Dr. Sophia Boutilier

Sociology
Assistant Professor

Effects of the USAID Shutdown and Executive Orders on Gender Equality in the U.S. and Abroad

In January 2025, the shutdown of USAID and the Executive Orders on DEI and “gender ideology” gutted a woman-dominated sector and halted initiatives for gender and social inclusion. Our qualitative study of 48 professionals studies the personal effects of these policies; their sector-wide impacts on gender equality work; and their implications for participatory democracy.

Student-scholars will have the opportunity to train and participate in coding and analyzing qualitative data; framing and contributing to academic and public-facing works; and presenting findings. These skills are essential for graduate school and professional work in research and project management.

The collaborative research team is composed of a Fresno State professor, a recent graduate, and an industry professional who are passionate about gender equality and committed to supporting each other. Through our diverse skills and networks, our goal is to foster growth, confidence, and a deeper understanding of how research can illuminate pressing global gender issues and inspire evidence-based advocacy.

Student-scholars may have the opportunity to work on an IRB proposal, as well as to contribute to manuscripts and grant proposals.

Dr. Lisa Bryant

Political Science
Professor

Polarizing the Process: How Partisanships Has Affected the Administration of Elections

This is an ongoing project for Dr. Bryant's Carnegie Fellowship, and the final product will be a book examining how hyper-partisanship and political polarization have led to an increase in election skepticism and decreased trust.

Misinformation that plays off strong partisan beliefs has led to an increased number of threats against election officials. In response, many local election officials have changed the way they run elections.

The student working on this project will be responsible for tracking trends in claims about elections in the mainstream media, social media, and various other outlets. They will also help track threats against election officials and create a database of changes in administrative policies at the state level for all 50 states.

The student will learn how to track policy changes, how to do archival research, as well as track real-time social and mainstream media content. They will learn how to code and summarize data, and ideally, how to create data visualizations and information tables. 

Dr. Amber Crowell

Professor
Sociology

Guaranteed Income for Fresno: Vision to Research to Policy

In 2024, we successfully launched a guaranteed income pilot in Fresno County as 150 families received $500 a month for 12 months in Southwest Fresno and Huron.  The Center for Community Voices at Fresno State served as the program evaluators and collected robust data through a randomized control trial design using surveys and focus group interviews in order to demonstrate the impact that no-strings-attached cash can have on families living in poverty.

The research report is done, and now we are moving into the next phase to try to turn research into policy - a campaign to change the narrative on poverty and the welfare state and bring a permanent guaranteed income to Fresno County.

Students involved in this project should be excited to learn more about guaranteed income and economic justice research, do community outreach, hold research meetings with elected leaders, and launch a multimedia campaign.

As a mentor, I support students in deciding what skills they want to develop and what areas of the work will advance their own career goals. 

The student scholar's role in the project will be to collaborate with the faculty on outreach plans and messaging and materials, and participate in research meetings with leaders and community engagement events. 

Dr. Josephine Hazelton-Boyle

Political Science
Assistant Professor

How Active Transportation Citizen Advisory Committees Shape Transportation Equity in California Cities

California cities and agencies often rely on citizen advisory committees to help ensure that transportation is accessible, representative, and responsive to diverse community needs. However, little existing research has examined whether and how these committees shape transportation equity.

This research project examines the roles, challenges, and successes of citizen advisory committees in advancing transportation equity across the state.  

As a student scholar, you will gain hands-on experience in multiple aspects of applied research. You will develop a comprehensive database of California’s active transportation advisory committees as well as assist with analyzing interview data using qualitative software and creating a related survey.

If you are interested in taking your research skills to the next step, there is also the opportunity to present findings in the local Fresno community. 

My mentorship approach prioritizes your growth and success. I create a structured, inclusive, and empowering environment where I provide guidance but am also eager to learn from your insights and creativity. My goal is for you to learn something meaningful through this process and to feel more prepared for your next academic or professional step. 

Dr. Luis Fernando Macías

Chicano and Latin American Studies
Associate Professor

Emerging Scholars: Exploring the responsiveness of high impact practice program at a Minority Serving Institution

In 2005, the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) launched an initiative to improve learning and sustain student engagement to ensure that they achieve sophisticated outcomes expected from a contemporary liberal education. Since then, many colleges and universities across the U.S. have adopted the initiative's ten high impact practices (HIP).  

Unfortunately, these programs are not always accessible to all socio-economic backgrounds, so the purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Emerging Scholars, a HIP program that has an assets-based approach to empowering undergraduate students at an MSI in California’s Central Valley. More specifically, Underrepresented students, including but not limited to Hispanic/Latinx, Black, Native American, first-generation college students, and students from low-income backgrounds, often face barriers in navigating higher education environments. 

