-American curators. By discussing current curatorial methods, her research highlights how twenty-first century curators have created different spaces that honor the diversity within the field of Latin American art. Using the twenty-first century exhibition, Home: So Different, So Appealing, against the twentieth-century exhibition, Art of the Fantastic: Latin America 1920-1978, her research ascertains the progress made and gives visibility to the ongoing need of complex representation of Latin American art.
Juan Rosas
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Wendy Klein
Program/Major: Master’s – Linguistics
Doctoral Field of Interest: Linguistics
Research Interests: Integrating approaches from linguistics and anthropology, Juan’s research focuses on the racial and linguistic identities of second- and third-generation Mexican-Americans. Particular attention is paid to how, in talk and interaction, these individuals position themselves and others racially and linguistically, and the racial and linguistic assumptions underpinning these positionings. As an advocate for language justice, Juan helped compile a report in collaboration with Long Beach’s Office of Equity on the application of the city’s Language Access Policy. As a Fulbright scholar, Juan will spend the next year conducting research in Brazil on the institutionalization of racial categories at the university level and the way these categories are negotiated and authorized as part of a race-based affirmative action process. For his PhD, Juan aspires to continue research that critically examines the links between language and race across different social contexts.
Abigail Uribe
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Dennis López
Program/Major: Master’s – English
Doctoral Field of Interest: Humanities
Research Interests: Abigail’s research objective is to demystify the preconceived stereotypes that mainstream society has bestowed upon marginalized communities by deciphering the experiences and consequences of racism and ‘othering’ depicted in U.S. Ethnic Literatures. In her doctoral studies, she hopes to expand her knowledge of postcolonial and critical race theories as it relates to her work on U.S. Ethnic Literature. She is also interested in critical theories related to Trauma Studies, which offers a way to examine the lasting effects of spiritual and physical confinement brought about by the histories of colonialism and racism.
