Doctoral Candidate in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles
About
Christine Vega is a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies (GSE&IS). Her training is in the social sciences of comparative education, race and ethnic studies. She is a Dissertation Year Fellow (UCLA), a Chancellor's Dissertation Incentive Program (CDIP) Fellow, and American Association of Hispanics of Higher Education (AAHHE) Graduate Student Fellow Alumni. She served as an AAHHE Social Media co-chair and remains as a reviewer. Christine will earn her PhD June of 2019.
Christine is a community scholar at the University of Denver. She is currently an editor and coordinator for InterActions open access, student-led, peer-reviewed journal for GSE&IS. Christine earned a masters of education degree from the University of Utah, BA in gender and Chicana/o studies from UCLA, and a liberal arts AA from Los Angeles Mission College.
Current Work:
Christine's dissertation explores the racial and gender disparities in the lives of first-generation Chicana, Latina, and Indigenous Motherscholars in PhD programs in the US Southwest. She has co-founded parenting advocacy groups such as Mothers of Color in Academia de UCLA and The Chicana M(other)work Collective.
Her research will expand on her current data findings of racial and queer of color critique of trans, gender non-conforming parents, and the role of queer and trans “mothering.” Similarly, trans people of color indicated aspirations and desires of becoming parents while pursuing a doctoral degree and tenure track positions. However, gender non-conforming and queer, trans people of color (QTPOC) parenting research is limited through a racial and intersectional analysis.
Building from Karleen Pendelton Jimenez’s work on queer identity formations in higher education and Jackie Cáraves research on Trans-Latinx, her future research will focus on exploring identity formations of “the mother” and “motherhood” to incorporate an inclusive analysis of sexual and gender identity at the intersections of parenting.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Chicana feminism, maternal studies, critical race theory, higher education, gender & sexuality
