Year: 2025-2026
Research Team Type: Student-led
Team leads: Michelle Zaragoza, PhD student, School of Social Welfare; Jimena Perez, PhD student, Department of Geography
La Colectiva grapples with navigating the sociopolitical and cultural dimensions of the academic terrain as Latinx graduate students and theorizing and making sense of their multiple positions as scholars, researchers, practitioners, educators, healers, and members of our communities.
While the representation of Latinx students at Berkeley has increased over the past couple of years, as of 2024, Berkeley does not yet meet the criteria for an HSI designation, and many Latinx students are disproportionately affected by campus climate, food insecurity, and mental health (UC Berkeley UCUES, 2020). However, what remains absent is an interdisciplinary space within Berkeley that supports Latinx students with their creative and community-engaged methodological training and scholarship, and that makes space for grappling with the psycho-emotional toll of academia that graduate students face.
La Colectiva turns to testimonios (personal narratives) to elucidate individual and collective narratives of challenge, resistance, empowerment, and transformation. This embodied theory of transformation is the foundation of our group. La Colectiva focuses on the central question: What methodological frameworks enable us to coexist, embracing our intersecting identities instead of separating our emotions from our research?