Research
I am trained in feminist political theory, comparative politics, and international relations and I have diversity, interdisciplinarity, and social justice as core values of my research ethics. I am interested in conducting research that explores how power dynamics present in different spaces have effects that go beyond the individuals and feed into many systems of oppression. I specialize in resistance and political organizing of minoritized communities around social and cultural practices, such as sports and other popular culture spaces, and their efforts to address gender, sexuality, race, and class. Thus, I focus on political mobilization as a practice of social change seeking to overturn political, social, and economic structures while establishing an emancipatory vision of society.
My research agenda is motivated by a desire to understand the relevance of soccer as a political space – locally and globally – and to produce research relevant to improving the equity and inclusion of such spaces. Proudly, I bring my own experiences as a Latina woman and part of the LGBTQ+ community to my academic endeavors. Being a scholar who sits at the intersection of multiple historically excluded groups gives me a unique perspective on marginalization and oppression around gender, race, and sexuality.
Learn more about my publications and other research outputs here.
Fieldwork Experience
Preliminary Fieldwork Research
Soccer and Feminist Organizing in Brazil
Preliminary fieldwork research was conducted to continue the research from my first book, seeking to expand the analysis from Brazil to a transnational and comparative analysis of Argentina and Colombia. This research was funded by FAU’s Seed Grant, which supported the development of a promising research idea and enabled me to generate preliminary data to demonstrate the feasibility and potential impact of my research endeavors. I spent approximately 6 days in each of the cities, starting and continuing to cultivate connections that will allow a robust data collective with future funding opportunities.
Dates: Spring 2024
Places: Recife, Brazil; Medellin, Colombia; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fieldwork Research
Soccer and Feminist Organizing in Brazil
In-person fieldwork research to complete data from digital field research from March 2020 to March 2021, which, due to COVID-19, was fully online. Data collection was done by conducting participant observation, additional interviews, and archival work.
Dates: May-August 2023
Places: Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Recife, and Porto Alegre.
Fieldwork Research – Dissertation Research
Soccer and Political Organizing in Brazil
(Interrupted by COVID-19 and converted to digital fieldwork)
Informed by interpretivist and feminist methodologies, I use fieldwork as the main data source for my dissertation research. Through participant observations of feminist political organizing around soccer on the ground and in-depth interviews with different actors, I aim to generate valuable insights concerning soccer and politics, drawing knowledge from feminist practice. This data will be supplemented by ethnographic content analysis of social media profiles.
Dates: March to June 2020
Places: Belo Horizonte, Recife, and Porto Alegre
Research Training
Institute for Civic Engaged Research (ICER)
June 2021 – Fellow
Promoted and sponsored by the American Political Science Association (APSA). ICER trains political scientists at all career stages in best practices for conducting academically rigorous, mutually beneficial scholarship in collaboration with communities, organizations, and agencies.
The Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research (IQMR)
Summer 2019
IQMR is a 2-week research training promoted by the Center for Qualitative and Multi-Method Inquiry at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. The institute seeks to enable participants to create and critique methodologically sophisticated qualitative research designs, including case studies, tests of necessity or sufficiency, and narrative or interpretive work. It explores the techniques, uses, strengths, and limitations of these methods while emphasizing their relationships with alternative approaches.
University of Delaware Graduate Teaching Fellow
Pivotal program coordinated and funded by the Center for Teaching & Assessment of Learning (CTAL) designed to train a group of graduate students to develop their capacities as classroom instructors.
Past Research Projects
The Brazilian Studies and Research Center (BRaS)
Academic Staff & Deputy Head of Communication and PR
BRaS is a non-profit and independent network research center based in Würzburg, Germany, producing and disseminating relevant social science research with a focus on Brazil.
Website: https://bras-center.com
Embodiment Lab: Geography and the Body
Member
The Embodiment Lab is an interdisciplinary lab in the Department of Geography & Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware. At our foundation is critical human geography and we aim to produce research that illuminates the embodied politics, ecologies, and frontiers on earth’s surface and into outer space.
Website: https://sites.udel.edu/geog-bodylab