This study aims to examine the educational experience of Mexican Americans in Fillmore, CA, from 1980 to 2000, with a specific focus on 1985. Fillmore, a town nestled between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, became the first city in the nation to adopt an English Official Language resolution while having a fifty percent Latino population and a growing bilingual program for Spanish-speaking youth. Using educational history methods, I explore the resolution's effects on local students and its larger statewide impact. From preliminary findings, I hypothesize that the division between European Americans and Latinos increased and that Fillmore would spark a wave of English-only city resolutions throughout California. This research will add to the body of knowledge on Latino educational history. Aside from this, Fillmore’s story gives us local insight into how Latino communities adapted to the growing conservative movement in California during the 1980s and 90s.

"The main purpose of this research is to reframe intergenerational, communal, and academic conversations about mental health practices and decolonize our understanding of healing. Typically, mental health discourse among Latinx families are extremely rare and avoided so as not to create conflict. Historically, Latinx immigrants have underused Western mental health services, and older generations continue to, on average, avoid them. What we see in younger generations is more receptiveness to Western mental health models, a large deviation from what has previously been seen in Latinx behavior. This research has involved archiving the process of familial discussions about what healing looks like for each generation of Latinas and how their definitions of healing are informed by their experiences and cultural contexts. I'm coining the term “emotional immigration” to describe how unrooting them from their original emotional context affects Latinx immigrants in the West. I explore older generation Latina immigrant mothers/grandmothers’ implementation of somatic self-soothing and healing methods as opposed to Western “professional” therapy spaces. These somatic methods create an emotional release through movement and can often repurpose sexist domestic roles, such as cooking, cleaning, dancing, and caring for children, into decolonial spaces of healing as survival. These methods are rooted in tradition and legacy, making them more accessible and comforting to large portions of the Latinx diaspora. This research also confronts the colonial implications of the somatic field and proposes how the social legitimization of maternal somatic practices refuses these institutional operatives and are decolonial forms of being, healing, and knowing. "

Latinos represent one of the largest populations in the United States, yet experience the lowest rates of higher education degree attainment, especially among Latino men. While financial and structural barriers have been linked to low educational attainment, a largely overlooked factor is the perception of education and its relation to masculinity. Existing academic research shows that cultural expectations surrounding masculinity, financial provision, and family responsibility shape how Latino men navigate educational pathways. Latino men are often socialized to prioritize work and economic contribution, sometimes at the expense of academic engagement. This study examines how Latino masculinity norms influence educational priorities among Latino men at UT Austin. Using a survey design, this study will collect questionnaire data from Latino male undergraduate students at The University of Texas at Austin. Participants will respond to Likert-scale statements measuring academic responsibilities, work-school conflict, economic pressures, and masculine self-identity. This study aims to address how cultural expectations to financially support family members may contribute to role conflict between academic and employment responsibilities. It is hypothesized that stronger provider expectations will be associated with lower academic prioritization and greater work-school conflict. Overall, this study will provide a perspective of the Latino male college experience and provide insights for institutions seeking to increase degree attainment among Latino men.

Masculinity is a complex and highly debated concept. Despite decades of research, scholars continue to disagree on what masculinity is and how it should be defined. At the same time, men are frequently exposed to social expectations that encourage them to be strong, independent, emotionally restrained, and successful. However, not all men are able to achieve these expectations, raising important questions about how masculine ideals shape identity and well being. This study examines how young men understand masculinity and how those understandings are influenced by social media, online communities, and public figures. Particular attention is given to the role of internet influencers and online spaces that promote differing views of manhood, including communities associated with the manosphere and incel culture. Through qualitative interviews, this research explores how men interpret messages about masculinity and how those messages affect their self perceptions, relationships, and mental health. The study is informed by research linking masculine expectations to outcomes such as depression, suicide, aggression, violence, body image concerns, and social isolation. Rather than treating masculinity as a single concept, this project investigates the competing definitions that men encounter and the challenges of navigating those expectations. Findings contribute to broader discussions of gender, identity, and inequality by examining how contemporary understandings of masculinity influence the experiences of young men in an increasingly digital world.