Dulce A. Espinoza

Dulce Angelica Espinoza is a Ph.D. student exploring the lived experiences of Latinas and the unique discrimination they face occupying intersections of race, color, culture, citizenship status, and class. As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, she understands firsthand the challenges of immigration, assimilation, and upward mobility for brown migrants. To inform public policy and diversity initiatives, Dulce is conceptualizing a theory of discrimination against Latinas that comprehensively explores the complex, tri-fold nature of such experiences based on their gender, race, and class identities.

Dulce is primarily concerned with informing and influencing public policy addressing social issues in the United States through mixed-methods research. She is currently exploring several areas of inequality, including the cyclical nature of generational effects of incarceration, differential access to power through politics and governing along racial, ethnic, class, and gendered lines, state violence against women through anti-abortion legislation, and socially and culturally constructed barriers to healthcare. Dulce is currently writing her master’s thesis, working on a publication utilizing data from the Kaplan Longitudinal and Multigenerational Study (KLAMS), and serving as a Graduate Assistant Researcher on several projects in the Department of Sociology. She holds a BA in Political Science with a minor in Sociology from Texas A&M University, where she graduated summa cum laude and was a member of the College of Liberal Arts Cornerstone Honors Program. As an Aviles-Johnson Fellow, Dulce is committed to expanding existing knowledge in sociology and contributing to a deeper understanding of the multifaceted issues at the foundation of social disparities.