Cynthia Alcantar

Cynthia M. Alcantar is an assistant professor of higher education leadership at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Prior to joining UNR, she held postdoctoral fellowships from the Consortium for Faculty Diversity (2018-2019) and the Institute for Global-Local Action & Study (2017-2018) at Pitzer College.

Her research focuses on the social structures that impact the social mobility and integration of racial/ethnic minority and immigrant populations in the United States. Particularly, the influence of schools (i.e., public K-20 schools, community colleges, and Minority Serving Institutions) on the educational pathways and civic participation of racial/ethnic minority and immigrant students. Her research has been published in The Review of Higher Education, Teachers College Record, Harvard Educational Review, Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, Qualitative Psychology, and a forthcoming co-edited book on race and education published through Teachers College Press. Alcantar’s dissertation received the first place award for the 2019 American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education & Educational Testing Services Dissertation Award.

She received her BA from the University of California, Riverside in psychology and a minor in sociology, MA in higher education from Claremont Graduate University, and PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles in social science and comparative education. She has extensive experience working in K-12 and higher education settings, including TRIO grant programs at Norco Community College and Claremont Graduate University, the Title V Hispanic Serving Institutions grant program at Mount St. Mary’s College, Norte Vista High School, and John Adams Elementary in Riverside, CA. She also consults with school districts, community colleges, and four-year colleges concerning the campus climate and culture for supporting underrepresented student populations.

Current Work:

Given the relationship between student's civic engagement and college completion, my recent dissertation research "Cultivating Our Nation's Engaged Citizenry: Institutional Factors That Promote the Civic Engagement of College Students," is a quantitative study critically examining the student- and institutional-level factors that promote the civic engagement of racial/ethnic minority students in higher education with a particular focus on MSIs. Critical quantitative and ecological theoretical frameworks guide this study utilizing data from Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP), a longitudinal dataset of college students and institutions. This research speaks to the institutional factors that promote the civic engagement of students of different racial/ethnic backgrounds, something which has been mostly examined through the experiences of White students.

Dr. Alcantar's dissertation research is coupled with extensive research experiences utilizing mixed methods research. Two research projects examine the educational experiences of immigrant students. One is the UndocuScholars Project, a national study of undocumented college students funded by the Ford Foundation; this study utilized a community-based participatory action research approach to launch a national survey examining the educational experiences of undocumented college students. Another study, Research on Immigrants in College (RIC), examines the educational experiences of immigrants at four public colleges located in the Northeast; this study conducted classroom observations, student surveys, and interviews with faculty, administrators, and students. Finally, Dr. Alcantar's work with the National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE) examines the needs and challenges experienced by underserved Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) populations in higher education.

Research Area Keyword(s):

Higher education; minority serving institutions; underrepresented minority students; immigrants; community college