Latinx Research Week

Faculty Participants

Faculty Research Discussions Recording 

Faculty Discussion Recording.mp4

Thank you to everyone for participating, especially our faculty presenters

Dr. William Lopez

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education

As a Clinical Assistant Professor, William teaches "Health Impacts of Law Enforcement Violence in the U.S." This class focuses on the harms of law enforcement on the individual, family, and community levels and asks what we, as researchers and advocates, can do to address it. Themes include militarized immigration raids, ICE and local police collaboration, routinized fear, the stigma of being targeted by ICE, and the links between state violence in Latinx, Arab and Muslim, and Black communities. His current public health research considers 1) the ways in which fear of immigration enforcement impacts health service utilization in mixed-status communities and 2) community responses to large scale immigration work raids. Dr. Lopez also teaches a variety of public health classes, such as Health Program Planning and Health Communication, both residentially and online. 

Faculty Profile | Publication

Impacts of Immigration Raids and a Methodology of GIRAsol 

William Lopez.mp4

Dr. David Machado-Aranda

Assistant Professor of Surgery

Dr. Machado-Aranda is a faculty member in the Division of Acute Care Surgery at the University of Michigan. Originally from Caracas, he received his MD from Luis Razetti School of Medicine of Universidad Central de Venezuela, in 1998 achieving Magna Cum Laude honors and receiving the Dean's Medal and Award. Dr. Machado-Aranda completed his General Surgery residency at St. John Providence Hospital and Medical Centers in Southfield, MI. He previously completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL conducting basic science research in lung gene therapy and lung molecular biology. He finished his Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at University of Michigan in July 2011. 

Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms that Drive Post-traumatic Inflammatory Response 

David Machado-Aranda.mp4

Dr. Thomas Valley

Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine

Dr. Machado-Aranda is a faculty member in the Division of Acute Care Surgery at the University of Michigan. Originally from Caracas, he received his MD from Luis Razetti School of Medicine of Universidad Central de Venezuela, in 1998 achieving Magna Cum Laude honors and receiving the Dean's Medal and Award. Dr. Machado-Aranda completed his General Surgery residency at St. John Providence Hospital and Medical Centers in Southfield, MI. He previously completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL conducting basic science research in lung gene therapy and lung molecular biology. He finished his Surgical Critical Care Fellowship at University of Michigan in July 2011. 

Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms that Drive Post-traumatic Inflammatory Response 

Thomas Valley.mp4

Dr. Lisbeth Iglesias-Rios

Research Fellow, Department of Epidemiology

Dr. Lisbeth Iglesias-Rios is a social epidemiologist and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Environmental Toxicology and Epidemiology Program (ETEP), School of Public Health, University of Michigan. Dr. Iglesia-Rios is a Co-Investigator of the Michigan Farmworker Project. Her research interests focus on studying the impact of precarious employment and labor exploitation in vulnerable populations, including farmworkers in Michigan.  She uses an interdisciplinary framework that involves community-based participatory principles and Critical Race Theory to inform her research. 

The Michigan Farmworker Project was developed and implemented since 2019 to assess precarious employment and labor exploitation in female and male farmworkers in Michigan using Critical Race Theory and Community-Based Participatory principles 

More information on this project

The Michigan Farmworker Project: A Community-Engaged Research Assessing Precarious Employment and Labor Exploitation 

Lisbeth Iglesias-Rios.mp4

Dr. Lisbeth Iglesias-Rios & Alexa Kort

Research Fellow, Department of Epidemiology

Master's Student, Department of Epidemiology

Dr. Lisbeth Iglesias-Rios is a social epidemiologist and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Environmental Toxicology and Epidemiology Program (ETEP, School of Public Health, University of Michigan. Dr. Iglesia-Rios is a Co-Investigator of the Michigan Farmworker Project. Her research interests focus on studying the impact of precarious employment and labor exploitation in vulnerable populations, including farmworkers in Michigan. She uses an interdisciplinary framework that involves community-based participatory principles and Critical Race Theory to inform her research.

Alexa Kort is pursuing her MPH in Epidemiology at the University of Michigan and is interested in studying structural and social determinants of health and reproductive justice, particularly for im/migrants and vulnerable populations. 

 In this presentation, we share the preliminary results from a mixed methods, community-engaged pilot study from the Michigan Farmworker Project that examined the working and living conditions of migrant, seasonal, and H-2A farmworkers in Michigan during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

More on this project

The Michigan Farmworker Project: Implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for farmworker health, working and living conditions

Lisbeth Iglesias and Alexa Kort.mp4

Dr. Lawrence La-Fountain-Stokes

Professor of Spanish, American Culture & Women's and Gender Studies

My main research interests are American and ethnic studies, queer/LGBT Hispanic Caribbean (Cuban, Dominican, Puerto Rican) studies, and U.S. Latina/o/x and Latin American literary, cultural, and performance studies. In my first book, Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (University of Minnesota Press, 2009), I analyze portrayals of migration, sexual diversity, and gender nonconformity in Puerto Rican cultural productions (such as cartoons, dance theater, film, literature, and performance art) both on the island and in the United States, focusing on the lives and work of artists such as Luis Rafael Sánchez, Manuel Ramos Otero, Luz María Umpierre, Frances Negrón-Muntaner, Rose Troche, Erika López, Arthur Avilés, and Elizabeth Marrero. 

Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance 

Larry LaFountain Stokes.mp4

Dr. Deborah Rivas-Drake

Stephanie J. Rowley Collegiate Professor, Combined Program in Education and Psychology

Deborah Rivas-Drake, Ph.D., is Stephanie J. Rowley Collegiate Professor of Education and Professor of Psychology. The overarching goal of her work is to illuminate promising practices that disrupt racism and xenophobia and help set diverse young people on trajectories of positive contribution to their schools and communities. Together with the Contexts of Academic + Socioemotional Adjustment (CASA) Lab (casalab.org), she examines how school, peer, family, and community settings can support adolescents in navigating issues related to race and ethnicity, and how these experiences inform young people’s academic, socioemotional, and civic development. In addition to her academic publications, she has lent her expertise more broadly by collaborating with school leaders and district policymakers to develop translational activities for educators; in writings and webinars for parents and educators; and by consulting on race and ethnicity issues in youth for non-profit organizations, SEL program developers, and industry. 

SPARX: Stepping uP Against Racism and Xenophobia 

Deborah Rivas-Drake.mp4

Dr. Michelle Bellino

Associate Professor, School of Education

Michelle Bellino is an Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Education. Her research centers on the intersections between education and youth civic development, with particular attention to contexts impacted by armed conflict and forced displacement. Across diverse settings, she explores how experiences with violence, asylum, and peace and justice processes influence young people’s participation in schools and society, future aspirations, as well as educational access and inclusion. 

Civic Education in Divided Times 

Michelle Bellino.mp4