Joana Chavez

Joana Chavez

Graduate Student

Cohort 2018-19

Email: jchav029@g.ucla.edu

Biography

Joana Chavez is a first-generation student raised in the Inland Empire. She attended Mt. San Jacinto College and then transferred to University of California, Riverside where she got her BA in Ethnic Studies and Spanish. She is currently a PhD candidate in Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles where she researches gendered carceral spaces (youth group homes) and uses testimonios to uplift young women of color’s voices in these spaces. She has been part of Million Dollar Hoods Project since 2018—a community-driven and multidisciplinary initiative documenting the human and fiscal costs of mass incarceration in Los Angeles. Currently, she is part of Archiving the Age of Mass Incarceration Initiative Project at UCLA where she is invested in abolishing violent systems that harm communities of color. She enjoys being surrounded by her community, family, and in nature to ground herself.

Education

  • M.A., Chicana/o and Central American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (2020)
  • B.A., Ethnic Studies and Spanish with Honors, University of California, Riverside (2017)
  • A.A. Liberal Arts, Mt. San Jacinto College (2015)

Research

  • abolition; archives; carceral studies; carceral geographies; geography; gender studies; race, class and sexuality; juvenile legal system; resistance and refusal; testimonios; privatized incarceration settings that embody criminalization, young women of color, youth group homes,

Honors & Awards

  • Jean Stone Dissertation Research Fellowship UCLA Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center (2023)
  • Humanities Without Walls, Career Diversity Workshop University of Minnesota & Andrew W. Mellon Foundation(2023)
  • Center for the Study of Women|Streisand Center Fall Travel Grant (2023)
  • National Women’s Studies Association Travel Award (2023)
  • University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) Multicampus Graduate Student Working Group (2022-2023)
  • UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Fellowship (2021)
  • Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship (2021-2024)
  • UCLA Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Fellowship (2019)
  • Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship (2018-2021)

Courses

  • Spring 2023—Teaching Instructor- UCLA CCAS 188-3 Latina Incarceration: Gender, Sexuality and Agency
  • Spring 2021-T.A.—UCLA CCAS M154/Gender M132B: Contemporary Issues Among Chicanas
  • Winter 2021 T.A.— UCLA CCAS 153 A: Central Americans in U.S.
  • Fall 2020-T.A.—UCLA CCS 178 Latina/Latinos and Law: Comparative and Historical Perspectives
  • 2019- 2020 T.A.— UCLA Introduction to Chicana/o Studies 10A, 10B, 101