Research Overview

Research Topics:  Health Inequity, Birthing Justice, Systemic Racism, Immigration

​Context: The U.S., particularly rural areas in Texas

Approach and Methods: Maternal Justice Frameworks, Feminist epistemology, Intersectionality, Participatory Design, Service Design.

Research Agenda:
This research endeavor seeks to produce outcomes that are useful for organizations working in areas of birthing justice and immigration rights, to advocate for policy change, greater research funding, and forge cross-sector collaborations.


Research Branches: 

1. Historical Research

• Objective:  To understand how media in general, and graphic design in particular, have shaped imaginaries about motherhood and immigration in society, and the effects of such imaginaries in mother's bodily autonomy.
• Research Method: Literature review, media analysis and participatory workshops for deconstructing media and performing Hermeneutic Reverse Engineering processes (as shaped by Balsamo, 2007).

2. Pragmatic Research:

• Objective: To explore and expose the opportunities and limitations of participatory approaches to design, in advancing work for social and racial justice.
• Research Method: Participatory engagements to design technology-enabled services that aim to improve the present and future living conditions of immigrant mothers in the United States.

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Current work

I'm currently fostering a special collaboration between Mama Sana Vibrant Woman (MSVW) and graphic design students at the School of Design and Creative Technologies in UT Austin. MSVW is an Austin-based non-profit that provides culturally congruent pre and post natal care to black and latina moms. We are working on creating design material to support their program outreach, volunteer recruitment and community engagement efforts.
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Publications

Click on each title to access the text:

• A book chapter where I introduce the method of Enactment (from Theatre) and the framework of Design in the context of Participatory Research.​​

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• A workshop where I explore the possibility of framing reflective practices in participatory design processes, departing from feminist politics and positionality.

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• A publication where I explore the notions of participation, creativity and design in research  methodologies around gender and ICTs.​

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•  A panel that brings together internet policy experts, artists and designers to explore data ecosystems, the network economy and avenues for creative interventions in these fields.

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Previous Research on Digital Technologies, Gender, Immigration and Internet Policy
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• ​​I'm an advisor for the Feminist Internet Research Network. ​​A collaborative project among activist and grass-root organizations in the​Global South to impact Internet Policy click here​


• I participated in an expert meeting organized by The Association for Progressive Communications to produce this report on Mapping the research landscape in Gender and Digital Technology in the ​Global South click here

• I am an academic partner involved in the project: Sanctuary Cities as Emerging Frontiers: Transnational Dynamics and Lived Spaces of Undocumented Mexicans in the United States”. Coordinated by ​El Colegio de la Frontera Norte. click here

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• I compiled my research on Undocumented Latino youth in the United States: history of their resistance in a video (Spanish) Los jóvenes latinos indocumentados en Estados Unidos. Una mirada desde ​el lente del Juvenicidio y los procesos de resistencia y cambio. click here

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