Biography

Valeria Alonso Blanco is a fourth-year Ph.D student in Psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). Her research interests explore the links between cultural values, identity, academic outcomes, and fostering belonging for minoritized community college transfer students. Currently, she works with Dr.Saskias Casanova at the Migration, Identity, and Education Lab (MIEL). She is also a graduate researcher for Cultivamos Excelencia, an HSI Initiative focused on community college student outreach and developing a transfer receptive culture at UCSC. She is the first of her family to go to college but believes she won’t be the last; she has two younger brothers she hopes to inspire to pursue higher education. Valeria enjoys hiking, surfing, running, visiting new places, and watching movies in her free time.

Current Publications

Casanova, S., Alonso Blanco, V., Takimoto, A., Vazquez, A., Covarrubias, R., London, R., Azmitia, M., Lewis C. (2021). Learning in the counterspaces of not school. Educational Studies, 57:5, 459-475, doi: 10.1080/00131946.2021.1969936

DOI

Vaccarino-Ruiz, S.S., Quinteros, K., Alonso Blanco, V., Rodriguez Ramirez, D., Langhout, R.D., Copulsky, D., & Lopezzi, M. (2021). “Yes, they were suffering, but we brought the music:” Social toxicity and possibility during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic for people who are undocumented or unhoused in Santa Cruz County. Journal of Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 7(1), 106-126.

DOI

Langhout, R.D., Rodriguez Ramirez, D., Vaccarino-Ruiz, S. S, Alonso Blanco, V., Quinteros, K., Copulsky, D., & Lopezzi, M. (2021). Teaching and learning during a pandemic: How one graduate community psychology class quickly incorporated healing justice into our practices. American Journal of Community Psychology. doi: 10.1002/ajcp.12524

DOI

Casanova, S. & Alonso Blanco, V. (2021). [Review of the book Power to the Transfer Critical Race Theory and a Transfer Receptive Culture Perspectives on Access, Equity, and Diversifying Pathways in P-20 Education, by D. Jain, S.N. Bernal Melendez & A.R. Herrera]. Teachers College Record

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