Research

HSI UCLA CHANCELLOR'S POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS

As part of the UCLA Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Infrastructure Initiative, the Chicano Studies Research Center will administer the selection of twenty UCLA Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellows (five fellows per year over four years, with first cohort reviewed during 2021-22 to start in 2022-23). These positions will be funded through the Office of the Chancellor and Executive Vice Chancellor/Provost, and each fellowship may be renewable for an additional year (2023-24 for the first cohort). The purpose of the fellowship program through the Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (CPFP) is to advance excellence through a commitment to diversity and scholarly research that addresses Latinx life and the Latinx experience. For more information, visit https://www.chicano.ucla.edu/research/fellowships-and-grants

The third cohort of fellows (2024-25) are:

  • Mayra Cortes, PhD

Mayra Cortes earned her doctoral and master's degree in Literature from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She completed her bachelor's degree in English Literature at UCLA. Her academic career and love for literature and writing began at Cerritos College. At UCSD, Cortes worked as a literature and writing instructor, mentor, and graduate teaching consultant. She was previously awarded the UC-President's Pre-Professoriate Fellowship (PPPF). As a UCLA Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow, Cortes will continue her research on early modern colonial Spanish and English travel writings, plays (including those of Shakespeare & Sor Juana), and other types of fictions that address or allude to the "New World" to examine how sonic encounters, listening practices, and imagined acoustic technologies inform central topics of her research, including racialization and resistance, as they appear scripted on page and stage. Cortes will be mentored by Dr. Barbara Fuchs, distinguished professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Department of English. Cortes’s fellowship appointment will be in the Department of English.

  • Susana Hoyos, PhD

Susana Hoyos holds a Ph.D. in geochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on understanding the formation and magmatic differentiation of rocky bodies in the Solar System. She utilizes high-pressure, high-temperature experiments and geochemical modeling to simulate the evolution of planetary interiors. As a UCLA Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Hoyos will study how the interior composition of rocky exoplanets affects their physical properties and atmospheres, aiming to understand the impact of non-Earth-like mineral associations on the long-term evolution and habitability of exoplanets. Hoyos will be mentored by professors Peng Ni and Edward Young in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. Hoyos’s fellowship appointment will be in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences

  • Katherine Maldonado Fabela, PhD

Katherine Maldonado Fabela is from South Central Los Angeles and holds a PhD in sociology from UC Santa Barbara. Her research interests include critical criminology, health, inequalities, and visual methodology. Her dissertation examined the experiences of Latina/Chicana mothers within the carceral system, focusing on their interactions with the child welfare system. The study highlights the violence and grief these mothers face, the impact on their mental health, and mechanisms of recovery and healing through motherwork strategies. As a UCLA Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Maldonado will work on the book project entitled “System-Impacted Motherwork: How Latino/a/x Families Navigate Criminalization, Health, and Healing”. She will be mentored by Leisy Abrego, professor in the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, and Menjívar, distinguished professor in the Department of Sociology. Maldonado Fabela’s fellowship appointment will be in the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies.

  • Julio Sánchez, PhD

Julio Sánchez is a first-generation Chicano and SoCal native. He received his BS in biotechnology at Cal Poly Pomona where he was awarded the NIH RISE and CIRM research fellowships. He completed his PhD at Cornell University as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow in Professor Richard Cerione’s laboratory. His dissertation research focused on how oncogenic EGFR and PTEN/PI3K signaling influenced extracellular vesicle biogenesis and their immunosuppressive functions. At UCLA, Sánchez joined Professor Robert Prins’s laboratory in the Department of Neurosurgery where he was awarded the NRSA T32 Tumor Immunology Training Fellowship to develop novel methods to study glioblastoma’s response to immunotherapies. As a UCLA Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Sánchez will build on his established work to investigate how the timing of combination immunotherapies impacts glioblastoma survival rates and their functional consequences on tumor specific T cells. Throughout his academic career, he has held numerous elected positions, including president of the Cornell SACNAS chapter, where he participated and designed science outreach programs for underprivileged elementary students, fostered community through dance and gastronomy, and mentored graduate and undergraduate students in and outside of the lab. Sánchez currently mentors two undergraduates at UCLA. Sánchez’s fellowship appointment will be in the Department of Neurosurgery.

  • Paula Winicki Brzostowski, PhD

Paula Winicki Brzostowski earned her PhD in sociology from UC Berkeley in 2024. Her dissertation is titled Organizing Despite Precarity: Immigrant, Formerly Incarcerated, and Temp Workers on Strike. She holds a BA from UC Berkeley and a master’s in city planning from MIT. Throughout her professional life, Winicki Brzostowski has been heavily involved in various campaigns on behalf of labor and immigrant right issues, both as a worker and as a union organizer and a researcher As a UCLA Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Winicki Brzostowski will extend her current research project by completing additional follow-up interviews with workers about the outcome of a campaign to organize precarious warehouse workers. In particular, she will investigate the impact of a failed labor campaign: how this outcome shapes the workers’ trust in labor organizations, collective action, and labor rights, as well as the implications for their future involvement in the labor movement. Winicki Brzostowski’s mentor will be Chris Zepeda-Millán, chair of the UCLA Labor Studies Program and professor in the Department of Chicana/o & Central American Studies and Department of Public Policy. Winicki Brzostowski’s fellowship appointment will be in the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.

PAST COHORTS

2023-24 Fellows

2022-23 FELLOWS