Sociology Graduate Students

Summary of Expertise

My research examines how rural and agricultural contexts with a large Latinx immigrant majority shape racial, gender, and class formations in the United States. Currently, my dissertation studies Latina girls that work in California’s Central Valley agricultural sector, namely in fruit/produce packing companies and agricultural picking fields, which looks to critically examine how rural contexts shape the life trajectories and varied forms of mobility available to young Latinas from immigrant and farm-working backgrounds. 

Research Interests

Latinx Sociology; Immigration/Migration; Critical Girlhood and Youth Studies; Feminist Geographies; Rural Studies; Women of Color Feminist Epistemology & Praxis; Space/Place; Intersectional Feminist Theory.

2017-2018, Research Program Manager for Central Valley Freedom Summer Participant Action Research at UC Santa Cruz. Principal Investigator: Associate Professor Veronica Terriquez. Central Valley Freedom Summer (CVFS) aims to support efforts that build political power among young people of color in the Central Valley of California. Through university-community partnerships, CVFS will place trained UC students as interns and action researchers in organizations to support and inform grassroots organizing and voter engagement efforts in the region.

Biography, Education and Training

BA in Psychology and Feminist Studies

UC Santa Cruz, 2012

Santa Cruz, CA

MA in Gender & Cultural Studies

Simmons University, 2015

Boston, MA

Honors, Awards and Grants

2020, Chicana/Latina Foundation Scholarship Recipient 

2020, Lionel Cantú Memorial Award 

2019-2020, Research Center for the Americas (RCA) Research Cluster Award, UCSC

2019, Social Science Research Council – Dissertation Proposal Development, UCSC

2018-2019, Research Center for the Americas (RCA) Research Cluster Award, UCSC

2018-2019, UC Blum Scholars Research Grant, UCSC

2017-2018, Koret Scholar Graduate Student Mentor Fellowship, UCSC

2014-2015, Hazel Dick Leonard Research Fellowship, Simmons University

2015, Distinguished Graduate Student Civic Engagement Award, Simmons University

2014, Distinguished Graduate Student Civic Engagement Award, Simmons University

Selected Publications

Terriquez, V., Randy Villegas, Roxanna Villalobos, and Jiayi Xu. (2020, under review). “The Political Socialization of Latinx Youth in a Conservative Political Context:  A Case Study of Youth Organizing and Voter Mobilization Efforts in California’s Central Valley.” Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Hice Fromille, T., Karina Ruiz, Roxanna Villalobos, Lesly Martinez Ibáñez, and Valeria Mena. 2020. “(Re)Constructing Expertise on Resistance: What We Can Learn From Youth Mobilizing Against Social Inequality.” Sociological Perspectives, 1-10.

Terriquez, Veronica, Randy Villegas, and Roxanna Villalobos, R. 2019. “Central Valley Freedom Summer.” Contexts 18(3): 54-57.

Selected Presentations

Villalobos, R (2019, Nov). Latina Rural Girlhoods and Feminisms in the United States. National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA.

Villalobos, R (2019, Apr), Co-presenter: The Political Socialization of Latinx Youth in a Hostile Context of Reception: A Case Study of Youth Organizing and Voter Mobilization Efforts in California’s Central Valley. Urban Affairs Association Annual Conference. Los Angeles, CA.

Villalobos, R (2019, Mar). Grassroots Feminism in the Farmlands: Exploring Latina’s Rural Girlhoods, Activism, and Political Leadership in California’s Central Valley. Pacific Sociological Association Annual Conference, Oakland, CA.

Villalobos, R (2019, Mar). Co-presenter: Youth Rural Activism: Organizing and Mobilizing in California's Central Valley, featuring Valeria Mena. Pacific Sociological Association Annual Conference, Oakland, CA.

Villalobos, R (2019, Feb). Grassroots Feminism in the Farmlands: Exploring Latina’s Rural Girlhoods, Activism, and Political Leadership in California’s Central Valley. Grad Blum Scholar Presentation Event. UC Santa Cruz Blum Center for Poverty, Social Enterprise, and Participatory Governance.

Villalobos, R (2018, Nov). Roundtable Discussion: Womxn of Color Insurgency: Building Revolutionary Sisterhood in Academia. National Women’s Studies Association Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia.

Teaching Interests

Instructor of Record

Winter 2019, LALS-01 "Introduction to Latin American and Latinx Studies"

UC Santa Cruz and San Jose City College cross-enrollment course

Teaching Assistantships, UC Santa Cruz

Winter 2021, SOCY 3B, Statistical Methods

Fall 2020, SOCY 3A, The Evaluation of Evidence

Summer 2020, SOCY 105B, Contemporary Social Theory

Summer 2020, SOCY 136, Social Psychology

Spring 2020, SOCY 105B, Contemporary Social Theory

Winter 2020, SOCY 105B, Contemporary Social Theory

Fall 2019, SOCY 3A, The Evaluation of Evidence 

Spring 2019, SOCY 105B, Contemporary Social Theory

Winter 2018, SOCY 3B, Statistical Methods

Spring 2018, SOCY 139T-2, Community-Engaged Research Practicum  

Mentorships & Service Work

 2020-2021, Graduate Pedagogy Fellow, Center for  Innovations in Teaching and Learning

2020-2021, EOP Pathways to Research Graduate Mentor

2019-2020, Cultivamos Excelencia Graduate Mentor

2018-2019, Student Ambassador, Women’s Health, Gender, and Empowerment (WHGE) Center of Expertise (WHGE), UC Global Health Institute 

2018-2019, Matriculating, Influencing, Networking, Triumphing (MINT) Scholar Graduate Mentor

2018-2019, Cultivamos Excelencia Graduate Mentor

2017-2018, EOP Pathways to Research Graduate Mentor

2017-2018, Koret Scholar Graduate Student Mentor

2017-2018, Matriculating, Influencing, Networking, Triumphing (MINT) Scholar Graduate Mentor