Sociology Graduate Students

Summary of Expertise

I am a qualitative researcher that uses feminist theories of color, such as intersectionality and transnational feminist theory, to examine how gender, sexual, racial, and class inequalities are co-constitutive elements within the US. My dissertation project is a multisite ethnography that researches how two mobility paths, higher education and migration, shape Latinas' own gender and sexual subjectivities as well as generational negotiations of these social forces among migrant mothers and their college-going daughters. 

Research Interests

Broadly speaking, my research interests lie in the intersection of sexual, gender, race, and class formations.

Biography, Education and Training

University of California, Santa Cruz

Ph.D. in Sociology (Expected date June 2023)

Designated emphasis in Latin American and Latino Studies

Dissertation Tite:Desiring A Better Life: Heteronoormativity, Mobility, and Generational Negotiations Among Latinas

Dissertation Committee: Julie Bettie (co-chair), Jessica Taft (co-chair), and Lorena Garcia

Comprehensive Exam Committee: Jessica Taft, Julie Bettie, Sylavann Falcón, and Lorena Garcia

San Francisco State University

Master of Arts in Sexuality Studies

Thesis: “When I Left, I Felt like I Betrayed Them”: Latina Women Navigate the Benefits and Harms of a College Education

Advisors: Jessica Fields and Belinda Reyes

University of California, Santa Barbara 

Bachelor of Arts, Sociology

Bachelor of Arts, Feminist Studies

Thesis: Hookup Culture: How Young Latina Women Negotiate and Construct their Sexual Identities

Advisor: Leila J. Rupp

Honors, Awards and Grants

2023- Sociologist for Women in Society Chow-Green Dissertation Scholarship Recipient

2023- AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship in Education Research

2023- Alternative AAUW Dissertation Fellowship

2023- Honorable Mention, Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship

2022-2023- UC President's Pre-Professoriate Fellowship

2022- The Sociology of Sexualities Martin P. Levine Memorial Dissertation Fellowship Award 

2020-2021-Sociology of Race, Class, and Gender Graduate Award, UCSC

2019-2020- Graduate Student Grant, Research Center for the Americas, UCSC

2019-2020- Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, UCSC

2018-2019- Women’s, Health, Gender, and Empowerment (WHGE) Student Ambassador, UCSC

Spring 2018- Lionel Cantú Memorial Award, UCSC

2017-2018- Regent’s Fellowship, UCSC

Spring 2017- University’s Graduate Student Award for Distinguished Achievement, SF State

Spring 2017- Jim Brogan Teaching Scholarship, SF State

Academic School Year 2016-2017- CSU Sally Casanova Predoctoral Scholar, SF State

Summer 2016- Chicana Latina Foundation

Academic School Year 2015- 2016-Deborah H. Tolman Fellowship Sexuality Studies, SF State

Summer 2013- Spring 2015-McNair Scholars Program, UCSB

Spring 2015- Dr. Clyde Woods Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Collegiality, UCSB

Mentoring Experience

Winter 2022- Science Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program

Summer 2021-2023- Science Internship Program

Winter 2022- Koret Graduate Mentor

2021-2023- Pathways to Research Graduate Mentor

Spring 2018- UCSC’s Women’s Center MINT Program (Matriculating, Influencing, Networking and Triumphing) Scholarship Search Committee

Fall 2017- Present-Cultivamos Excelencia Graduate Mentor

Fall 2017- Spring 2019-UCSC’s Women’s Center MINT Program (Matriculating, Influencing, Networking and Triumphing) 

Service Experience

2021-present- Graduate Student Coordinator for the WoC Community Group at UCSC

2020-2022- ASA Sexualities Section Equity Task Force

2020-2021- Graduate Student Representative for the ASA Sexualities Section 

Spring 2018- Chicana Latina Foundation Scholarship Search Committee

Winter 2018- Chicana Latina Foundation Scholarship Workshop

Winter 2018- Sociology Job Candidate Student Search Committee

Fall 2017- Sociology Job Candidate Student Search Committee

Selected Publications

Parra, Michelle Gomez, and Lorena Garcia. 2023. ““I have Tasted Freedom”: An Intersectional Analysis of College-Going Latinas’ Desire for and Meanings of Mobility.” Gender & Society, DOI: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08912432231156374

Parra, Michelle Gomez. 2022. "An ‘Anchor Baby’ Yearns for a Feminist of Colour and Decolonial Sex Education." Sex Education, DOI: 10.1080/14681811.2022.2071251

Selected Presentations

April 2022-“Made in LA: How Working-Class Latinas Experience and Remember Girlhood.” Pacific Sociological Association, Sacramento, CA. 

August 2018-“I Don’t Want a Life Like That: Upwardly Mobile Latinas’ Gender and Sexual Identities.” American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, PA.

April 2018-“I Don’t Want a Life Like That: The Implications of a College Education for Upwardly Mobile Latinas.” Borderlands Conference UC Santa Barbara.

March 2018  -“I Don’t Want a Life Like That: Working-Class Latina Women Navigate the Benefits and Harms of a College Education.” Pacific Sociological Association, Long Beach, California.

March 2018 -“When I Left, I Felt Like I Betrayed Them: How College Education Impacts the Well-Being of Working-Class Latinas.” Thinking Gender, The University of California, Los Angeles. Los Angeles, CA.

May 2015-“UCSB Hookup Culture and Latina College Women’s Sexual Subjectivities.” Feminist Studies Honors Symposium, Santa Barbara, California.

April 2015 -"Hookup Culture: How Young Latina College Women Negotiate their Sexual Identities,” National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies, San Francisco, California.

Teaching Interests

Sexualities; Gender; Race/Ethnicity; Mobility (Immigration and Higher Education); Girlhood Studies; Latinas; Women of Color Feminisms; Queer of Color Critique; Queer Theory; Qualitative and Feminist Methods.