Paloma E. Villegas

Paloma E. Villegas is a Mexicana/Chicana migrant whose migrations have led her from Guadalajara, Mexico, to the San Francisco Bay Area, to Toronto, Canada, and back to California. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Sociology at California State University, San Bernardino and a multi-disciplinary artist whose work focuses on the intersections of migrant illegalization, borders, race, and gender. She completed her Ph.D. in Sociology of Education at the University of Toronto and also has a master’s degree in Women Studies from California State University, San Francisco. Along with her brother and co-author, Francisco Villegas, she has written an autoethnography of her experiences navigating transnational borders as well as co-edited a volume of migrant students’ narratives navigating barriers to accessing post-secondary education in Canada, titled Seeds of Hope: Creating a Future in the Shadows. She has also conducted research on the experience of precariously documented Mexican migrants in Toronto. Her poetry and artwork can be found in edited volumes and community publications. Paloma’s current research focuses on access to postsecondary education in Southern California.