Although at the moment it felt impossible, thanks to the support of the American Dream Fund, I graduated from Arizona State University. Then, went on to graduate with a Master’s from the Harvard Graduate School of Education where I studied Arts in Education. I continued my education and went on to earn a Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Chicana/o Studies.
Now, I am an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in the Department of Chicana/o Studies. I am a community engaged writer, artist, and educational practitioner. My research explores the ways anti-immigration policy impacts the lives of immigrant children through methodological tools centering participatory art and creative expression.
In 2023 I published my first book, Drawing Deportation: Art and Resistance Among Immigrant Children (NYU Press). In it, I argue that immigrant children are not passive in the face of the challenges presented by U.S. anti-immigrant policies. Based on ten years of work with immigrant children in two different border states—Arizona and California— Drawing Deportation gives readers a glimpse into the lives of immigrant children and their families.
I have also received additional training as a UC Postdoctoral Fellow, a Social Science Research Council Fellow, and a Ford Foundation Fellow, and a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in the Department of Applied Psychology.
More broadly, my research and teaching intersect with issues of structural inequality, legal violence, Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR), ethnic studies, K-12 education, immigration policy, mixed-status families, childhood, transborder relations, undocumented youth and children, and arts and artivism through performance and digital media.
Now, I am Dr. Rodriguez Vega, but never forget that I grew up undocumented in Phoenix, Arizona as part of a mixed-status family.
The American Dream Fund and the community of Phoenix, Arizona, have nurtured, inspired, and uplifted me in moments when the burden of being an immigrant in a politically hostile state was too much. These resources and opportunities helped me achieve a lot more than I ever thought was possible. I fell in love with learning, curiosity, and creativity and now as a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara I aim to help my students achieve their dreams.