This study aims to explore participants' experiences in the mentorship program through both quantitative and qualitative data collection. A pre- and post-program survey will assess changes in students’ academic confidence, sense of belonging, and perceived support. Semi-structured interviews will offer deeper insight into students' personal experiences and the perceived impact of the mentorship relationship.

The study is planned to take place over a five-year period, allowing for multiple cohorts of mentees to be recruited and followed longitudinally.

Dr. Alina Méndez

Chicano and Latin American Studies
Assistant Professor

Mexican Migration to the San Joaquin Valley, 1986-2009

This project examines a recent period that was marked by a sharp increase of Mexican migration to the U.S. and a demographic trend that particularly shaped many towns across the San Joaquin Valley.  

The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) granted amnesty to more than two million undocumented migrants, and its Special Agricultural Workers Program was particularly important in facilitating the immigration status adjustment of undocumented migrants who worked in agriculture.

Although IRCA promised to “solve” the immigration crisis, undocumented migration from Mexico increased in the 1990s because of Latin American debt crisis and the liberalization of trade under the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. As Mexican migration continued, many communities across the U.S. responded with xenophobia, which prompted state and federal action such as California Proposition 187 in 1994, and the federal Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act in 1996. 

The student selected to complete this project will learn how to write a literature review, acquire primary resource research skills, conduct oral history interviews, and undertake several revisions of a journal article manuscript that will clearly and compellingly demonstrate their research findings.

Besides weekly meetings, the student would eventually write a paper of 20-25 pages and could pursue publication of their work or potentially use their preliminary findings as a form of graduate school research.

Dr. Justin Myers

Sociology
Associate Professor

California Dreamin’: White Supremacy and Settler Colonialism in the San Joaquin Valley

This study combines textual analysis and participant observation to investigate the identities, practices, and institutions of white (Anglo) California settlers, specifically, what role they play in the erasure and marginalization of Indigenous people, how they legitimate settlement and conquest, and how they legitimate the ongoing social, economic, and ecological problems in the valley.

Textual analysis will be conducted on public meetings involving the renaming of Polk Elementary and S*** Valley as well as the changing of the Fresno High Mascot, exploring why and who settlers oppose these renamings/changings. Textual analysis will be done on the PBS documentary series about agriculture in the valley, entitled “American Grown.” Participant observation may also be conducted in the valley at various events that celebrate settler society - World Ag Expo in Tulare, and Big Hat Days and the Clovis Rodeo in Clovis.

Through analyzing these forms of settler society, the project will explore how they reflect the interests, values, and perspectives not just of their immediate authors but of the broader settler culture and how these artifacts of settler society try to create a sense of belonging to and investment in settler culture. 

My mentorship style is shaped by an asset-based and growth-based mindset where I start with the student’s existing abilities and interests and through regular meetings and cooperative data collection and analysis we aim to strengthen the student’s ongoing journey of becoming a social science scholar.

The outcome of this project is to write a public-facing book as a settler descendant to other settlers on the history of settler colonialism in the San Joaquin Valley and how we collectively can ‘unsettle’ the San Joaquin Valley and build a more socially, economically, and ecologically just and sustainable world through decentering settler ecologies in favor of Indigenous practices and sovereignty. 

Dr. George Rozsa

American Indian Studies
Assistant Professor

Reclaiming Native Space

This project seeks to use Fresno State’s campus as a canvas to overlay cultural themes, video, and imagery of interest to help local Tribes reclaim California and San Joaquin Valley’s Indigenous Past.

Augmented reality imagery or videos would create key triggers in specific locations to educate viewers on cultural topics such as basket weaving, sustainable farming/harvesting traditions, etc.

With respect to data sovereignty, culturally sensitive material would be procured in collaboration with local Tribe elders who wish to engage with the project and archive such knowledge. 

Besides generating multicultural competency by collaborating with local Tribes and elders who wish to participate, students would gain new media and technological experience and skills in producing such content, oral history experience from elders wishing to participate, and archival experience in perusing local and state archives to produce content.

This would be a student-led project that offers Fresno State students of American Indian heritage an opportunity to work on a project of interest to them personally, and it would promote campus visibility with San Joaquin Valley Tribes.

Dr. Yang Sao Xiong

Asian American Studies
Assistant Professor

Mapping Asian Americans Lab

Have you ever wanted to learn how to create visually stunning maps and gain hands-on research skills in the process?

Students will learn how to use the Social Explorer mapping program to produce high quality maps and incorporate U.S. census and other demographic data and/or social and economic profiles of Asian Americans in the Central Valley.

Highly regarded by students for his engaging, approachable, and supportive teaching style, Dr. Xiong will help students learn data retrieval skills tied to health, social, economic, and election data, and create a new way to cross-examine Asian American demographic and socioeconomic conditions.

As part of this project, the student scholar will produce several high-quality maps about Asian Americans or their subgroups suitable for use as part of their own and/or the faculty’s research manuscripts, posters, and/or public-facing websites.